ABSTRACT
The kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, united in the Kalmar Union of 1397, stretched from the north Atlantic islands to the Karelian Isthmus. The Polish-Lithuanian union was equally impressive in territorial terms, and was given an extra dimension by the ambitions of the jagiello dynasty in central Europe. In reality, however, the underpinnings of the two unions were never very secure. The terms of the original Union between Poland and Lithuania at Krewo in 1385 have been fiercely debated by Polish and Lithuanian historians. The union of the three northern crowns established at Kalmar in 1397 proved even more difficult to maintain. In 1492, the five-year frontier truce between Sweden and Novgorod was due to run out. Negotiations during the winter of 1492-3 failed to reach any satisfactory conclusion. In the early 1490s, Ivan Ill's Greek legate Yury Trakhaniot conducted a series of protracted and ultimately abortive discussions with Maximilian, king of the Romans.
