[13] In 1237, the Swedes received papal authorization to launch a crusade, and in 1240, new campaigns began in the easternmost part of the Baltic region.

[18] According to John Fennell: "there is no evidence of any coordination of action between the Swedes, the Germans and the Danes, nor is there anything to show that this was more than a continuation of the Russo-Swedish conflict for mastery over Finland and Karelia".

[21][22] That same winter, a campaign into Votia was conducted by the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, the Livonian Order, as well as Estonians (Chud') with support from local Votian leaders.

[21][24] According to Anti Selart, the allies likely only intended to acquire pagan lands and convert them to Catholicism, rather than attacking Novgorod, which was already Christianized.

[26] Although the Northern Crusades were aimed at pagan Balts and Finns, rather than Orthodox Russians, several unsuccessful attempts were made to persuade Novgorod to convert to Catholicism, which were resisted by Alexander.

[21] Alexander and his men then faced the Livonian heavy cavalry led by Hermann of Dorpat, brother of Albert of Buxhoeveden, where they met on 5 April 1242.

[32] The Livonian Rhymed Chronicle narrates the events of the battle: There is a city in Russia called Novgorod, and when its king [Alexandre] heard what had happened he marched towards Pskov with many troops.

Alexander led his army to Finland and successfully routed the Swedes, who had made another attempt to block the Baltic Sea from the Novgorodians in 1256.

[28] Upon the conquest of the Grand Principality of Vladimir by the Mongols in 1238,[35] its reigning prince, Yuri II Vsevolodovich, was killed in the Battle of the Sit River; his younger brother, Yaroslav II Vsevolodovich (Alexander's father), requested and received from the Mongol khan his permission to become the new prince.

[36] The Rurikid princes of Rus' were obliged to appear before the khans in person, pay homage to them and receive their jarlig (patent) to be affirmed in their principalities.

[c] When Möngke became the new great khan in 1251, only two years after Guyuk's death, he demanded another appearance at Sarai on the Volga, but Andrey refused to go.

[45][46] From the Second Pskovian Chronicle:[9] Returning from the Golden Horde, the Great Prince Alexander, reached the city of Nizhny Novgorod, and remained there for several days in good health, but when he reached the city of Gorodets he fell ill... Great Prince Alexander, who was always firm in his faith in God, gave up this worldly kingdom ... And then he gave up his soul to God and died in peace on 12 November [1263], on the day when the Holy Apostle Philip is remembered... At this burial Metropolitan Archbishop Cyril said, 'My children, you should know that the sun of the Suzdalian land has set.

With the completion of the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in 1790, the shrine and relics were translated there at its consecration on 30 August, one of the saint's feast days.

[45] In May 1922, during the general confiscation of Russian Orthodox Church property, the sarcophagus was opened and the relics removed;[50][better source needed] and the elaborate silver shrine was transferred to the Hermitage Museum.

[citation needed] In February 2024, it was announced that the memorial of Saint Alexander Nevsky had been deleted from the synaxarion of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

[53] Some historians see Alexander's choice of subordination to the Golden Horde as an important reaffirmation of East Slavs' Orthodox orientation (which begun under Vladimir I of Kiev and his grandmother Olga).

In the late 13th century, a chronicle was compiled called the Life of Alexander Nevsky (Житие Александра Невского), in which he is depicted as an ideal prince-soldier and defender of Russia.

[citation needed] On 21 May 1725, the empress Catherine I introduced the Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky as one of the highest decorations in the land.

[55] There was also an earlier Bulgarian Order dedicated to Saint Alexander which was founded on 25 December 1881, which ceased to exist when the People's Republic was declared on 16 September 1946.

[citation needed] A Soviet evaluation presented Alexander's victories as having "saved the Russian people from sharing the fate of the Baltic tribes and the Slavs of the Elbe who were enslaved by the Germans".

[61] On 24 September 2008, Alexander Nevsky was declared the main hero of Russia's history by popular vote, as reported by the Kommersant newspaper.