Historical
and Commemorative Medals
Collection of Benjamin Weiss
CONFERENCE AT LEIPZIG DADLER, Sebastian: Germany, 1631, Silver, 50 mm The Conference at Leipzig was instituted by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden as part of the Swedish Phase of the Thirty Years' War. The main purpose of the conference was to bring together the Protestant states and bridge the differences and reach some agreement between the Lutherans and Calvinists in their wars with the Catholic-led Holy Roman Empire. However, they found more points of difference than commonality between them and prompted each group to denounce each other to everlasting flames as heretics. The conference did adopt a renewed protest against the Edict of Restitution, initiated by the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, but failed to unite the Protestant forces. The Edict of Restitution, passed during the Thirty Years' War, was an attempt to impose and restore the religious and territorial conditions dictating that no further Catholic lands could be converted to Protestant control. This medal was ordered by Johann Georg I, the Saxon prince-elector, to commemorate the conference of evangelical princes in Leipzig in February-April 1631. The reverse of this medal is the third version of two other similar medals by Dadler (Wiecek 69 and 70), the differences being a change from a "U" to a "V" in "PVERO" (Wiecek 70), and the presence of an inscription (AD UTRUMQ.) in the space under the scene (Wiecek 69). The obverses of the three versions are the same. Maué records four such versions of the medal, numbers 24 and 25 with PUERO, and 26 and 27 with PVERO. LINK to The Thirty Years' War (from biosestate.edu) |
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