Maximilian Henry

Timeline

1. 1650–1661Cologne · North Rhine-WestphaliaIn 1650 he succeeded his uncle Ferdinand as Archbishop of Cologne and bishop of Hildesheim and Liège, becoming one of the most powerful ecclesiastical princes in the Empire. After Emperor Ferdinand III died in 1657 he took part in electoral consultations to limit the Habsburg candidate's power, and on 31 July 1658 crowned Leopold I at Frankfurt, but immediately stressed that the emperor must observe the additional clauses of the election.
2. 1661–1670Bonn · RhinelandUnder the influence of chancellors Franz Egon and Wilhelm Egon von Fürstenberg, the Electorate of Cologne gradually turned toward France. In the 1660s it renewed and strengthened the League of the Rhine, cooperating with Louis XIV of France to check Habsburg influence in the western Empire; he attempted to recover lost territories such as Rheinberg held by the Dutch, and opened fortresses like Neuss and Kaiserswerth to the French as a strategic exchange. In 1662 he took part in an initiative to reform Roman Church affairs at the imperial level.
3. 1670–1688Cologne · North Rhine-WestphaliaAfter the Franco-Dutch War broke out in 1672 he sided with France against the Empire, providing troops and passage through his territory to the French, at one point advancing into the Netherlands; though his diplomacy faltered after the war he maintained his status as an ecclesiastical prince in the Rhineland. In 1683 he also became bishop of Münster, and died at Bonn in 1688.