: 1 koventionsthaler of Bavaria, Maximilian III Joseph, 1755 Born in
Munich, Maximilian was the eldest son of
Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII and his wife,
Maria Amalia of Austria, daughter of
Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor. Upon his father's death in January 1745, he inherited a country in the process of being invaded by
Austrian armies (see
War of the Austrian Succession). The 18-year-old Maximilian Joseph wavered between the
Peace-party, led by his mother Maria Amalia and Army Commander
Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff and the
War-party, led by Foreign Minister General Ignaz Count of Törring and the French envoy Chavigny. After the decisive defeat in the
Battle of Pfaffenhofen on 15 April Maximilian Joseph quickly abandoned his father's imperial pretenses and made peace with
Maria Theresa in the
Treaty of Füssen, in which he agreed to support her husband, Grand Duke
Francis II Stephen of Tuscany, in the upcoming imperial election. In 1747, Maximilian married his first cousin,
Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony, but the marriage remained childless. During the
Seven Years' War Bavarian forces then fought on the Habsburg side. Maximilian Joseph's sister
Maria Josepha of Bavaria was married in 1765 to Maria Theresa's son Archduke
Joseph. But long-term weakening of
Prussia was not in the Bavarian interest, as that country offered the only counterweight to the Habsburg monarchy. Maximilian Joseph tried, as far as possible, to keep Bavaria out of the wars. Apart from militia troops, he sent only a small force of 4,000 men to join the
Austrian army. In 1758/1759 (only a year and half into the war), he withdrew Bavarian auxiliary troops from Austrian service. Together with the Wittelsbach Elector
Charles Theodore of the
Palatinate he enforced the neutrality of the
Empire during the conflict. Maximilian Joseph was a progressive and
enlightened ruler who did much to improve the development of his country. He encouraged agriculture, industry, and exploitation of the mineral wealth of the country, and abolished the
Jesuit censorship of the press. In 1747 the
Nymphenburg Porcelain Factory was established, while the
Codex Maximilianeus bavaricus civilis was written in 1756. In 1759, he founded Munich's first academic institution, the
Bavarian Academy of Sciences. During the severe famine in 1770 Maximilian sold some of the crown jewels to pay for grain imports to relieve hunger. In that year, he also issued an edict against the extravagant pomposity of the
Church which contributed to the end of the era of Bavarian
rococo. He also forbade the
Oberammergau Passion Play. In 1771 the elector regulated general school attendance. In December 1777 Maximilian Joseph rode in his carriage through Munich; on the ride, as he passed one of the tower clocks, the mechanism broke, and the clock struck 77 times. Commenting to the passengers, Max Joseph decided this was an omen, and that his years had run out. Within days, he was stricken with a strange disease. None of his 15 doctors could diagnose it, but by Christmas, it had become clear that it was a particularly virulent strain of
smallpox, called "purple small pox" at the time. By the last day of the month he was dead without leaving an heir. Maximilian III Joseph is buried in the crypt of the
Theatinerkirche in Munich. ==Succession==