Prince Karl Theodor of Bavaria


Prince Karl Theodor Maximilian August of Bavaria ; and grand prior of the order of Malta, was a German soldier.

Biography

Charles was born in Munich, 7 July 1795. He was the second son of King Maximilian I of Bavaria and his first wife Princess Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt.
Charles fought against Napoleon at the Battle of Hanau in 1813, became a general of division, and took part in the Campaign of 1814. His differences with Prince Wrede led to his retirement from 1822 till some time after the latter's death in 1838, when his brother King Ludwig I of Bavaria appointed him field marshal and general inspector of the army. In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, he was commander-in-chief of the 7th and 8th corps of the Bavarian army, which cooperated with the Austrian, after which he retired from the public service.
He married morganatically in 1823 with Marie-Anne-Sophie Petin, created Baroness von Bayrstorff, with whom he had three daughters: