Konrad von Wallenrode
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Konrad IV von Wallenrode (born between 1330 and 1340, died 23 July 1393) came from a family with a rich knightly tradition that had its roots in Franken and had resided in Schwabach, south of Nürnberg. Wallenrode was the name of a town in East Prussia, though.
[edit] Career
Konrad von Wallenrode joined the Teutonic Order about 1370. In 1377, Grand Master Winrich von Kniprode named him komtur of Schlochau. His real career, however, did not begin until 1382, when Konrad Zöllner von Rotenstein became Grand Master.
After the death of Kuno von Hattenstein, von Wallenrode became Grand Marshal and komtur of Königsberg. He was chiefly tasked with organizing crusades against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and became quite adept at it. In 1387 Konrad von Wallenrode became komtur of Marienburg and Great Komtur of the Teutonic Order. He was the obvious choice to be von Rothstein's successor.
In 1390, Grand Master Konrad Zöllner von Rotenstein died, and it seemed only a matter of time before von Wallenrode would become the next Grand Master. However, he encountered great opposition from Walrabe von Scharffenberg, komtur of Danzig.
[edit] Grand Master
It was not until August 20, 1391, that Wallenrode became the 24th Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, thanks to the support of two electors, Siegfried Walpot von Bassenheim, komtur of Elbing, and Rüdiger von Elner, komtur of Tuchola.
In 1392 he started a crusade against Lithuania. His army split into three divisions. The first one, under command of Arnold von Burgeln, the komtur of Balga headed for Masovia.
The other two divisions, under the command of the Grand Master and Grand Marshall Engelhard Rabe von Wildstein headed for Vilnius. They were close of capturing Vilnius, which was defended bravely by Polish knights, but in the end it turned out into their defeat as a result of a scandal caused by the Grand Master. Von Wilderstein was discovered to be a great commander and tactitian, having respect of his soldiers, yet in a shoking move, he was relieved of his duties as a Grand Marshall by von Wallenrode. The reason is not completely known, but it is widely believed that the Great Master was jealous of von Wilderstein's success. Nonetheless, this caused a revolt between most of the knights who stood behind von Wilderstein. Despite this, the Grand Master did not change his decision and the whole crusade was lost. This helped von Wallenrode to clean up the house between his opponents, especially in the Lower Prussian komturships of Balga, Pokarmina, and Ragneta that were under supremacy of the Grand Marshall.
His short-lived, 2 year rule was filled with crusades against Lithuania. Von Wallenrode was against the Polish-Lithuanian Union and was trying to dissolve the union.
In 1392 Władysław Opolczyk offered him a partition of Poland with the Holy Roman Empire, the Teutonic Order, Brandenburg, Hungary and the Silesian dukes all taking part of it, but von Wallerode rejected it.
The same year he started another military action against Lithuania with many knights, the guests of the Order from all over Europe, lead by Henry, duke of Derby, the future king, Henry IV of England and Vytautas the Great.
Konrad von Wallenrode died during the preparation for the next crusade against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania on 23 July 1393. The probable reason of his death is apoplexy.
He led active economic and colonization actions in Prussia. He gave many lands to Germans and built two castles, Gottersweder and Mittenburg. In 1393 he created a new komturship in Ryna with Friedrich von Wallenrode, his own brother and a later komtur of Gniew, Strasburg and the Grand Marshal of Königsberg who died in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, as its first komtur. His other relative was Johann von Wallenrode, the archbishop of Riga between 1393-1416. Modern sources are rather friendly towards von Wallenrode, although they claim he was hot blooded, very proud and had tendencies to be cruel.
[edit] The poem
Adam Mickiewicz took some elements of the historical Konrad von Wallenrode for his 1828 patriotic narrative poem, Konrad Wallenrod, in which Wallenrod is portrayed as a Lithuanian who deliberately leads the Knights into defeat.
The poem was later twice made into an opera; I Lituani by Italian composer Amilcare Ponchielli in 1874, and Konrad Wallenrod by Polish composer Władysław Żeleński in 1885.
| Preceded by: Konrad Zöllner von Rotenstein |
Hochmeister of the Teutonic Order 1391-1393 |
Succeeded by: Konrad von Jungingen |
