Castellan

Name: Castellan
Rating: 4.3 (1191 reviews)

by Peter Darman Book 3 in the Crusader Chronicles series.

First published 2014

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4.3(1,191)

Set in Livonia and Danish Estonia in the early 1220s, amid rivalry between the Sword Brothers and King Valdemar II, outraged by the behaviour of the Sword Brothers, King Valdemar has placed a blockade on the whole of Livonia. With the Danes having a stranglehold over Livonia the crusader state is slowly dying, made worse by an outbreak of pestilence at Riga. But when the Danish king invades the island of Oesel the wheel of fate turns and Valdemar finds himself at the mercy of the Sword Brothers and Conrad Wolff, the man he wanted to have executed.
The Sword Brothers and Conrad’s Army of the Wolf save King Valdemar who lifts the blockade, thus saving Livonia. But Conrad has many enemies and an act of wickedness causes conflict to flare up on Livonia’s eastern borders that will threaten not only the crusader state but also the life of Conrad himself.
And south of the River Dvina, among the Lithuanian kingdoms, a great power arises that will have grave consequences for not only Conrad but also for the whole order of Sword Brothers.

In the early 1220s Denmark was a major Baltic power and King Valdemar II claimed extensive authority in Estonia. The Livonian crusader state depended on trade through Riga and could not ignore Danish pressure. Rival crusaders therefore negotiated, blockaded and fought while still presenting themselves as participants in the same Christian mission, a contradiction that gives the novel's political manoeuvring a strong historical foundation.