Charles was the eldest son of Elector Maximilian II Emanuel of Bavaria and the Polish princess Theresa Kunegunda Sobieska.

[1][2][3] Charles (Albert) (German: Karl Albrecht) was born in Brussels and the son of Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, and Theresa Kunegunda Sobieska, daughter of King John III Sobieski of Poland.

His father, Maximilian Emanuel, fled to the Spanish Netherlands after he had been defeated at the Battle of Blenheim in August 1704, and Charles and his siblings stayed with their mother, the acting Regent, in Munich.

In May 1705, after a stay in Venice, the Austrian authorities refused to allow the Electress to return to Bavaria and forced her into exile, which lasted ten years.

Maximilian Emanuel went also into exile to Compiègne after on 29 April 1706, an Imperial ban was imposed on him, as he again had been defeated at the Battle of Ramillies a few days earlier.

In 1725, Charles visited Versailles during the wedding celebrations of Louis XV of France and established a personal contact with the French court.

[7] In 1726, after his father had died, Charles became Duke of Bavaria and Elector Palatine and thus one of the prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire, and he also inherited a debt of 26 million guilders.

[10] During the War of the Austrian Succession, Charles invaded Upper Austria in 1741 and planned to conquer Vienna, but his allied French troops under the Duc de Belle-Isle were instead redirected to Bohemia, capturing Prague in November 1741.

His brother Clement August, the archbishop-elector of Cologne, generally sided with the Habsburg-Lorraine faction in the disputes over the Habsburg succession but cast his vote for him and personally crowned him emperor at Frankfurt.

Frederick II of Prussia's new campaign during the Second Silesian War finally forced the Austrian army to leave Bavaria and to retreat into Bohemia.

With former Vice-Chancellor Friedrich Karl von Schönborn as a go-between, the Emperor then sought to reach a compromise with Vienna but failed to get more military support from France.

The Grand Circle (Schlossrondell), which is flanked by a string of elaborate Baroque mansions was initially planned as a basic blueprint for a new city (Carlstadt), but that was not achieved.

Cuvilliés constructed the Amalienburg as well for Charles and his wife, Maria Amalia, an elaborate hunting lodge designed in the Rococo style between 1734 and 1739 in the Nymphenburg Palace Park.

[4][2] During Charles's reign, numerous accomplished Italian, French, Bavarian, and other German architects, sculptors, painters and artisans were employed in royal service, often for many years.