Karl von Trier

Karl Bessart of Trier ( * 1265 in Trier, † February 11, 1324 ) was the 16th Grand Master of the Teutonic Order from 1311 to 1324.

Family

Born in 1265, Karl came from the Trier patrician family of Oeren. Two of his brothers, a nephew, and even in advanced age, his father had also joined the Teutonic Order. As members of the Order they also rose in part to high office.

Order of career

Charles was a man of great learning and shiny diplomatic skills. He was said to be so eloquent that he claims to like listening to his opponents.

In the early 1290s years he held the office of Commander in Beauvoir in the County of Champagne and a little later was entrusted by the Order with the management of Balleien Lorraine and France. In 1304 he had held the office of Großkomturs short term and in this function, the governor of the Grand Master Siegfried von Feuchtwangen in Venice. As his successor, he was elected in the summer of 1311 as the new Grand Master and resided at the new headquarters of the Order of Malbork Castle in Gdansk.

The years as Head of the Order

First term of office to 1317

Karl's tenure was marked by internal and external conflicts. Against the religious rule in the Baltic states acted mainly because of the ending on Papsthof Archbishop of Riga, a strained Inquisition proceedings against the Friars. Burdened also was the relationship with the nascent Polish King Wladyslaw I. State under because of the Pommer Elle question. 1308/ 09 had the Prussian Order of Friars this country forcibly occupied by the military and the Order State incorporated. The new Grand Master tried to find a balance, especially with respect to the City of Danzig and the great Cistercian monasteries Pelplin and Oliva. That earned him a great sympathy outside the Order, however, met its efforts on internal resistance. Military campaigns of the Order against the Lithuanians under their prince Gedimin remained without long-term success, but could the boundary of Greater Ragnit stabilize. Also there was around 1315 in many parts of Europe major famines. In the Prussian Order of dressing it came increasingly to the formation of a group within the religious leadership. Charles opponents seemed on target, as they in 1317, probably on a country chapter in Thorn, forced him to resign and this apparently voluntarily left Prussia.

Reinstatement and diplomatic successes

The overall order of the process of deposition immediately aroused resistance and already in the Lent of 1318, Karl von Trier was confirmed in the dignity of the Grand Master again at the General Chapter in Erfurt. In foreign policy, a little later succeeded him on Papsthof in Avignon a brilliant diplomatic success than he could prove the untenability of the allegations of the Archbishop of Riga and received extensive privileges for the Order. His former supporters in Prussia returned to their old offices, but also kept his opponents a share of power. The intended settlement with Poland did not come off.

End of life and overall assessment

Karl spent, apparently weakened by illness, his last years in his hometown of Trier, where he died about 11 February 1324 and was buried in the chapel there with the Order. Although he united in those years the dignity of a German champion with the Grand Master 's position, but slipped him the development of the Prussian as Livonian Order field rapidly. Thus, the term is only so far this certainly detectable Grand Master of bourgeois origin in the Middle Ages for an exciting transition phase in the German history of the order, which resulted in the formation of largely autonomous religious countries. The Family Of Piechowski, a Polish tribal Leliwa einverleibtes noble royal blood, received in gratitude for the coat of arms of Charles Bessarts Trier: a golden crescent, which was placed under the star.