Karl Theodor (born in 1724) reigned as Duke of Bavaria from 1777 until his death in 1799.

Born in Drogenbos near Brussels on December 12, 1724, and educated in Mannheim, Karl Theodor inherited Electoral Palatine in 1742. As Duke of the Palatinate, he won the hearts of his subjects by founding an academy of science, stocking up the museums' collections and supporting the arts. When Maximilian III Joseph of Bavaria died in 1777, Karl Theodor became Duke of Bavaria and moved to Munich.

He instantly managed to make everyone in Bavaria his enemy by proposing to Emperor Joseph II to exchange parts of Bavaria for some Austrian possessions along the Rhine. The ensuing diplomatic crisis led to the outbreak of the War of the Bavarian Succession; in the Peace of Teschen (1779), it was established that Karl's children would not inherit the throne of Bavaria.

Karl Theodor never became established as a ruler in Bavaria; in the following years, he constantly tried without success to exchange the dukeship of Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands, and he never managed to control the mounting social tensions in Bavaria. When the revolutionary armies of France invaded the Palatinate in 1795 and proceeded towards Bavaria in 1796, Karl Theodor fled to Saxony and begged Joseph II for help which in essence made Bavaria a puppet state of Austria. Forced to abdicate, he never returned to Munich; when he died of a stroke in 1799, the population in Munich celebrated for several days.

Despite the mutual dislike and distrust between the Duke and his Bavarian subjects, Karl Theodor left a distinctive mark on the city of Munich: it was under his reign that the English Garden, Munich's largest park, was created, and the city's old fortifications were dismantled to make place for a modern, expanding city. Karl Theodor is also known for disbanding Adam Weishaupt's order of the Illuminati in 1785.

Munich's central square, Karlsplatz, is named after Karl Theodor; it is a sign of his unebbing popularity that everybody to this day calls the square Stachus (after the pub "Beim Stachus" that was located there until construction work for Karlsplatz began).

See also:

• History of Bavaria