Brandenburg-Ansbach-Bayreuth - Frederick - Pfennig - 1495-1515

AR Pfennig (1495-1515)

O/ Loop over two coats of arms; III below, one ring on either side.

R/ Flat reverse.

14.5mm; 0.2g

Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg, Ansbach and Bayreuth (1460-1486-1536):

A member of the arch-prestigious house of Hohenzollern, Frederick was the second son of Albert III Achilles (1414-1486), Elector of Brandenburg, and his second wife Anna (1436-1512), daughter of Frederick II, Elector of Saxony. He had an elder half-brother named Johann Cicero (1455-1499), who became Elector of Brandebourg in 1486, and a younger brother Siegmund (1468-1495), Margrave of Bayreuth. 

Before his death Albert III Achilles split his domains between his three sons: Johann Cicero thus received the Electorate of Brandenburg, Frederick the Margraviate of Ansbach, and Siegmund the Margraviate of Bayreuth (also named Brandenburg-Kulmbach), but prevented them from further dividing these lands between their sons, something unusual at the time in Germany, which greatly helped the future rise of the Hohenzollerns. Frederick then reunited the two northern Bavarian margraviates of Ansbach and Bayreuth after the death of his younger brother in 1495.

His reign was nonetheless difficult. He had to face a feud of the Guttenberg family between 1497 and 1502, which was supported by the Dukes of Bavaria. In order to protect his lands from the Bavarians, Frederick built a network of watchtowers, some of which still exist today.

In 1515, his own two sons, Casimir (1481-1527) and George (1484-1543) captured and imprisoned him, because they disapproved his luxurious spending that had crippled the state with debts. Casimir and George respectively ruled Bayreuth and Ansbach. He was only freed at the death of Casimir in 1527.

From his marriage with Sophia, daughter of King Casimir IV of Poland, Frederick V also had Albert (1490-1538), 37th Grand Master of the Teutonic Order and first Duke of Prussia, Johann (1493-1525), Viceroy of Valencia thanks to his marriage with Germaine de Foix, widow of King Ferdinand of Aragon, Wilhelm (1498-1563), Archbishop of Riga (1539-1561), and John Albert (1499-1550), Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1545 to his death. He also had four daughters, married to other prominent German and Polish nobles.

Frederick is known under several numerals (I, II and V) depending on whether the number refers to his family or the margraviates he ruled.

The two coats of arms refer to the Margraviate of Ansbach (left), which was also that of the former Langraviate of Nuremberg (initially ruled by the house of Raabs, but inherited through mariage by the Hohenzollern, then split between the two margraviates of Ansbach and Bayreuth - as explained above), and the famous black and white coat of the House of Hohenzollern (right).

Sammlung : Holy Roman Empire