Frederick Ulrich's reign over Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was, by most measures, a disaster. He ruled from 1613 to 1634 — the entirety of the Thirty Years' War's most destructive phase — and spent much of it losing control of his own territory to occupying forces, first Danish, then Imperial. The Löser series issued in his name served partly as a demonstration of dynastic continuity at a moment when the Welf house's grip on the principality was genuinely in question.
He died without legitimate heirs in August 1634, the same year this piece was struck, extinguishing his line and triggering a succession dispute among the Brunswick dukes.
Frederick Ulrich's reign over Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was, by most measures, a disaster. He ruled from 1613 to 1634 — the entirety of the Thirty Years' War's most destructive phase — and spent much of it losing control of his own territory to occupying forces, first Danish, then Imperial. The Löser series issued in his name served partly as a demonstration of dynastic continuity at a moment when the Welf house's grip on the principality was genuinely in question.
He died without legitimate heirs in August 1634, the same year this piece was struck, extinguishing his line and triggering a succession dispute among the Brunswick dukes.