The Strasbourg Bishops’ War

CNG 108, Lot: 1089. Estimate $300. Sold for $425. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

STRASBOURG BISHOPS’ WAR (Bischöflicher Krieg), Germany. Straßburg. Besieged by the Roman Catholic bishop, Herzog Karl von Lothringen, 1592. AR 80 Kreuzer Klippe (33x34mm). Dated 1592. Coat-of-arms of the Prince-Bishop; below, coats-of-arms of the cathedral chapter and city of Straßburg; 15 9Z flanking upper shield; 80 (mark of value) in exergue; all within wreath / Blank. E&L 448; Mailliet 1; Brause-Mansfeld I, pl. 25, 2; Lasser 1188. In NGC encapsulation, 3596008-002, graded VF 35.

Taking place between 1592 and 1604, the Strasbourg Bishops’ War was a conflict between Protestants and Catholics for control of the Bishopric of the city. One of two sectarian wars that broke out within the Holy Roman Empire between the 1555 Peace of Augsburg and the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War in 1618, it proved to be less bloody than the other sectarian war, the 1583-1588 Truchsessischer Krieg over control of Köln. Benefitting from the Peace of Augsburg, Straßburg enjoyed a larger amount of autonomy, status as an important trading center, and the site of a prestigious university. This university initially attracted radical thinkers of both religious sides. By the beginning of the war, both the University and the town were strongly Protestant. When the city’s bishop, Johann von Manderscheid, died, Protestants, fearing that the Catholic Karl von Lothringen would stand for election as the new bishop (which he did), seized the episcopal offices and appointed fifteen-year-old Johann Georg, son of the Elector of Brandenburg, in the hopes that Protestant Germany would rally behind them. In addition, the Protestants acquired a loan of 300,000 florins from Friedrich I, Duke of Württemburg, to assist their cause. The Catholic prelates meanwhile fled to Saverne, and in exile, elected Karl as bishop. With the support of his younger brother Franz, Karl moved from Saverne to take Straßburg. Owing to the unwillingnes of the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, to intervene, Henri IV, King of France – a Protestant who had converted to Catholicism – brokered a truce by dividing the bishopric between the contending prelates. Ultimately, Johann Georg passed the bishopric to Karl in return for Oberkirch, a German district that passed to the House of Württemburg