The Teutonic Knights had dissolved their organization…

The Teutonic Knights had dissolved their organization in 1525 when Albert, Margrave of Brandenburg and grand master of the Teutonic Knights, converted to Lutheranism and declared Prussia a hereditary secular duchy.

Sigismund I Jagiello had incorporated the Knightly lands into his Polish kingdom.

Walter von Cronberg, a knight from Frankfurt who under Albert had been legate to Sigismund, had in 1517  founded the Brotherhood of St. Sebastian and in 1526 had been chosen Deutschmeister, the Master of the German branch of the Order.

Von Cronberg has declared himself the next Grand Master, basing his claim on a fourteenth-century statute of Werner von Orseln stating that in the case of the absence of the Grand Master, the Master of one of the other branches of the Order would resume the position.

This position has been met with some resistance from the Master of the Livonian branch, Wolter von Plettenberg, who also lays a claim to this function.

Emperor Charles V in 1527 settles the matter in favor of von Cronberg, declaring him "Administrator of the Office of Grand Master".

Also, the claim of the Grand Master to the excommunicated Albert's Duchy of Prussia is renewed.

As no control can be exercised there, the Grand Master's seat is moved from Königsberg to the seat of the Deutschmeister in southern Germany, Mergentheim near Würzburg.