Gold Ecu - Maximilian of Berghes

Maximilian of Berghes served as Archbishop of Cambrai from 1556 until his death in 1570, navigating the increasingly violent fault lines of the early Dutch Revolt. The Bishopric's right to strike gold coinage was a jealously guarded ecclesiastical privilege, and these écus were issued against a backdrop of mounting Habsburg pressure on the southern Netherlands — Cambrai sat in an awkward jurisdictional position, nominally imperial territory yet constantly pulled between French and Spanish spheres of influence.

Delmonte's classification of this type as G#281 places it among the rarer episcopal gold issues of the Low Countries; surviving examples in collectible condition are infrequently encountered at auction.