Henry the Younger of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was one of the most tenacious Catholic princes in northern Germany, holding out against the Reformation with unusual stubbornness while virtually every neighboring territory converted. This thaler was struck just as that pressure was becoming unsustainable — the Schmalkaldic League, the Protestant military alliance, would expel him from his own principality just four years later in 1542, citing his political maneuvers and alleged crimes against his subjects. He wouldn't recover his lands until 1547, when Charles V's victory at Mühlberg reversed the balance of power entirely.
Welter 392 is among the earlier thaler-format issues from Wolfenbüttel, struck at a mint still finding its footing with the large-diameter silver coinage that had swept German territories following the Joachimsthaler precedent of 1519.
Henry the Younger of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was one of the most tenacious Catholic princes in northern Germany, holding out against the Reformation with unusual stubbornness while virtually every neighboring territory converted. This thaler was struck just as that pressure was becoming unsustainable — the Schmalkaldic League, the Protestant military alliance, would expel him from his own principality just four years later in 1542, citing his political maneuvers and alleged crimes against his subjects. He wouldn't recover his lands until 1547, when Charles V's victory at Mühlberg reversed the balance of power entirely.
Welter 392 is among the earlier thaler-format issues from Wolfenbüttel, struck at a mint still finding its footing with the large-diameter silver coinage that had swept German territories following the Joachimsthaler precedent of 1519.