Wilhelm Kettler

This article deals with Duke Wilhelm Kettler. For other people see Wilhelm von Kettler and Wilhelm Ketteler .

Wilhelm Kettler

Wilhelm Kettler (* July 20, 1574 in Mitau ; † August 17, 1640 in Kucklow ) was Duke of Courland from 1585 until his deposition in 1616. He came from the Westphalian noble family Ketteler .

Life

Wilhelm Kettler was born the son of Duke Gotthard Kettler and his wife Anna. In the winter semester of 1590/91 he enrolled at the University of Rostock , accompanied by his instructor Johannes Simonius . Kettler undertook numerous long journeys, a trip to Heldburg and Coburg for the wedding of Johann Casimir (Saxony-Coburg) with Princess Margarethe von Braunschweig-Lüneburg in September 1599 is recorded. From 1609 he was with Sophie von Prussia (1582-1610) , daughter of Albrecht Friedrich von Prussia and his wife Marie Eleonore von Jülich-Kleve-Berg , married.

After the death of his father in 1587, he and his brother Friedrich Kettler became Duke of Courland and Semigallia . When he came of age, the inheritance was divided by the Treaty of Hofzumberge of May 21, 1596. Wilhelm became Duke of Courland. In 1616 he was deposed because of disagreements with the landed gentry and was later replaced by his brother. He then stayed at the court of the Dukes of Pomerania in Stettin and received from Duke Bogislaw XIV. In 1628 the Kucklow cathedral provost , which belonged to the cathedral chapter of Kammin . He died there in 1640.

His only son Jakob Kettler became Friedrich's co-regent from 1638 and inherited him after Friedrich's death in 1642.

The duchy issued its own currency; the so-called Dreigröscher with the portrait of Wilhelm von Kettler is famous .

literature

• Friedrich von Kettler: family tables of the Kettler family (Ketteler) . Starke, Görlitz 1900, OCLC 247977607 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See the entry of Guilhelmus' matriculation in Livonia, Curlandia et Semgalliae dux in the Rostock matriculation portal
2. ↑ Duke Johann Casimir's royal supplement at Heldburg Castle and in Coburg. see: Norbert Klaus Fuchs: Das Heldburger Land - a historical travel guide. Rockstuhl Publishing House, Bad Langensalza 2013, ISBN 978-3-86777-349-2 .
3. ^ Wilhelm Kettler, Duke of Courland and Semgallia, * 1574. In: geneall.net. Retrieved August 24, 2015 . 
4. ↑ August Robert Seraphim : The history of the Duchy of Courland (1561-1795) . Franz Kluge, Reval, 2nd, expanded edition 1904, p. 44.
5. ^ The old Livonian areas within the framework of the Polish-Lithuanian republic. on zapiskihistoryczne.pl (PDF, p. 33.)
6. ↑ European Coins and Medals - Poland - Courland, Duchy. In: sixbid.com. Sixbid AG, accessed on August 24, 2015 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
Friedrich	Duke of Courland 1595–1616	Administration by the knighthood