1/3 Thaler - Karl

The Bishopric of Strasbourg spent much of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in confessional turmoil, culminating in the so-called Strasbourg Bishops' War of 1592–1604 — a protracted dispute over whether a Protestant or Catholic candidate held legitimate authority over the see. Karl of Austria, installed as the Catholic claimant backed by Habsburg and papal pressure, struck coinage during a period when his control over the city itself remained deeply contested. These issues were as much declarations of jurisdictional authority as they were circulating money.