Ferdinand of Bavaria held the Bishopric of Münster from 1612 until his death in 1650, but he ruled simultaneously as Archbishop of Cologne and held several other ecclesiastical offices — an accumulation of benefices that made him one of the most politically powerful churchmen in the Holy Roman Empire. This ducat falls squarely within the Thirty Years' War, during which Münster itself became a focal point: the peace negotiations that ended the war were conducted there, culminating in the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia signed in the Münster city hall.
Friedberg 1766 places this among the rarer gold issues of the Westphalian ecclesiastical mints.
Ferdinand of Bavaria held the Bishopric of Münster from 1612 until his death in 1650, but he ruled simultaneously as Archbishop of Cologne and held several other ecclesiastical offices — an accumulation of benefices that made him one of the most politically powerful churchmen in the Holy Roman Empire. This ducat falls squarely within the Thirty Years' War, during which Münster itself became a focal point: the peace negotiations that ended the war were conducted there, culminating in the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia signed in the Münster city hall.
Friedberg 1766 places this among the rarer gold issues of the Westphalian ecclesiastical mints.