Conheça minha coleção em 3D
Galeria virtual
AR Pfennig (1535, Linz mint)
O/ Two coats of arms; 1535 above; F below.
R/ Flat reverse.
13mm; 0.24g
Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria (1503-1521-1564), King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia (1526-1564), King of the Romans (1531-1564), then Holy Roman Emperor (1558-1564):
Ferdinand was primarily Spanish, being born in Castille as the son of Philip the Handsome, briefly King of Castille in 1506, and Joanna the Mad, daughter of Isabella of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragon. He was also the younger brother of the famous Emperor Charles V.
In 1515, Ferdinand was married to Anna, the only daughter of Vladislaus II, King of Bohemia and Hungary, by his grandfather the Emperor Maximilian, who also married Ferdinand's sister Mary to Vladislaus' only son: the future Louis II. Maximilian cannily wanted the Habsburgs to inherit these two kingdoms in the future. His plan succeeded faster than he could have expected, since Vladislaus II and Louis II respectively died in 1516 and 1526. Ferdinand thus became king of Hungary, Bohemia (also an electoral seat), and Croatia. He had also received the historic lands of the Habsburgs by becoming Archduke of Austria in 1521.
Hungary was however threatened by the Ottomans, against whom Louis II died at the Battle of Mohács. Ferdinand was not accepted by all the Hungarian nobles and had to fight John Zápolya, the last Voivode of Transylvania, the most eastern province of Hungary, who crowned himself King of Hungary as John I. Ferdinand defeated him, but John turned instead to the Sultan and asked for his help. In 1529, Suleiman the Magnificent therefore took the opportunity to seize much of central Hungary, notably its capital Buda, and even attacked Austria. His siege of Vienna was nonetheless a failure, but as he could not resist the Sultan's pressure for too long, Ferdinand had to temporise and signed the humiliating Treaty of Constantinople in 1533.
[see the rest of his biography in the following entry]
The two coats of arms depicted on the coin are those of the House of Babenberg (left), succeeded by the Habsburgs as dukes of Austria in 1246, and Upper Austria (left), which was part of the Archduchy of Austria as a principality, but was not governed by a separate ruler (it nevertheless had its own parliament). Its coat of arms should therefore be seen as a mintmark for Linz.
Coleção : Holy Roman Empire