Maximilian was born around 1512, the second son of privy councillor Dismas de Berghes, a recognised bastard of John II of Glymes, Lord of Bergen op Zoom.
In the intervening time, the papal bull of 12 May 1559 establishing the new bishoprics in the Low Countries had made Cambrai an archdiocese, with Tournai, Arras, Saint-Omer and Namur as suffragan sees.
On 6 January 1560 this was confirmed by Pope Pius IV, despite the protests of Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, archbishop of Reims, to whom Cambrai, Tournai, Arras and Saint-Omer had previously been subject (Namur had been part of the diocese of Liège).
[3] In 1566 he took part in the Diet of Augsburg, where the Catholic princes of the Holy Roman Empire accepted the decrees.
[1] On 27 August 1570, while accompanying Anna of Austria on her journey to Spain to marry Philip II, he died suddenly at Bergen op Zoom.