Livonian Masters

The Livonian master, or master of Livonia, was the highest official of the Teutonic Order in its possessions in Livonia. The Livonian branch of the order came into existence when the Order of the Sword Brethren was incorporated into the Teutonic Order in 1237. In that year the Teutonic grand master, Hermann von Salza, installed Hermann Balk, the order’s master in Prussia, as master in Livonia in order to complete the union of the two orders. Thereafter the two territories usually had separate masters, although occasionally the two offices were held concurrently.

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Livonian masters were normally elected at the general chapters of the order held at Acre (mod. ‘Akko, Israel), at Marburg in Germany, or in Prussia. From the fourteenth century onward, the practice was for the master to be chosen from among the officials of the order in Livonia; from the election of Dietrich Torck (1413), masters were elected in Livonia and presented to the grand master for confirmation. This practice was modified in the 1430s, when the Rhineland and Westphalian factions of the order in Livonia presented two candidates to the grand master. From the election of Johann Waldhaus von Heerse in 1470, double elections ceased, and only one candidate was presented for confirmation. In the sixteenth century the practice of electing a successor (Ger. Koadjutor) during the reign of the master started.

According to the statutes of the order, the master had to take counsel from his officials. The most important of these were the marshal of Livonia, the commanders of Reval (mod. Tallinn, Estonia), Fellin (mod. Yiljandi, Estonia), Marienburg (mod. Aluksne, Latvia), and Goldingen (mod. Kuldiga, Latvia), and the bailiff of Jerwia, and it was from this circle that masters tended to be elected. The central residence of the master was in Riga, although the masters had to travel throughout the territories of the order in Livonia to execute their power, and in cases of open conflicts with the town of Riga, the masters would reside in the castle at Wenden (mod. Cesis, Latvia). By the end of the fifteenth century, the masters travelled considerably less in the territory of the other officials of the order, and Wenden became their principal residence.

When the Teutonic Order was secularized in Prussia, the grand mastership slipped into the hands of the German master (Ger. Deutschmeister), despite the ambitions of the Livonian master Wolter von Plettenberg. In 1562 Master

Gotthard Kettler followed the example of Prussia, and secularized the order in Livonia, but because of defeats in war was able to establish himself only in Curonia, which he henceforth ruled as duke.

-Juhan Kreem

Bibliography

Ritterbruder im Livlandischen Zweig des Deutschen Ordens, ed. Lutz Fenske and Klaus Militzer (Koln: Bohlau, 1993).

Schwartz, Philipp, “Uber die Wahlen der Livlandischen Ordensmeister,” Mittheilungen aus dem Gebiete der Geschichte Liv-, Est - undKurlands 13 (1886), 453-468.