Wolter von Plettenberg

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Wolter von Plettenberg (or Walter von Plettenberg) (ca. 1450 – February 28, 1535), was the Master of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword from 1494–1535 and one of the greatest leaders of the Livonian knights. He was an important early Baltic German.

Plettenberg was born in Welver, Westphalia. He went to the fort of Narva at the age of ten. As a marshal of the Order, he fought successfully against the city of Riga and was elected master in 1494. That same year Moscow closed down the Hanseatic office in Novgorod and imprisoned German merchants there. Livonia was drifting into war with Muscovite Russia.

In the war with Russia (1499-1503), Plettenberg showed himself as a talented and skilled commander. His strength lay in his skillful use of heavy cavalry and artillery fire. With such tactics von Plettenberg won the battle of the Seritsa River, where a German army of 8,000 foot and 4,000 horse defeated 40,000 Russians.

Plettenberg captured several Russian strongholds, including Pskov, Ostrov, Izborsk, and Ivangorod. He besieged Novgorod but failed to protect Livonia against devastating Russian raids. Plettenberg made an alliance (the Treaty of Wenden) with the Lithuanian grand prince Alexander Jagiellon against the Russians. He tried to convince Pope Alexander VI to issue a crusading bull against the Russians. Finally, he made peace with Grand Prince Ivan III of Russia in Pskov in 1503, with no territorial changes.

During the Protestant Reformation, Plettenberg supported the Lutherans, hoping thus to make himself independent of the Catholic Archbishopric of Riga. The province was in disarray and the master had serious difficulties in ruling the territory which remained divided between the Order, the bishoprics, and rich cities. In 1525 Plettenberg converted himself and the Order to the Lutheran Protestant faith, but he refused to secularize the province as the Teutonic Knights in Prussia had done.