ABSTRACT
Fundamental changes in the dynamics of crusading occurred in the three decades between 1386 and 1417, a period which one might regard as forming the transitional beginning of a long fifteenth century, which lasted until the Reformation. The acceptance of Christianity by Lithuania and its dynastic union with Poland in 1386 removed the main raison d'être of the Teutonic Order's wars against the grand duchy. The Livonian feared the expansion of Muscovy, which came to incorporate the originally independent principalities of Pskov and Novgorod, while other Catholic powers hoped to bring Russia into Church union and enlist its support against the Ottomans. After Nicopolis the military resistance to the Ottoman was carried by the front-line states: the kingdoms and principalities of Eastern Europe and the maritime powers of Italy. The concept of the bulwark of Christianity had often applied to Poland and Hungary, but in this period it was also used in propaganda emanating from Bosnia and Moldavia.
