CHARLES VII. (1697-1745), emperor, also known by the name of Charles Albert, was the son of Maximilian Emmanuel, elector of Bavaria. He was taken from home while a child by the Emperor Joseph I., who had outlawed his father, and seized Bavaria ; and he was not liberated till the conclusion of the treaty of Rastadt in 1714. He commanded against the Turks in the war which the Emperor Charles VI. undertook in order to protect the Venetians. In 1722 he obtained in marriage the second daughter of the late Emperor Joseph, after renouncing all claims to the imperial crown. But when he succeeded to he electorate of Bavaria (1726), he refused to recognize the Pragmatic Sanction; and on the death of Charles VI. he gained the alliance of France and Spain, proclaimed himself king of Bohemia, and, having obtained his own unanimous election, was crowned as emperor at Frankfort in 1742. The Hungarians, however, having espoused the cause of Maria Theresa, she was enabled to occupy Upper Austria and Bohemia, and Charles was forced to retire. In the next year his general, Seckendorf, met with some success, and in 1744 Frederick of Prussia invaded Bohemia in his interest. Charles died at Munich in 1745.