Landmeister in Livland

Landmeister in Livland was a high office in the Teutonic Order. The Landmeister administered the province of the State of the Teutonic Order in Livonia (formally known as the Mastery of Livland, Meistertum Livland). The area of the province had belonged to the former crusading order of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword until 1237, when the remnants of the crusader order were incorporated into the Teutonic Order.

The seat of the Landmeister was the castle of Wenden. The Landmaster's office existed in Livonia until 1561, when in the wake of the Livonian War the last Landmeister Gotthard Kettler relinquished the northern parts of the Livonian 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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