2 Groschen - Matthaus Schiner

Matthäus Schiner was one of the most politically aggressive churchmen of the early sixteenth century — a cardinal who personally led Swiss mercenary forces against the French and engineered the Swiss-papal alliance that shaped northern Italian warfare for a generation. His alliance with Julius II and later Leo X put Valais troops at Marignano in 1515, a defeat that effectively ended Swiss offensive ambitions in Italy and, within years, ended Schiner's own political dominance. He died in Rome in 1522, in exile from his own diocese, having been driven out by his longtime rival Georg Supersaxo.