Charles III Joseph of Lorraine was appointed Prince-Bishop of Olomouc in 1695 at the age of fifteen — a blatant exercise of Habsburg patronage, as he was a younger brother of Duke Leopold of Lorraine and useful to the Vienna court. This thaler was struck in the middle of the War of the Spanish Succession, when Moravian episcopal finances were under considerable strain from military contributions demanded by Emperor Leopold I and, after May 1705, Joseph I.
The Davenport reference places this squarely in the broader central European thaler tradition of the period. Charles died in 1711 without ever being ordained a priest.
Charles III Joseph of Lorraine was appointed Prince-Bishop of Olomouc in 1695 at the age of fifteen — a blatant exercise of Habsburg patronage, as he was a younger brother of Duke Leopold of Lorraine and useful to the Vienna court. This thaler was struck in the middle of the War of the Spanish Succession, when Moravian episcopal finances were under considerable strain from military contributions demanded by Emperor Leopold I and, after May 1705, Joseph I.
The Davenport reference places this squarely in the broader central European thaler tradition of the period. Charles died in 1711 without ever being ordained a priest.