CHARLES VII. (1697-1745), Roman emperor, known also as Charles Albert, elector of Bavaria, was the son of the elector Maximilian Emanuel and his second wife, Theresa Cunigunda, daughter of John Sobieski, king of Poland. He was born on Aug. 6, 1697. His father having taken the side of Louis XIV. of France in the War of the Spanish Succession (q.v.), Bavaria was occupied by the allies. Charles and his brother Clement, after wards archbishop of Cologne, were carried prisoners to Vienna, and were educated by the Jesuits under the name of the counts of Wittelsbach. When his father was restored to his electorate Charles was released, and in 1717 he led the Bavarian contingent of the imperial army which served under Prince Eugene against the Turks, and is said to have distinguished himself at Belgrade. On Sept. 25, 1722, he was betrothed to Maria Amelia, the younger of the two orphan daughters of the emperor Joseph I. Her uncle Charles VI. insisted that the Bavarian house should recognize the Pragmatic Sanction which established his daughter Maria Theresa as heiress of the Habsburg dominions. They did so, but with secret protests and mental reservations of their rights, which were designed to render the recognition valueless. The electors of Bavaria had claims on the possessions of the Habsburgs under the will of the emperor Ferdinand I., who died in 1564.
Charles succeeded his father on Feb. 26, 17 26. His policy was to keep on good terms with the emperor while slipping out of his obligation to accept the Pragmatic Sanction and intriguing to se cure French support for his claims whenever Charles VI. should die. These claims were advanced immediately after the death of Charles VI. on Oct. 20, 1740. Charles Albert now entered into the league against Maria Theresa, to the great misfortune of himself and his subjects. By the help of her enemies he was elected em peror in opposition to her husband Francis, grand duke of Tus cany, on Jan. 24, 1742, under the title of Charles VII. and was crowned at Frankfurt-am-Main on Feb. 12. But as his army had been neglected, he was utterly unable to resist the Austrian troops. While he was being crowned his hereditary dominions in Bavaria were being overrun. During the War of the Austrian Succession (q.v.) he was a mere puppet in the hands of the anti-Austrian coalition, and was of ten in want of mere necessities. In the changes of the war he was able to re-enter his capital, Munich, in but had immediately afterwards to take flight again. He was restored by Frederick the Great in Oct. 1744, but died worn out at Munich on Jan. 20, 1745.