Thomas publishes book on Bavarian succession

Dr. Marvin Thomas, professor of history, has been working on his new book in one way or another for 17 years.

“The Saxon Aspect of the Bavarian Allodial Succession 1777-1779: The History of a Legal Dispute,” published by Edwin Mellen Press, is a companion to Thomas's doctoral dissertation, “Karl Theodor and the Bavarian Succession, 1777-1778,” published by Mellen Press in 1989.

Both books deal with the decade before the French Revolution and the last days of absolute monarchical rule in Europe. When Maximilian III Joseph, ruler of Bavaria in present-day Germany, died in 1777 with no clear successor, political intrigue and skirmishes ensued between a Saxon-Prussian alliance and Austria. In his earlier work, Thomas examined the interests of Karl Theodor, who had the closest claim to Bavaria.

Frederick August III, ruler of nearby Saxony, would join Karl Theodor's side in this matter to keep Bavaria from becoming part of Austria.

“This is a very critical period in history,” Thomas said. “It was kings treating each other as brothers, and kings' loyalty was to other kings. All of that would change with the Revolution.”

The newer book examines the role of Frederick August and Saxony during the Bavarian succession, a role Thomas did not examine earlier because of modern logistics. At the time he was writing his first book, Germany remained split between East and West, and it was difficult for scholars to travel to the East, which included what had been Saxony.

With German reunification in 1990, Thomas was free to travel to the Saxon Central State Archive in Dresden to amass documents from the Saxon perspective. Bringing those materials home, he enlisted the help of his wife, Christine, to transcribe and translate many of the documents from quill-written 18th century handwriting into modern type-written German.

The march of time and changes in technology would mean that some of the electronic documents produced in the '90s would become irretrievable. Brenda Brandon, administrative assistant in the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Pitt-Bradford, would retype those documents from hard copy.

Now in his 46th year at Pitt-Bradford, Thomas said he realized a couple of years ago that he should get down to the business of turning his research into a manuscript. He wrote most of it during a sabbatical in 2014.

The first part of the book lays out the narrative of the claims that resulted from Maximilian Joseph's death. The second part reproduces the original documents in German and French as well as their English translations. Finally, a second set of auxiliary documents that could be useful to interested future scholars is also included in its original and translated forms.

Thomas earned his doctorate in history at Penn State in 1980. He teaches survey courses across the entire spectrum of European History as well as Asian history. In 1997, he was chosen as the recipient of the Pitt-Bradford Alumni Association's Teaching Excellence Award. He lives in Bradford.