Christian I ruled Electoral Saxony for only six years before dying at 30 — almost certainly from alcoholism — leaving his young son Friedrich Wilhelm under the regency of Chancellor Krell, whose aggressive Calvinist policies triggered a Lutheran backlash severe enough to end in Krell's execution. These pfennigs were struck in the brief window of Christian's personal rule, a period of considerable court expenditure and monetary activity in the Erzgebirge mining districts that supplied the silver.
Christian I ruled Electoral Saxony for only six years before dying at 30 — almost certainly from alcoholism — leaving his young son Friedrich Wilhelm under the regency of Chancellor Krell, whose aggressive Calvinist policies triggered a Lutheran backlash severe enough to end in Krell's execution. These pfennigs were struck in the brief window of Christian's personal rule, a period of considerable court expenditure and monetary activity in the Erzgebirge mining districts that supplied the silver.