17th Portrait Of Prince-bishop Christoph Bernhard Von Galen

Exceptional portrait in composition and colors of the Prince-Bishop of Münster, Christoph Bernhard von Galen (1606-1678)
ca 1645
Christoph Bernhard von Galen (October 12, 1606 - September 19, 1678) was Prince-Bishop of Münster from 1650 to 1678. At the time when absolutism progressed in Europe and in the territories of the Empire, Bernhard von Galen also endeavored, as an ecclesiastical prince, to consolidate his power and to extend his small domains . Weaving between the different powers, he added to his bishopric some bordering territories and submitted, in 1661, the city of Münster. As Europe enters a troubled period where France, England, Holland, etc. Von Galen recruited 18,000 reiters for Charles II of England to attack the United Provinces, but a French army of 6,000 had little to do to rout the the bishop's army which dissolved without asking for its remainder. Later, he returned to the French alliance, notably during the Dutch War. He applied the Counter-Reformation in the most rigorous manner, with the objective of eradicating Protestantism, which had notably wreaked havoc with Anabaptism. His efforts in favor of the Counter-Reformation are supported and encouraged by the intellectual influences of the University of Paderborn, founded in 1614. Beyond his religious and political action, von Galen was a strange and irascible character who allowed the invention of the incendiary bomb.

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