Moritz of Saxony acquired the electoral dignity under the most compromised of circumstances: he sided with Emperor Charles V against the Schmalkaldic League in 1546, effectively betraying his own Protestant cousins, and was rewarded with the electorate stripped from the Ernestine branch following the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547. These thalers were struck from the moment he assumed the electoral title — coins that legitimized a transfer of power his contemporaries widely regarded as treachery.
The irony is that Moritz later turned against Charles entirely, launching a surprise campaign in 1552 that nearly captured the Emperor at Innsbruck and forced the Peace of Passau.
Moritz of Saxony acquired the electoral dignity under the most compromised of circumstances: he sided with Emperor Charles V against the Schmalkaldic League in 1546, effectively betraying his own Protestant cousins, and was rewarded with the electorate stripped from the Ernestine branch following the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547. These thalers were struck from the moment he assumed the electoral title — coins that legitimized a transfer of power his contemporaries widely regarded as treachery.
The irony is that Moritz later turned against Charles entirely, launching a surprise campaign in 1552 that nearly captured the Emperor at Innsbruck and forced the Peace of Passau.