Cesare d'Este's claim to Modena was itself contested — when Alfonso II died without legitimate heirs in 1597, Pope Clement VIII refused to recognize Cesare's succession to Ferrara, invoking papal suzerainty over that territory and annexing it directly to the Papal States. Cesare was forced to retreat to Modena and Reggio, the only Este holdings outside papal reach. The coinage of his reduced duchy, including this doppia, was struck from that diminished political position.
The MIR 669 attribution places this among the scarcer gold issues of the duchy's post-Ferrara period.
Cesare d'Este's claim to Modena was itself contested — when Alfonso II died without legitimate heirs in 1597, Pope Clement VIII refused to recognize Cesare's succession to Ferrara, invoking papal suzerainty over that territory and annexing it directly to the Papal States. Cesare was forced to retreat to Modena and Reggio, the only Este holdings outside papal reach. The coinage of his reduced duchy, including this doppia, was struck from that diminished political position.
The MIR 669 attribution places this among the scarcer gold issues of the duchy's post-Ferrara period.