Henry the Younger of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was, by 1556, one of the last Catholic princes still holding out against the Lutheran Reformation in Lower Saxony — a position he had defended militarily and politically for decades, including his humiliation at the hands of the Schmalkaldic League in 1542, when Philip of Hesse and John Frederick of Saxony expelled him from his own territory for two years. These thalers were struck during the final years of his reign, when he had long since recovered his lands but remained politically isolated among increasingly Protestant neighbors.
He died in 1568 at roughly 87 years old. His son Julius promptly converted the principality to Lutheranism the following year.
Henry the Younger of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was, by 1556, one of the last Catholic princes still holding out against the Lutheran Reformation in Lower Saxony — a position he had defended militarily and politically for decades, including his humiliation at the hands of the Schmalkaldic League in 1542, when Philip of Hesse and John Frederick of Saxony expelled him from his own territory for two years. These thalers were struck during the final years of his reign, when he had long since recovered his lands but remained politically isolated among increasingly Protestant neighbors.
He died in 1568 at roughly 87 years old. His son Julius promptly converted the principality to Lutheranism the following year.