The communication of the Master of the Livonian Branch of the Teutonic Order with the King of Denmark and the Grand Duke of Lithuania during the 15th century

Abstract

This study of the communication of the Livonian Branch of the Teutonic Order with the king of Denmark and the Grand Duke of Lithuania focuses on diplomatic cooperation between the Order’s Livonian and Prussian branches. Though the Grand Master largely represented the Livonian Master in communication with the Danish king during the first half of the fifteenth century, this took place because the Danish king preferred to communicate Livonian matters to the Grand Master. In the second half of the century, the king addressed the Livonian Master directly and the Grand Master lost his role as a mediator of communication between the king and the Livonian Master. The communication with the Grand Duke of Lithuania can be described as forming a triangle, where both the Grand Master and the Livonian Master were in frequent correspondence with the Grand Duke and would represent each other if needed. The second half of the fifteenth century saw a tendency toward excluding the Grand Master from communication between the Livonian Master and the Grand Duke, probably due to the diverging political goals of the Prussian and the Livonian branches of the Order. As a concluding generalization, one can say that cooperation between these two branches of the Teutonic Order in diplomatic correspondence was largely determined by the preferences of their partners in communication as well as by the compatibility of their respective political stances.