14th century seafarers in the North and Baltic Seas
The
Victual Brothers
,
Vitalien Brothers
[2]
[3]
or
Vitalian Brethren
[4]
(
German
:
Vitalienbruder
,
[1]
: 146
[5]
[6]
Norwegian
:
Vitaliebrødrene
[7]
) were a loosely organized
guild
of 14th century Germanic
privateers
. They initially included
Mecklenburg
nobility, but later became an organisation of commoners, and later evolved into
piracy
.
[1]
: 146ff
[5]
[
better source needed
]
[8]
The guild had a clear historical effect in that era on
maritime trade
in the
North
and
Baltic
Seas.
[3]
[5]
[
better source needed
]
As privateers, they provisioned blockaded locations
[7]
and otherwise served as a naval contingent on behalf of regional rulers,
[9]
with clients that included the
Queen of Denmark
, and rulers of
Mecklenburg
and
East Frisia
.
[3]
[1]
: 146f
As their activities turned to piracy, the aims changed to personal enrichment.
[3]
The pledge of their adopted base of
Gotland
to the
Teutonic Order
by
King Albert of Sweden
led to Gotland's invasion and the destruction of
Visby
by
Konrad von Jungingen
and the Order in 1398.
[10]
[
verification needed
]
This disruption, the executions of some of their band in Hamburg,
[3]
and the
Hanseatic League
's continuing effort to control and make safe trade on the
Baltic Sea
led to changing maritime influences and a decline of the band.
[
citation needed
]
The Victual Brothers band either were sometimes known
[1]
: 147
or possibly became a somewhat distinct group known as the
Likedeelers
.
[
citation needed
]
Klaus Stortebeker
was identified with both, as a subordinate in the Victual Brothers
[2]
[5]
[
better source needed
]
and as one in command in the
Likedeelers
.
[
not verified in body
]
Background
[
edit
]
The Victual
[2]
or Vitalien Brothers,
[3]
names drawn from the German
Vitalienbruder
[1]
: 147ff
[5]
[11]
and associated with the Norse
vitaliebrødrene
,
[7]
were a loosely organized guild of
privateers
, later turning to
piracy
, who affected
maritime trade
during the 14th century in the
North
and
Baltic
Seas.
[
citation needed
]
[3]
The name Victual Brothers is derived indirectly from the
Latin
word for provisions,
victualia
, and makes reference to their first mission, which was to supply the besieged city of Stockholm.
[12]
[
verification needed
]
More directly and specifically, as Dirk Meier explains in his
Seefahrer, Handler und Piraten im Mittelalter
(
Seafarers, Merchants and Pirates in the Middle Ages
):
During the Hundred Years' war [1337-1453
[13]
], the people who provisioned the army were called
vitailleurs
. In 1394, when Mecklenburg was at war with Denmark, the Dukes of Mecklenburg hired pirates (known as
Vitalienbruder
) whose job was to maintain a supply of food for the city of Stockholm, under siege by the Danes.
[1]
As privateers, they served as a naval contingent on behalf of various regional rulers,
[14]
[
citation needed
]
work that included provisioning blockaded locations,
[7]
with clients that included the
Queen of Denmark
, and rulers of
Mecklenburg
and
East Frisia
.
[3]
[1]
: 146f
Eventually, as the efforts became more thoroughly the efforts of commoners, and especially, as the band turned to piracy, their activities were aimed at their own enrichment, and not the provisioning of others.
[
citation needed
]
[3]
[5]
[
better source needed
]
As historian Jorgen Bracker of Hamburg's Municipal Museum notes, the "Vitalien Brothers divided up all their loot among themselves", arguing that the notion that "these men were willing to give up any of their booty" was a false notion.
[3]
History of the Guild
[
edit
]
During the 14th century, Queen
Margaret I of Denmark
was battling
Albert of Mecklenburg
for
Scandinavian
supremacy. Albert had been
King of Sweden
since 1364 and Duke of
Mecklenburg
since 1383.
[12]
[
verification needed
]
Queen Margaret imprisoned Albert and his son,
Eric of Mecklenburg
, in order to subdue the
Kingdom of Sweden
,
[12]
[
verification needed
]
and her forces began a siege of
Stockholm
.
[7]
As the
dukes
of the
House of Mecklenburg
were without a navy, they sought instead to wage a
Kaperkrieg
(
Privateers
' War) against Denmark and in the relief of Stockholm.
[1]
: 146f
To do so they engaged both the owners of commercial ships and the seafaring masses through issue of
letters of marque
to authorize the taking and disposal of plundered goods?letters that included the ports and towns of Rostock, Wismar, Ribnitz, and Golwitz. That, in the words of Dirk Meier, likely offered a way that the "nobility of Mecklenburg", through their "compact with bands of roving and unorganised pirates", could encourage some among the minor
aristocrats
of Mecklenburg to "support and indeed join the pirates, in the hope of sharing some of their booty".
[1]
: 146f
Through these letters, Mecklenburg was able to raise a force of Baltic Sea pirates that would rise to number in the order of 1,400 persons,
[7]
a force that in 1392 was pressed into the fight against
Denmark
, including as
blockade runners
in the supply of Stockholm.
[
citation needed
]
These privateers and pirates came to be known as the
Vitalienbruder
[5]
[
better source needed
]
, and later, in English, the Victual Brothers.
[12]
[
verification needed
]
They brought food and other provisions through the Danish forces to keep the city supplied,
[7]
[5]
[
better source needed
]
and engaged in
war at sea
.
[12]
[
verification needed
]
Alongside their breaking the blockade, Margaret and Albert came to an agreement in 1395, with Stockholm "
pantsatt til hanseatene
[pledg[ing] to the
Hanseatic League
]", that led to Albert's freedom.
[7]
With the city and sovereign freed, the troops of Queen Margaret were withdrawn, and peace returned.
[5]
Despite having been denied a "
grunnlag
[basis, for operations]
[7]
and being expected to disband, some sources indicate that the commanders of the privateers?yet "mainly nobles from
Mecklenburg
"?did not, instead moving their base of operations to
Visby
, on the island of
Gotland
.
[5]
[
better source needed
]
At this time, the storied German pirates
Klaus Stortebeker
and Michael Godeke had not yet risen to command.
[5]
[
better source needed
]
Organized as a
brotherhood
or
guild
, the Victual Brothers' main naval enemy in 1392 was the powerful Hanseatic town of
Lubeck
, which supported Denmark in the war. Apart from Lubeck, the
Hanseatic League
initially supported the Victual Brothers. Most of the Hanseatic towns had no desire for a victory for Denmark, with its strategic location for control of the seaways. For several years from 1392, the Victual Brothers were a strong power in the
Baltic Sea
. They had safe harbours in the cities of
Rostock
,
Ribnitz
,
Wismar
and
Stralsund
. They soon
[
when?
]
turned to open
piracy
and coastal plunder.
[15]
[
verification needed
]
In 1393, they captured the town of
Bergen
for the first time (plundering it again in 1429), proceeding in 1394 to
Malmo
and
Visby
.
[7]
They occupied parts of
Frisia
and
Schleswig
, and plundered
Turku
,
Vyborg
,
Styresholm
,
Korsholm
and Faxeholm castle at
Soderhamn
in
Halsingland
.
[15]
[16]
[
verification needed
]
At the climax of their power, the Victual Brothers occupied the island of
Gotland
, Sweden, in 1394 and set up their headquarters in
Visby
. They also operated from the
Turku archipelago
. Knut Bosson, who was the chief of
Turku Castle
from 1395 to 1398, had allied himself with the people of Mecklenburg, and so he supported the hijacking
[
clarification needed
]
activities of the Victual Brothers and allowed them to operate in the area.
[17]
[16]
[
verification needed
]
Maritime trade in the Baltic Sea virtually collapsed, and the herring industry suffered from their depredations. Queen Margaret turned to King
Richard II of England
and sought to charter English ships to combat the pirates. From 1395 onwards, Queen Margaret gained the upper hand politically. She united Denmark, Sweden and
Norway
and formed the
Kalmar Union
. The Hanseatic League was forced to cooperate with her.
[10]
[18]
[
verification needed
]
Decline
[
edit
]
King Albert of Sweden
conceded
Gotland
to the allied
Teutonic Order
as a
pledge
, similar to a
fiefdom
. This was followed by an invasion led by
Konrad von Jungingen
, the Grand Master of the Order, who conquered the island in 1398?destroying Visby and driving the Victual Brothers out of Gotland.
[10]
[
verification needed
]
After the Victual Brothers' expulsion from Gotland in 1398, the Hanseatic League tried repeatedly but unsuccessfully to completely control the Baltic Sea.
[
citation needed
]
Records indicate that some of the band were executed in Hamburg.
[3]
Many remained at sea, after losing influence in the
Gulf of Bothnia
, the
Gulf of Finland
and Gotland, operating instead from the
Schlei
, the mouth of the river
Ems
, and other locations in
Friesland
.
[
citation needed
]
Likedeelers
[
edit
]
| The factual accuracy of part of this article is
disputed
.
The dispute is about '
the meaning of the Section title term?whether it is synonymous with Victual/Vitalien Borthers, or a distinct successor group
(see Meier, quotes therein, and 01-22 edit summaries)
.
Please help to ensure that disputed statements are
reliably sourced
. See the relevant discussion on the
talk page
.
(
January 2022
)
(
Learn how and when to remove this message
)
|
Some component of, or successors to
[
citation needed
]
, the Victual Brothers came to be known in the written records by the name
Likedeelers
("equal sharers"),
[1]
: 147
the name's interpretation being either one of equal sharing of raiding booty among themselves,
[
citation needed
]
or?in proposed distinction to the Victual Brothers pirate band?of sharing booty with the poor of the coastal population.
[
dubious
–
discuss
]
[
citation needed
]
[19]
[20]
They expanded their activities into the
North Sea
and along the
Atlantic
coastline, raiding
Brabant
and France and striking as far south as Spain.
[
citation needed
]
Their most famous leader of the Likedeelers was
Klaus Stortebeker
,
[
citation needed
]
born in 1360 in
Wismar
,
[3]
a
ship captain
who first appears in the record as a Victual Brother around 1394.
[
citation needed
]
The
Low German
word
Stortebeker
means "down the beakerful", a name he is alleged
[
weasel words
]
to have been given because could swallow four liters of beer without taking the beaker from his mouth, though the name is possibly just a
surname
of Wismar.
[
original research?
]
[
citation needed
]
In 1401, the
Hamburg
warship
Die Bunte Kuh
, leading a small
fleet
under Commander
Simon of Utrecht
, caught up with Stortebeker's forces near
Heligoland
. After a 3-day running battle, Stortebeker and some of his followers were overpowered, trapped and executed.
[
citation needed
]
Contrary to this account, Historian Jorgen Bracker of Hamburg's Municipal Museum notes that "[w]hile… other Vitalien Brothers were executed in Hamburg, 'there's no evidence that Stortebeker was among them'",
[3]
though artistic renderings of the Stortebeker execution, from that city, exist.
[
citation needed
]
Other Likedeelers, sans their leader, continued their piracy and coastal raiding until about 1440, with maritime trade in both the North and Baltic Seas remaining in serious danger of attack.
[
citation needed
]
See also
[
edit
]
References and notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
Meier, Dirk (2006).
Seafarers, Merchants and Pirates in the Middle Ages
. Translated by McGeoch, Angus. Woodbridge, Suffolk, England: Boydell Press.
ISBN
9781843832379
. Retrieved
January 28,
2022
.
[p. 146] During the Hundred Years' war… people who provisioned the army were called
vitailleurs
. In 1394, when Mecklenburg was at war with Denmark, the Dukes of Mecklenburg hired pirates (known as
Vitalienbruder
) whose job was to maintain a supply of food for the city of Stockholm, under siege by the Danes. … [ p. 146f] The ducal house of Mecklenburg was unable to equip a navy… but instead sought allies among the commercial ship-owners in what became known as the Kaperkrieg, or Privateers' War, against Denmark… the first time in the history of Nordic hostilities that use had been made of pirates. The Chronicle of Lubeck, by the scribe Detmar [says]: 'In the same year, when the ships from Rostock and Wismar were setting sail for Stockholm under Duke Johann, the men from [those towns] made a proclamation that whosoever wished to try his luck as a freebooter at his own expense, in order to harm the realms of Denmark and Norway, should assemble… to be given 'letters-of-marque'… which gave them leave freely to share out, exchange, and sell the plundered goods. The Prince ordered that the same be proclaimed, and that the ports of Ribnitz and Golwitz should be opened for all… who wished to harm those aforementioned realms.' In this way, the nobility of Mecklenburg entered into a compact with bands of roving and unorganised pirates… The poverty of some of the minor aristocracy may well have encouraged them to support and indeed join the pirates, in the hope of sharing some of ther booty… [p. 147] The Vitalienbruder became a new and unpredictable power, no longer beholden to anyone. In the written sources, we not only find the name '
Vitalienbruder
', but also '
Likedeeler
' ('equal sharers'). Yet the risks the pirates took were not small.
Note, the sole reference to
Likedeelers
in this book is in this quotation. In the rest of the book, only
Vitalienbruder
is used for the band.
- ^
a
b
c
Konstam, Angus (2011).
Piracy?The Complete History from 1300 BC to the Present Day
. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 27?28.
ISBN
9780762768356
. Retrieved
January 28,
2022
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
Stegen, Gudrun (August 23, 2011). Bowen, Kate (ed.).
"Germany's Most Famous Pirate a Cross Between Robin Hood [
sic
], Odysseus"
.
Deutsche Welle/DW.com
. Retrieved
January 28,
2022
.
…Stortebeker was born in Wismar in 1360, and hooked up with the Vitalien Brothers, a pirate syndicate… regularly commissioned by various clients to rob ships in the Baltic Sea. "Customers" ranged from the Danish queen to the rulers of Mecklenburg to the chieftains of East Frisia. / Historian Jorgen Bracker [of Hamburg's Municipal Museum] doesn't see anything heroic in thievery… and [he] is one of the few experts in all things Stortebeker. / 'These Vitalien Brothers divided up all their loot among themselves… People should surrender the notion that these men were willing to give up any of their booty'… Either way, people love a legend… [and] Storteneker's death is… part of that legend… While the other Vitalien Brothers were executed in Hamburg, 'there's no evidence that Stortebeker was among them,' Bracker said.
Note, the
DW.com
headline chosen for this article, with its reference to the altruistic thief
Robin Hood
, appears to contradict the actual content of the article.
- ^
Rohmann, G. (2017). Did the activity of the ‘Vitalian Brethren’ prevent trade in the Baltic area? In M. Balard & C. Buchet (Eds.), The Sea in History - The Medieval World (NED-New edition, pp. 585?594). Boydell & Brewer.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7722/j.ctt1kgqt6m.56
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
Note, the following is a children's source.
Bachmann, Birgit; Muller, Stefan R. (2002).
"Piraten in Norddeutschland [Pirates in North Germany]"
.
Blinde-Kuh.de
(in German). p. 3. Archived from
the original
on February 10, 2013.
Anfang 1389 herrschte Danemark fast schon uber ganz Schweden, nur Stockholm, eine Stadt hanseatischer Kaufleute, leistete noch Widerstand. Die Danen versuchten Stockholm zu gewinnen, in dem sie die Stadt belagerten und so die Bevolkerung immer weniger Lebensmittel erhielt. Die mecklenburgischen Stadte Rostock und Wismar stellten Kaperbriefe fur alle aus, die auf eigene Faust versuchten, dem danischen Reich zu schaden, wann immer es ging, um Stockholm zu helfen. So riefen diese Hansestadte ihre alten Feinde um Hilfe. Und diese ließen nicht lange auf sich warten. Als Verbundete, genannt die
Vitalienbruder
, weil sie Lebensmittel nach Stockholm durch die danischen Linien brachten, gelang es den Piraten, die danische Blockade zu brechen. Stockholm war wieder frei, Konigin Margarete zog ihre Truppen zuruck und ein Jahr spater kam es wieder einmal zum Frieden. / Eigentlich sollten sich auch die Freibeuter wieder auflosen, da der Krieg ja nun zu Ende war, aber das taten sie nicht. Auf der Insel Gotland, in deren Hauptstadt Visby, schlugen sie ihr Hauptquartier auf. In dieser Zeit waren Stortebeker und Michael Godeke noch keine Kommandanten bei den Freibeutern, dies waren vorwiegend Adlige aus Mecklenburg.
- ^
For a machine translation of the German quote in the Bachmann & Muller (2002) citation, see below.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
Salvesen, Helge. "Vitaliebrødrene [Vitalie Brothers]". In Opsahl, Erik (ed.).
Store norske leksikon [Large Norwegian Encyclopedia]
(in Norwegian).
Trondheim, Norway
: Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim
. Retrieved
January 28,
2022
.
[The Vitalie Brothers… were about 1400… pirates who operated specifically in the Baltic Sea. / The name was especially used about hijackers from northern German ports who tried to bring food (victuals) to Albrecht of Mecklenburg, who was besieged in Stockholm by Queen Margrethe's army in 1389. The hijackers captured Bergen in 1393 and Malmo and Visby in 1394. / An agreement between Margret[h]e and Albrecht in 1395 led to Albrecht being set free and Stockholm pledged to the Hanseatic League. This deprived the Vitalie [B]rothers of their foundation, but they continued with piracy and plundered Bergen as late as 1429.]
For the machine translation of this page that was used for the chapter and title translations, see
this link.
- ^
The point at which the transition from privateers to pirates occurred is not clear from sources, and some sources use the terms seemingly interchangeably. Hence, the children's source Bachmann & Muller (2002) refers to the group, at its advent, when it involved nobility and was employed by Queen
Margaret
to provision Stockholm, as "pirates". See this source, cited above.
- ^
See, for instance, Meier, p. 146: "The ducal house of Mecklenburg was unable to equip a navy of its own…".
- ^
a
b
c
Schulzke, Marion (2001). Dombrowsky, Rainer (ed.).
"Die Vitalienbruder"
.
jadu.de
[Das Internet-Magazin und E-Bibliothek]
(in German). Berlin, Germany: JaDu?Internetworld. Archived from
the original
on February 4, 2005.
- ^
The following is a machine translation of the German quote from Bachmann & Muller (2002): "At the beginning of 1389, Denmark ruled almost all of Sweden, with only Stockholm, a city of Hanseatic merchants, still resisting. The Danes tried to win Stockholm by besieging the city and so the population received less and less food. The Mecklenburg cities of Rostock and Wismar issued letters of marque to anyone who tried to harm the Danish Empire on their own initiative whenever they could to help Stockholm. So these Hanseatic cities called their old enemies for help. And the[y] were not long in coming. As allies, dubbed the
[Vitalienbruder]
because they brought food to Stockholm through the Danish lines, the pirates managed to break the Danish blockade. Stockholm was free again, Queen Margarete withdrew her troops and a year later peace was restored. / The buccaneers were supposed to disband, since the war was over, but they didn't. They set up their headquarters on the island of Gotland, in the capital Visby. At this time, [Klaus] Stortebeker and Michael Godeke were not yet commanders of the privateers, these were mainly nobles from Mecklenburg."
Emphases added
; translation by Google Translate, January 28, 2022.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Bjørkvik, Halvard (February 13, 2009). "Dronning / Margrete Valdemarsdatter [Queen Margrete Valdemarsdatter,
Margaret I of Denmark
]". In Bolstad, Erik (ed.).
Norsk biografisk leksikon [Norwegian biographical lexicon]
(in Norwegian).
Trondheim, Norway
: Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim
. Retrieved
January 28,
2022
.
- ^
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia (January 2022).
"Hundred Years' War"
.
Encyclopedia Britannica
. Chicago, Ill.: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc
. Retrieved
January 28,
2022
.
- ^
See, for instance, Meier, p. 146: "The ducal house of Mecklenburg was unable to equip a navy of its own…".
- ^
a
b
Engstrom, S. (1921).
"Vitalianer"
. In Westrin, Th. (ed.).
Nordisk familjebok: Konversationslexicon och Realencyklopedi [Nordic Family Book: Conversation Dictionary and Real Encyclopaedia]
(in Norwegian). Vol. 32 (Uggleupplagan [Owl (2nd)] ed.).
Stockholm, Sweden
: Nordisk Familjeboks Forlags AB. pp. 859?861
. Retrieved
January 28,
2022
.
- ^
a
b
Suikkari, Riikka (19 August 2022).
"Pahamaineinen merirosvosakki heratti keskiajalla kauhua Suomen rannikolla ? Katso kartasta, missa vitaaliveljet ryostelivat ja majailivat"
.
Yle
(in Finnish)
. Retrieved
21 August
2022
.
- ^
Harjula, Janne; Hukantaival, Sonja; Immonen, Visa; Ratilainen, Tanja; Salonen, Kirsi (2018).
Koroinen: Suomen Ensimmainen Kirkollinen Keskus
. Turun Historiallinen Arkisto (in Finnish). Vol. 71. Turku, Finland: Turun Historiallinen Yhdistys [Turku Historical Society]. p. 17.
ISBN
9789527045084
.
ISSN
0085-7440
.
- ^
Jahnig, Bernhart (1980).
"Konrad von Jungingen"
.
Neue Deutsche Biographie
(in German).
12
: 517?518 – via
deutsche-biographie.de
.
- ^
See Meier (2006),
op.cit.
, where the term
Vitalienbruder
is used throughout the book, and
Likedeeler
only appears once, seemingly as a synonym (p. 147).
- ^
But see Stegen & Bowen (2011). There, the Likedeelers are not specifically mentioned, but the case is made, in the context of a museum installation about Klaus Stortebeker, that the pirates he associated with were not charitably inclined.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Bachmann, Birgit; Muller, Stefan R. (2002).
"Piraten in Norddeutschland [Pirates in North Germany]"
.
Blinde-Kuh.de
(in German). p. 3. Archived from
the original
on February 10, 2013.
- Meier, Dirk (2006).
Seafarers, Merchants and Pirates in the Middle Ages
. Translated by McGeoch, Angus. Woodbridge, Suffolk, England: Boydell Press.
ISBN
9781843832379
. Retrieved
January 28,
2022
.
The best English source?a German-English translation?that appears in this article as of January 2022; a book-length treatment that includes extensive information on the title subject.
- Konstam, Angus (2011).
Piracy?The Complete History from 1300 BC to the Present Day
. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 27?28.
ISBN
9780762768356
. Retrieved
January 28,
2022
.
External links
[
edit
]