Johann Freitag von Loringhoven (c. 1430 - 26 May 1494), also known as Johann Freytag von Loringhoven, and Johann Fridach van Loringhoffe, was a knight of the Teutonic Knights and a member of the Freytag von Loringhoven family. Most notably, from 1483 to 1494, he was a Master (Landmiester) of the Livonian Order.
Johann Frietag von Loringhoven was one of the eight knights of the Freytag von Loringhoven family that operated in Livonia. After the forced abdication of his predecessor, Bernhard von der Borch (1471-1483) he was elected as Master of the Livonian Order. He ended the 200-year struggle for power inside the Livonian Order by carefully balancing warfare and politics. In the Livonian civil war, he fought in the battles of Stinsee and the battle of Neuermuhlen (near Riga). After the civil war, his reign brought about the longest peacetime in ancient Livonian history. When the foreign enemies of Livonia began to make war against them, this peacetime had allowed Livonia to become a strong and religious state.
Von Loringhoven soon recognized the talent of Wolter von Plettenberg and appointed him Master in 1489.
Livonia is a historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia.
The Northern Crusades or Baltic Crusades were Christian colonization and Christianization campaigns undertaken by Catholic Christian military orders and kingdoms, primarily against the pagan Baltic, Finnic and West Slavic peoples around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, and to a lesser extent also against Orthodox Christian Slavs.
The Livonian Brothers of the Sword was a Catholic military order established in 1202 during the Livonian Crusade by Albert, the third bishop of Riga. Pope Innocent III sanctioned the establishment in 1204 for the second time. The membership of the crusading order comprised warrior monks, mostly from northern Germany, who fought Baltic and Finnic "pagans" in the area of modern-day Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Alternative names of the Order include Christ Knights, Swordbrothers, Sword Brethren, Order of the Brothers of the Sword, and The Militia of Christ of Livonia. The seal reads: +MAGISTRI ETFRM MILICIE CRI (Christi) DE LIVONIA.
The Livonian Order was an autonomous branch of the Teutonic Order, formed in 1237. From 1435 to 1561 it was a member of the Livonian Confederation.
The Livonian War (1558–1583) was the Russian invasion of Old Livonia, and the prolonged series of military conflicts that followed, in which Tsar Ivan the Terrible of Russia (Muscovy) unsuccessfully fought for control of the region. The Tsardom of Russia (Muscovy) faced a varying coalition of the Dano-Norwegian Realm, the Kingdom of Sweden, and the Union of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland.
Woltervon Plettenberg was the Master (Landmeister) of the Livonian Order from 1494 to 1535 and one of the greatest leaders of the Teutonic knights. He was an important early Baltic German.
Alexander Otto Hermann Wolfgang Bernd(t) Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven, was a Baltic German officer in the German Army during World War II. In 1956, he joined the German Federal Armed Forces, the Bundeswehr, and rose to the rank of Generalleutnant.
Wessel Oskar Karl Johann Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven, was a Baltic German colonel in the High Command of the German Armed Forces (OKW) and a member of the German Resistance (Widerstand) against Adolf Hitler. Loringhoven was a friend of Claus von Stauffenberg, who was the leader of the 20 July Plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944.
The Bishopric of Courland was the second smallest (4500 km2) ecclesiastical state in the Livonian Confederation founded in the aftermath of the Livonian Crusade. During the Livonian War in 1559 the bishopric became a possession of Denmark, and in 1585 sold by Denmark to Poland–Lithuania.
The Livonian crusade refers to the various military Christianisation campaigns in medieval Livonia – in what is now Latvia and Estonia – during the Papal-sanctioned Northern Crusades in the 12–13th century. The Livonian crusade was conducted mostly by the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Denmark. It ended with the creation of Terra Mariana and the Danish duchy of Estonia. The lands on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea were one of the last parts of Europe to be Christianised.
The family Freytag von Loringhoven is a noble family that originated in Uradel in Westphalia. The surname is also spelled Vrydach, Frydag, Freydag and various other slightly different spellings.
The Battle of the Siritsa River took place on 27 August 1501 between the forces of the Livonian Order under Grand Master Wolter von Plettenberg on the one side and the forces of the Grand Duchy of Moscow and Pskov Republic on the other. The Russian forces were soundly defeated.
Hermann Balk, also known as Hermann von Balk or Hermann Balke, was a Knight-Brother of the Teutonic Order and its first Landmeister, or Provincial Master, in both Prussia and Livonia. From 1219 to 1227, he served as the Deutschmeister in the Order's Province of Alemannia. Balk led the crusaders during the Prussian Crusade and became Master of Prussia in 1230. From 1237 to 1238, he also served in the additional role as Master of Livonia.
The Treaty of Vilnius or Vilna was concluded on 28 November 1561, during the Livonian War, between the Livonian Confederation and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in Vilnius. With the treaty, the non-Danish and non-Swedish part of Livonia, with the exception of the Free imperial city of Riga, subjected itself to the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund II Augustus with the Pacta subiectionis . In turn, Sigismund granted protection from the Tsardom of Russia and confirmed the Livonian estates' traditional privileges, laid out in the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti.
The Battle of Turaida or Treiden was fought on June 1, 1298, on the banks of the Gauja River near the Turaida Castle. The Livonian Order was decisively defeated by the residents of Riga allied with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania under command of Vytenis.
Terra Mariana was the official name for Medieval Livonia or Old Livonia. It was formed in the aftermath of the Livonian Crusade, and its territories were composed of present-day Estonia and Latvia. It was established on 2 February 1207, as a principality of the Holy Roman Empire, but lost this status in 1215 when Pope Innocent III proclaimed it as directly subject to the Holy See.
Vytenis was the Grand Duke of Lithuania from c. 1295 to c. 1316. He became the first of the Gediminid dynasty to rule for a considerable amount of time. In the early 14th century his reputation outshone that of Gediminas, who is regarded by modern historians as one of the greatest Lithuanian rulers. The rule of Vytenis was marked by constant warfare in an effort to consolidate the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with the Ruthenians, Masovians, and the Teutonic Order.
Wahl family originated in Scotland and then settled in the Baltic states.
The Frydag family, also spelled Vrydach, Freytag, Freydag and various other slightly different spellings, is a German noble family known since the beginning of the 14th century that originated in Uradel in Westphalia.
Landmeister in Livland was a high office in the Teutonic Order. The Landmeister administered the Livonia of the Teutonic Order. These lands had fallen to the Teutonic Order in 1237 by the incorporation of the former Livonian Brothers of the Sword. The seat of the Landmeister was castle Wenden. The Landmaster's function in Livonia lasted until 1561, when in aftermath of Livonian War the last Landmeister Gotthard Kettler relinquished the northern parts of the Mastery and in the Union of Vilna secularized the part still left to him and, as the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, took fief from the Polish king and Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund II Augustus. The non-recognition of this act by Pope, Holy Roman Empire and the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order had no factual effect.
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