by Stefan Pajung and Mihkel Mäesalu A few blog posts back, we dealt with Valdemar Atterdag and whether he planned to regain Estonia after he had reunited the rest of the Danish kingdom. In it, we mentioned that Valdemar in 1355 had petitioned the pope to undo the cession of Estonia, but that the pope…
By Mihkel Mäesalu and Stefan Pajung Gerhard von Jork, the Master of the Livonian Branch of the Teutonic Order (1309–1322) wrote to the town of Reval (Estonian: Tallinn) about certain men who were plundering in the bishopric of Dorpat (Estonian: Tartu) and in Russian lands. He complained that these robbers base themselves in Danish Estonia,…
By Stefan Pajung & Mihkel Mäesalu It is well-known that the Danish king Valdemar Atterdag sold Estonia to the Teutonic Order in 1346. But did he ever have plans to reclaim Estonia afterwards? When Danish historian William Mollerup wrote his book on Denmark’s relationship with Livonia in 1880, he categorically denied that such plans existed,…
by Mihkel Mäesalu & Stefan Pajung Willekin the White, a canon of the Cathedral Chapter of Reval (Tallinn), hosted a dinner party at his home in the castle of Reval on Dome Hill in the beginning of May 1339. During this party Hermann Heympel, a consul of the town of Reval, was severely wounded in…
By Stefan Pajung and Mihkel Mäesalu While the activities of Danish clergymen in Estonia have attracted some attention from historians, theologians, and other scholars, far less is known about Estonian clerics who went the other direction and came to Denmark during the Middle Ages. Accordingly, we set out to establish the extent to which this…
By Mihkel Mäesalu and Stefan Pajung A few months ago we made a post on this blog on how Danish Estonia was called during the 13th and 14th centuries. As our readers and followers know, Duke of Estonia was a title held by the King of Denmark between 1269 and 1346. But there was one…
Tallinn City Museum held a dance performance “One object, many stories”, which focused on exhibiting archaeological artifacts in a slightly untraditional way. Usually we can see objects behind a glass display, but for this performance the “dividing screen” between dancers and visitors was lost during the show
By Stefan Pajung & Mihkel Mäesalu As a historian, it is fascinating to see, how certain subjects attract a lot of attention, are revisited again and again and new interpretations of them are formulated – while other subjects remain unexplained, obscure or only of interest to a small group of individuals. Over the last decade…
By Mihkel Mäesalu and Stefan Pajung When historians write (or talk) of Northern Estonia under Danish rule during the 13th and 14th centuries, they tend to use the name “Duchy of Estonia” for these areas. In this way historians stress, that Northern Estonia was not a part of the Kingdom of Denmark proper, but a…
By Stefan Pajung and Mihkel Mäesalu This month’s blog post is about the benefits of the exchange of knowledge in historical research and history writing – which will be illustrated through the case of Prince of Otto of Denmark, Duke of Estonia. It so happened, that when Mihkel came to visit me in Copenhagen in…