Gotthard Kettler

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Gotthard Kettler (1517 – 17 May1587) became the last master of the Livonian Order — a branch of the Teutonic order in 1559, but when the Order came under increasing pressure from Russian tsar Ivan IV ("Ivan the Terrible") during the Livonian war (1558–82), Gotthard Kettler secularised the order^{[citation needed]}. He also converted to the Lutheran church during the war^{[citation needed]}. On the basis of the Wilno Pact, he created the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia in 1561 as a vassal state of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania that soon merged into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

[edit] Bibliographical information

Gotthard 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 to 1557.

Gotthard Kettler married Anna, duchess of Mecklenburg (1533 – 4 July 1602) in 1566, the daughter of Albert VII, Duke of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and the 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 Jonesde:Gotthard (Kurland und Semgallen)

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