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Gotthard Kettler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gotthard Kettler (1517 – 17 May 1587) 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 – 1582), Gotthard Kettler secularised the order and converted to the Lutheran church. 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.
Gotthard Kettler was of an old Westphalian family and the 9th child of the German knight Gotthard Kettler zu Melrich (mentioned 1527 – 1556) and his wife Sophie of Nesselrode. Gotthard's older brother Wilhelm Kettler was bishop of Münster 1553 – 1557.
Gotthard Kettler married Anna, duchess of Mecklenburg (1533 – 4 July 1602) in 1566, the daughter of duke Albert the Fair of Mecklenburg and the princess Anna of Brandenburg.
- 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