Georg III, Ludwig IV, and Christian ruled Liegnitz-Brieg jointly under the increasingly untenable terms of the Habsburgs' campaign to absorb Silesian Protestant duchies. By 1660, the three dukes were operating under near-constant imperial pressure — the Habsburg claim to Liegnitz upon extinction of the Piast male line had been contested since the failed inheritance agreement of 1537, which Ferdinand I had simply refused to honor. This coin was struck only three years before Georg III's death in 1663 began the dynasty's final unraveling.
Christian, the youngest of the three, would be the last. The duchy reverted to Habsburg control in 1675.
Georg III, Ludwig IV, and Christian ruled Liegnitz-Brieg jointly under the increasingly untenable terms of the Habsburgs' campaign to absorb Silesian Protestant duchies. By 1660, the three dukes were operating under near-constant imperial pressure — the Habsburg claim to Liegnitz upon extinction of the Piast male line had been contested since the failed inheritance agreement of 1537, which Ferdinand I had simply refused to honor. This coin was struck only three years before Georg III's death in 1663 began the dynasty's final unraveling.
Christian, the youngest of the three, would be the last. The duchy reverted to Habsburg control in 1675.