Carlsberg Foundation 14: Unexpected allies? Negotiations on an alliance against Novgorod between Christopher of Bavaria and the Teutonic Order in Livonia
By Mihkel Mäesalu and Stefan Pajung In the Autumn of 1443, the Teutonic knights in Livonia launched an attack on their eastern neighbour, the Russian principality of Novgorod. The charge was led by the young lord Gerhard von Kleve, count of Mark in Westphalia, whose interpreter had been murdered in 1438 when he was travelling…