The New International Encyclopædia/Farensbach, Jürgen von

FARENSBACH, fä′rens-bäG, Jürgen von (?-1602). A Livonian general. Sent as the ambassador of Livonia to Czar Ivan the Terrible, for the purpose of concluding a treaty of peace, he entered the Russian service, and greatly distinguished himself by winning the decisive battle on the Oka against the Tatars (August 1, 1572). Afterwards he served in the Danish and Polish armies, and in 1586 was invested with the rank of a Senator of the Polish crown by Sigismund III., whom he had assisted in gaining the throne of Poland. As field-marshal of Poland he subsequently fought against Sweden, where, however, he was defeated. He was killed in the attack on the Castle of Fellin, May 17, 1602.