KARL III WILHELM, MARGRAVE OF BADEN-DURLACH |
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DASSIER,
Jean: Germany, 1736, Silver, 46 mm Karl III Wilhelm (Charles-William III) (1679-1738), born in Durlach, was Margrave of Baden from 1709 until his death in 1738. At the beginning of his career, the Margrave was a military leader of considerable stature, and at the assumption of his power in 1709, Philipp Heinrich Müller engraved a medal depicting a lion suggesting forcefulness and strength. But this medal, which was engraved by Dassier two years before the death of Karl Wilhelm, shows on the reverse a tranquil lion, expressing the pathos of the margrave's exile among his Swiss allies (Eisler). A margrave is the lord or military governor of a medieval German border province. It is used as a hereditary title for certain princes in the Holy Roman Empire. Baden is a state in the southwest of Germany in the Black Forest. Its origins date from the 12th century, and its territory was ruled by a margrave from the 14th to 18th centuries. It was a sovereign country until it joined the German Empire in 1871, and it remained a Grand Duchy until 1918 when it became part of the Weimar Republic as the Republic of Baden. |
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