Carlsberg Foundation 13: A gift worthy of a king…

Stefan Pajung and Mihkel Mäesalu Now that the Christmas time is upon us, we thought we best share a story with you, which involves kind of a gift – and a substantial at that. Most of our readers, even if they only know little about the general history of Danish Estonia, have heard of or…

Carlsberg Foundation 11: Not through the sword – but by the law

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…

Carlsberg Fellowship 9: The Return of the King

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,…

Carlsberg fellowship 5: The Curious Case of the Swapping Bishops

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…