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Jacob Kettler | |
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![]() Portrait of Jacob Kettler, from the Stockholm National Musuem | |
Duke of Courland and Semigallia | |
Reign | 17 August 1642 – 1 January 1682 |
Predecessor | Frederick Kettler |
Successor | Frederick Casimir Kettler |
Born | Goldingen (Kuldīga) | 28 October 1610
Died | 1 January 1682 Mitau (Jelgava) | (aged 71)
Burial | Ducal crypt in the Jelgava Palace |
Spouse | |
Issue | |
House | Kettler |
Father | Wilhelm Kettler |
Mother | Duchess Sophie of Prussia |
Religion | Lutheranism |
Jacob Kettler (German: Jakob von Kettler; Latvian: Hercogs Jēkabs Ketlers; 28 October 1610 – 1 January 1682) was the duke of Courland and Semigallia from 1642 to 1682. Under his rule, Courland and Semigallia became more independent of its Polish suzerain, reached its peak in wealth, and even engaged in its own overseas colonization, making it one of the smallest, but fastest growing states in the world at that time.
Yet, in the end the results of his rule failed in the confrontation with much stronger powers both directly in the Baltic (Sweden) and overseas (Dutch Republic). A ruler "too rich and powerful to be a duke but too small and poor to be a king"[1] could not, with his small ancestral territory and very limited resources, play the powerful role he sought in European politics of that time.