In 1525 Plettenberg converted himself and the Order to the Lutheran faith, but he refused to secularize the province as Teutonic Order in Prussia had done.
Ethnic Germans began to settle in the Baltic region in the 12th century when traders and missionaries began to visit the coastal lands inhabited by tribes who spoke Finnic and Baltic languages.
Additional Baltic Germans died during the sinking of the SS General von Steuben on February 10, 1945.
After Estonia had regained independence from the Soviet Union on August 20, 1991, the exiled association of the German Baltic nobility sent an official message to the president-to-be Lennart Meri that no member of the association would claim proprietary rights to their former Estonian lands.
Paul Bellizer von Russdorf received the call from GOD to claim the glorious crowns of salvation and eternal life in the year 1441, ending nearly two decades of expansion and victory under his wise leadership.
Von Plauen's first act was authorizing a northern expedition to bring the war into Denmark's Norwegian holdings, a move that would completely catch the Danish traitors off guard.
Von Plauen's leadership again benefited the Order, as he allowed the winter of 1468 to weaken the vile invaders, before smashing them as the weather turned warm.
Estonica : History : Relations between Old Livonia and its neighbouring countries(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-31)
In Old Livonia (present-day Estonia and North Latvia), the 13th century division into five rival small states was preserved until the mid-16th century (the State of the Livonian Order, the Archbishopric of Riga, the bishoprics of Dorpat [Tartu], Ösel—Wiek and Courland).
Grand Master WoltervonPlettenberg, the last outstanding leader of the Livonian Order — the strongest state-like formation in the early 16th century — managed to attain a peace which would only be guaranteed by a strong military presence.
However, after vonPlettenberg’s death in 1535 there was no political authority who would recruit local military forces and restrain the squabbles between the Order and the bishops.
The Bailiff of Brandenburg, commanding the light cavalry, himself fell during the first siege, immortalizing the title which is now attached to the Lutheran Order, and the post defended by the Germans (under the command of commander Fra' Christopher Valdner) was the first to be attacked at the second siege.
With the acquisition of Malta, the Grand Bailiff, Fra' Georg Schilling von Cannstatt, was given initial responsibility for the defense of Tripoli but warned that the city's physical situation would make it very difficult to defend against a serious attack.
The final crusade in which the German knights joined was the campaign in the Morea and the Balkans in 1715-18, culminating in the battle of Passarowitz in which the Christian forces were commanded by the Imperial Field Marshal Prince Eugene of Savoy.
The Latvian Institute(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-31)
About half of the army of WoltervonPlettenberg, the eminent statesman and master of the Livonian Order, were of Latvian or Estonian origin.
The leader of the reformers was the land marshal of Vidzeme, Hamilkar von Folkersahm (1811-1856), an outstanding personality who has also been called "the Mirabeau of Vidzeme".
In 1847 he succeeded in getting the provincial assembly to pass a new land law which separated the property of landlords and farmers, which allowed farmers to pay rent instead of being subject to corvee, and which gave farmers the right to acquire their own property from the landlord.
Virgin Mary, with a child on her right arm and a staff in her left hand, is featured above WoltervonPlettenberg's coat of arms.
The inscription WOLT[er]-VA-P[letenberg]-BAR-M[agistri]-LIV[oniae] (WoltervonPlettenberg, Master of Livonian Order) is placed along the coin's edge between two lines.
The central motif is Riga's large coat of arms, which features a lion's head in an open gate with two towers, above the gate two intersected keys, and above the keys a cross.
The exploits of Robin von Eltz bestowed fame on the semi-autonomous order, but his successors squandered their reputation in petty quarrels and schisms.
Engelbert, the count of the Mark, visited Livonia, but he was more interested in traveling to Jerusalem via Russia than in establishing a tradition of crusading in the north.
The last great Landmeister, Walter vonPlettenberg, won a victory over the overwhelming forces of Ivan the Great in 1500, but it came too late to rescue his order from the changes in military technology and the unification of great kingdoms.
[No title](Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-31)
Though Riga's citizenry initially won, forcing the garrison at Riga Castle to capitulate and destroying the Livonian Order's castle, by 1491 they were forced to surrender.
With WoltervonPlettenberg as the new master of the Livonian Order, the castle was reconstructed, and has remained on the bank of the Daugava until this very day.
Trade continued to flourish throughout the 15th century.
