The Beginnings of, and the Legal Basis for, the Formation of Knighthood in the Danish Principality of Estonia (13th–14th Centuries)

In 1219, northern Estonia unwittingly became the site of an extraordinary social experiment. Thanks to a victorious battle fought on 15 June 1219 by Danish King Valdemar II during the Crusades near the future city of Reval against pagan inhabitants, an immediate Christianization campaign ensued, beginning with the recording of all existing settlements. Granting of the first vassal fiefs was initiated, which can be determined according to an annex to the so-called Liber Census Daniae from around 1241. Royal North-Estonian vassals had formed a corporation called “universitas vasallorum per Estoniam constituta” in 1259, which constituted the power elite in the Duchy of Estonia after the sale of Estonia to the Teutonic Order in 1346. Estonian vassal fiefs were recognized by the Teutonic Knights as hereditary in 1397, yet vassals of the Livonian bishops received similar privileges only over 100 years later.