1/4 Thaler - Henry Julius Death

Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, died in Prague in July 1613 while serving Emperor Matthias — his death widely attributed to the strains of court politics and, by some contemporary accounts, to poison, though nothing was proven. These memorial issues were struck the same year to mark the transition to his son Frederick Ulrich, whose reign would prove considerably less distinguished than his father's.

Henry Julius had been among the more intellectually active princes of his generation, maintaining a court theater that predated many better-remembered German theatrical traditions. The death coinage capitalizes on that cultivated image.