Contenders
As the Duke of Bavaria, Max Joseph was the prince of one of the largest states in the German-speaking portion of the Holy Roman Empire. As a prince-elector, he stood in the highest rank of the Empire, with broad legal, economic, and judicial rights. As an elector, he was one of the men who selected the Holy Roman Emperor from a group of candidates. He was the son of one Holy Roman Emperor (Charles VII), and the grandson of another (Joseph I). Despite the Peace of Füssen, any of his children could lay a claim to the Imperial title. When he died of smallpox on 30 December 1777, this genealogical claim became moot: he left no children to succeed him and several ambitious men prepared to carve his patrimony into pieces.
Read more about this topic: War Of The Bavarian Succession