1721 Copper Engraving Portrait Gebhard Truchsess Von Waldburg Archbishop EUM2

This is an original 1721 black and white copper engraving of "Gebhard Trucksass Churfürst von Cölln." This is a portrait of Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg, an Archbishop-Elector of Cologne. He won a close election in the Cathedral chapter of Cologne over Ernst of Bavaria. Following his election, he fell in love with, and later married, Agnes von Mansfeld-Eisleben, a Protestant Canoness at the Abbey of Gerresheim. Gebhard's conversion to Calvinism and announcement of religious parity in the Electorate triggered a war. In 1583, Gebhard began amassing troops pursued converting his subjects to Protestantism. Pope Gregory XIII excommunicated him from the Roman Catholic church in April of that same year, and the unsuccessful candidate of 1577, Ernest, who was also bishop of Liège, Freising and Hildesheim, was chosen as the new Elector.Gebhard's eventual defeat by the Catholics in 1589 marks a critical moment in the history of the Reformation and delivered a serious blow to Protestantism