Schelling - Albert and Isabelle Peacock type

The peacock schelling was struck under Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella, the Habsburg governors who ruled the Spanish Netherlands as quasi-sovereign princes following Philip II's conditional cession in 1598. Tournai sat uncomfortably close to the front lines of the Eighty Years' War throughout this period, and local minting activity reflects the chronic monetary disorder of a region oscillating between Spanish control and Dutch pressure. The .582 fineness was set by the monetary ordinances of the archdukes rather than Tournai's own prerogative — a reminder of how tightly Brussels controlled even peripheral mints.