Victual Brothers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Victual Brothers resp. Vitalians or Vitalian Brotherhood (sv. fetaliebröder; vitaliebröder, de. Vitalienbrüder, pl. bracia witalijscy) were a companionship of privateers. They were hired in 1392 by the Dukes of Mecklenburg to fight against Denmark, because the Danish Queen Margaret I had imprisoned Albrecht of Mecklenburg and his son to subdue the kingdom of Sweden. Albrecht was King of Sweden since 1364 and Duke of Mecklenburg since 1383.

[edit] Guild of the Victual Brothers

When Queen Margaret and Albrecht of Mecklenburg were battling for Scandinavian supremacy and Margaret's forces had besieged Stockholm, privateers named Victual Brothers acceded sea-war-activities and the shipping of goods to keep the city supplied with food. The name Victual Brothers is derivated from the Latin word "victualia" — meaning provisions — and refers to their first mission, which was to bring supplies to the besieged town of Stockholm.

Victual Brothers were organised as a brotherhood or guild and attracted people from all over Europe. Their main naval enemy in 1392 was the powerful Hanseatic town of Lübeck, which supported Denmark. Apart from Lübeck, the Hanseatic League encouraged the Victual Brothers at first. Most of the Hanseatic towns had no desire to see Denmark victorious, because its location was strategic for the defence of the seaways. For several years from 1392 on the Victual Brothers were a strong power to be reckoned with in the Baltic Sea. They had safe harbours in the cities of Rostock, Ribnitz, Wismar and Stralsund. Soon they went their own way, more or less turning to open piracy and coast robbery. In 1393 they sacked the town of Bergen for the first time and in 1394 they conquered Malmö. They also plundered Åbo, Vyborg, Faxeholm, Styresholm and Korsholm and occupied parts of Frisia and Schleswig for some time.

At the climax of their power the Victual Brothers occupied Gotland in 1394 to set up a stronghold headquarters on their own in Visby. On the whole Baltic Sea maritime-trade collapsed and the herring industry suffered from their depredations. Queen Margaret even turned to King Richard II seeking to charter some English ships to combat the pirates. From 1395 on Queen Margaret gained the upper hand politically. She united Denmark, Sweden and Norway and formed the Kalmar Union. Therefore the Hanseatic League was forced to cooperate with her, evading its eventual decline. At the same time the Victual Brothers went on impartially raiding everyone. Their famous shibboleth was "God's friends and the whole world's enemies." Queen Margaret and King Albert of Sweden conceded Gotland to the allied Teutonic Order as a pledge (similar to a fiefdom). The two rulers and the Hanseatic League expected that the Teutonic Knights would challenge the Victual Brothers on Gotland island to wipe them out and to destroy their fortified sanctuary. An invasion army under Konrad von Jungingen, the Grand Master of the Order, conquered the island in 1398, destroyed Visby and drove the Victual Brothers out of Gotland.

[edit] Likedeelers, the successors of the Victual Brothers

Cog Brindled Cow

After the Victual Brothers's expulsion from Gotland in 1398 the Hanseatic League tried repeatedly to end anarchy in the Baltic Sea, but with little luck. Many discharged Victual Brothers remained at sea. When they lost their influence in the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland and Gotland, they operated from the Schlei, the mouth of the river Ems and from other locations in Friesland. The successors of the Victual Brothers gave themselves the name Likedeelers, which means to share in equal parts, also with the poor population along the coast. They expanded their field of activities into the North Sea and along the Atlantic coastline, raiding Brabant, France and as far south as Spain. Their most famous leader was captain Störtebeker. He got his name allegedly because he could swill down four litres of beer without taking the beaker from his mouth, but it might be a Family name from Wismar. The Low German word "Störtebeker" means in English: "Down the drink of the beaker". ("Störten" means the same as the Old English word "styrtan".) In 1401 the Hamburgian warship Brindled Cow, leading a small fleet under Commander Simon of Utrecht, caught up with Störtebeker's forces near Heligoland. After three days of battle, Störtebeker and his crew were overpowered and trapped by means of a trick. But this was not the end of piracy and coast robbery by the Likedeelers. In 1429, 28 years after the execution of Störtebeker, other descendents of the Victual Brothers attacked and plundered the city of Bergen in Norway, eventually burning it to the ground. Until about 1440 maritime-trade in the North- and the Baltic Sea was seriously in danger from raids by the Likedeelers.