Ketteler

The House of Ketteler (also Kettler) is an old and distinguished Baltic German noble family that originated in Westphalia. The family appeared in 1233 when Conrad von Hüsten was mentioned in the written documents as the Châtelain of Haus Hüsten. His descendant Conrad III von Hüsten genannt Ketteler (1285–1364) was a Knight and Châtelain of Rüthen. Goswin Ketteler zu Assen (c. 1400 – c. 1471) divided the property with his younger brother Röttger around 1440. He built a new house on his part of the ground and called himself since then Kettler Neu Assen. He changed the background of his coat of arms from silver to gold – the so-called golden line. The silver line still spells Ketteler and is called the silver line Ketteler Alt Assen. The Polish branch of the family rose to prominence during the Livonian War when Gotthard Kettler, the master of the Teutonic Order, created and inherited the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia from the Treaty of Vilnius (1561) as a vassal of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1561 to 1569. It later became a vassal of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569 to 1726, and it was incorporated into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by Sejm in 1726. His family ruled the duchy until 1737, and the family became Polonized and married other members of the Szlachta.