Gotthard Kettler

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gotthard Kettler
Gotthard Kettler

Gotthard Kettler (1517 – 17 May 1587) was the last Master of the Livonian Order and the first Duke of Courland and Semigallia.

Kettler was of an old Westphalian family and the ninth child of the German knight Gotthard Kettler zu Melrich (mentioned 1527–56) and his wife Sophie of Nesselrode. Gotthard's older brother Wilhelm Kettler was bishop of Münster from 1553-57.

Kettler became Livonian Master in 1559. When the Livonian Confederation came under increasing pressure from Tsar Ivan IV of Russia during the Livonian War (1558–82), Kettler secularised the military order and converted to Lutheranism. On the basis of the Union of Wilno, he created the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia in 1561 as a vassal state of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which was soon merged into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

In 1566 Kettler married Anna, Duchess of Mecklenburg (1533 – 4 July 1602), the daughter of Duke Albert VII of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and Princess Anna of Brandenburg.

[edit] References

  • Grusemann, Hans, 1990. Die Frühgeschichte des Geschlechts Ketteler (Kettler), 12.-16.Jahrhundert. Soest.
  • Schwennicke, Ditleff. Europäische Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten (Neue Folge), Band VIII, Tafel 91 (Die Ketteler).
  • Salomon Henning's Chronicle of Courland and Livonia, translated and edited by Jerry C. Smith, William Urban and Ward Jones