Christian Frederick Charles Alexander, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, struck this thaler just nine years before he made the extraordinary decision to cede his entire territory to Prussia in 1791 — negotiating a substantial personal annuity and retiring to England with his mistress, Lady Craven, whom he later married. He was the last Margrave. The Hohenzollern cadet line that had held Ansbach since 1398 ended not through conquest or extinction, but through a private financial arrangement with Frederick William II.
Christian Frederick Charles Alexander, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, struck this thaler just nine years before he made the extraordinary decision to cede his entire territory to Prussia in 1791 — negotiating a substantial personal annuity and retiring to England with his mistress, Lady Craven, whom he later married. He was the last Margrave. The Hohenzollern cadet line that had held Ansbach since 1398 ended not through conquest or extinction, but through a private financial arrangement with Frederick William II.