Martin Truchseß von Wetzhausen

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Martin Truchseß von Wetzhausen zu Dachsbach (c. 1435 – 3 January 1489) was the 34th

Von Wetzhausen hailed from a family of Imperial Knights, later barons from the Würzburg area in Franconia. Several members of his family settled in Prussia and held important posts within the Teutonic Order. Early in his career, he was a monk in Mewe, Strasburg, and Elbing.

From 1462 von Wetzhausen became an adviser to Grand Master Ludwig von Erlichshausen and since 1476 the Komtur of Osterode. On 4 August 1477 the Order's Capitulum elected him Grand Master, despite his having once pledged that "ehe er welde dem Könige von Polen schweren, er welde ehe in seinem Blutte vortrincken" (archaic German: "Before he would swear homage to the King of Poland, he would sooner drown in his own blood") — which the Grand Masters had been obliged to do since the Second Peace of Thorn (1466).

Von Wetzhausen supported

Afterwards, von Wetzhausen focused on internal policy within the Order and its problematic financial situation. In the summer of 1488, the Grand Master became very ill and he died in early 1489 in Königsberg. He was buried in Königsberg Cathedral.

References

Further reading

• ISBN 3-7917-0792-2
• ISBN 3-7708-1104-6
  (nicht eingesehen)
• ISBN 3-598-23186-5
• Karl Lohmeyer: Martin T. von Wetzhausen. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1967-1971, pp. 682–683
• Johannes Voigt: Geschichte des Deutschen Ritter-Ordens in seinen zwölf Balleien in Deutschland. Berlin 1857 (nicht eingesehen)