The Siege of Gotha

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 1219. Estimate $4000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $5000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

GERMANY, Gotha. AV Ducat (3.81 g). Siege issue. Dated 1567. H HF G K (HF ligate) above, coat-of-arms of Kurfürstentum Sachsen; 1 5/6 7 flanking / Blank. Cf. Brause-Mansfeld pl XI, 1; Koppe 326 (Grimmenstein); Maillet Supp. 2 (demi ducat). VF, toned, a few scratches under tone. Still in original laurel wreath mounting without suspension loop. Extremely rare.

Ex Georg Baum Collection (Künker 116, 27 September 2006), lot 4618.

In the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547, the forces of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V defeated the Schmalkaldic League, a confederation of Protestant princes. One of these princes was Johann Friedrich I, Elector of Saxony, who was thus stripped of his electorship and part of his lands. After his death in 1554, his son Johann Friedrich II inherited the family’s holdings and established his base at Gotha. The young prince became focused on the task of regaining his family’s confiscated lands as well as the electorship of Saxony. In 1563, his general Wilhelm von Grumbach took the city of Würzburg -- previously part of Johann Friedrich’s holdings -- and hatched a plot to assassinate August I, the current Elector of Saxony. As these events unfolded, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II placed Johann Friedrich II under an Imperial Ban, calling on the states and nobles of the Empire to take action against the wayward prince. In 1566, the prince’s castle at Gotha was besieged by a force that included his own brother, Johann Wilhelm. The siege was successful, Johann Friedrich was taken prisoner, and all of his holdings were confiscated and turned over to his brother.