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Germany – German States – Free City of Ulm
1704 Silver Klippe Gulden 30.6 x 30.5mm (13.91 grams)
Reference: KM# 95
MONETA ARGENT REIP:VLMENSIS, City arms, cherub above.
DA PACEM NOBIS DOMINE 1704, Imperial eagle with orb on breast.
Coin Notes:
Struck during the seige of the Imperial armies in the War of the Spanish Succession.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
 The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) was an early 18th century European war, triggered by the death in November 1700 of the childless Charles II of Spain. It established the principle dynastic rights were secondary to maintaining the balance of power between different countries. Related conflicts include the 1700-1721 Great Northern War, Rákóczi’s War of Independence in Hungary, the Camisard revolt in southern France, Queen Anne’s War in North America and minor struggles in Colonial India.
 Although weakened by over a century of continuous conflict, in 1700 the Spanish Empire remained a global confederation that included the Spanish Netherlands, large parts of Italy, the Philippines and much of the Americas. Charles’s closest heirs were members of the Austrian Habsburgs or French Bourbons; acquisition of an undivided Spanish Empire by either threatened the European balance of power.
Attempts by Louis XIV of France and William III of England to partition the empire in 1698 and 1700 were rejected by the Spanish. Instead, Charles named Philip of Anjou, a grandson of Louis XIV, as his heir; if he refused, the alternative was Charles, younger son of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. Philip accepted and was proclaimed king of an undivided Spanish Empire on 16 November 1700, leading to war between France and Spain on one side, and the Grand Alliance on the other.
 The French held the advantage in the early stages, but were forced onto the defensive after 1706; however, by 1710 the Allies had failed to make any significant progress, while Bourbon victories in Spain had secured Philip’s position as king. When Emperor Joseph I died in 1711, Charles succeeded his brother as emperor, and the new British government initiated peace talks. Since only British subsidies kept their allies in the war, this resulted in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, followed by the 1714 Treaties of Rastatt and Baden.
Philip was confirmed as king of Spain in return for accepting its permanent separation from France; the Spanish Empire remained largely intact, but ceded territories in Italy and the Low Countries to Austria and Savoy. Britain retained Gibraltar and Menorca which it captured during the war, acquired significant trade concessions in the Spanish Americas, and replaced the Dutch as the leading maritime and commercial European power. The Dutch gained a strengthened defence line in what was now the Austrian Netherlands; although they remained a major commercial power, the cost of the war permanently damaged their economy.
France withdrew backing for the exiled Jacobites and recognised the Hanoverians as heirs to the British throne; ensuring a friendly Spain was a major achievement, but left them financially exhausted. The decentralisation of the Holy Roman Empire continued, with Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony increasingly acting as independent states. Combined with victories over the Ottomans, this meant the Austrian Habsburgs increasingly switched their focus to southern Europe.
 The Free Imperial City of Ulm was a Free Imperial City of the Holy Roman Empire. It is situated on the left bank of the Danube, in a fertile plain at the foot of the Swabian Jura.
Ulm is mentioned as a demesne in 854, and under the Carolingian dynasty it was the scene of several assemblies. It became a town in 1027, and was soon the principal place in the Duchy of Swabia. Although burned down by Henry the Lion, the town soon recovered, becoming a Free Imperial City in 1155. Towards the close of the Middle Ages it played a leading part several times at the head of Swabian Leagues of the 14th century and 15th century. Its trade and commerce prospered, peaking in the 15th century, ruling over a  district about 300 square miles (780 km2). It became a Free Imperial City with extensive territorial authority, and having a population of about 60,000. It became Protestant in 1530 and declined after the French Wars of Religion of the 16th century and 17th century. In 1802 it lost its Imperial immediacy and passed to Electorate of Bavaria, being ceded to Kingdom of Württemberg in 1810. In October 1805 General Karl Mack von Leiberich and his 23,000 Austrian troops capitulated to Napoleon here. Ulm is remarkable in the history of German literature as the spot where the Meistersingers lingered longest, orally preserving the traditional folklore of their craft.
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