Walter von Cronberg
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Walter von Cronberg (born 1477 at Kronberg Castle near Frankfurt am Main; died 4 April 1545) was the 38th Grand Master of the Teutonic Order between 1527 and 1543. Von Cronberg hailed from a rather poor family of knights. He joined the Teutonic Order in 1497.
From 1499, he held the post of a tax-collector in the komturship of Mergentheim, and in 1504 he became the Komtur of Frankfurt. During the times of his predecessor Albrecht von Hohenzollern who became Hochmeister in 1511, he was the legate to the king of Poland, Sigismund I the Old. In 1517 he founded the Brotherhood of St. Sebastian and in 1526 he was chosen Deutschmeister, the Master of the German branch of the Order.
In 1525, when Grand Master Albrecht von Hohenzollern had converted to Lutheranism and was excommunicated, Walter von Cronberg declared himself the next Grand Master. His claim was based on a statute of Werner von Orseln from the 14th century which stated that in the case of the absence of the Grand Master, the Master of one of the other branches of the Order would resume the position.
However, this decision was met with some resistance from the Master of the Livonian branch, Walter von Plettenberg, who also laid a claim to this function. The conflict was averted by the emperor Charles V who settled the matter in 1527 in favour of the German branch of the Order, declaring him "Administrator of the Office of Grand Master". Also, the claim to own the Duchy of Prussia was renewed. As no control could be exercised there, the Hochmeister's seat had to be moved from Königsberg to the seat of the Deutschmeister in Southern Germany, Mergentheim near Würzburg.
From 1530, von Cronberg dedicated himself to save the Catholic character of the Order. He was unsuccessful however in preventing further secularization of the Teutonic Order in the Reich, with ever more knights breaking the oath by conversion to Protestantism or disobedience to the Catholic grand masters.
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Preceded by Albrecht Hohenzollern von Brandenburg-Ansbach |
1527-1543 Hochmeister |
Succeeded by Wolfgang Schutzbar |
