Victual Brothers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Victual Brothers (the Vitalians or Vitalian Brotherhood) were a companionship of privateers who later turned to piracy. They were hired in 1392 by the Dukes of Mecklenburg to fight against Denmark, because Queen Margaret I of Denmark had imprisoned Albert of Mecklenburg and his son in order to subdue the Kingdom of Sweden. Albert had been King of Sweden since 1364 and Duke of Mecklenburg since 1383.

Wall painting in Bunge church, Gotland, ca. 1405, one of the few contemporary representations of the Victual Brothers; significantly, the clothing and weaponry to identify the pirates is Gothic.^{[citation needed]}

Guild of the Victual Brothers

While Queen Margaret and Albert of Mecklenburg were battling for Scandinavian supremacy and Margaret's forces were besieging Stockholm, privateers named the Victual Brothers engaged in war at sea and shipped food to keep the city supplied. The name Victual Brothers is derived from the Latin word "victualia" — meaning provisions — and refers to their first mission, which was to supply food to the besieged city of Stockholm.

The Victual Brothers were organised as a brotherhood or guild, and attracted men from all over Europe^{[citation needed]}. Their main naval enemy in 1392 was the powerful Hanseatic town of Lübeck, which supported Denmark in the war. Apart from Lübeck, 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 turned to open piracy and coastal plunder. In 1393 they sacked the town of Bergen for the first time and in 1394 they conquered Malmö. They also plundered Turku, Vyborg, Faxeholm, Styresholm and Korsholm and occupied parts of Frisia and Schleswig.

At the climax of their power, the Victual Brothers occupied Gotland in 1394 and set up their headquarters in Visby. Maritime trade in the Baltic Sea virtually collapsed, and the herring industry suffered from their depredations. Queen Margaret even 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, foreshadowing its eventual decline.

At the same time, the Victual Brothers were impartially raiding everyone's shipping. Their famous battle cry 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). An invasion army under Konrad von Jungingen, the Grand Master of the Order, conquered the island in 1398, destroying Visby and driving the Victual Brothers out of Gotland.

The summary execution of Störtebeker, 1401; tinted woodcut tby Nicolaus Sauer, Hamburg, 1701 (Hamburger Staatsarchiv)

Likedeelers, the successors of the Victual Brothers

After the Victual Brothers' defeat and expulsion from Gotland in 1398, the Hanseatic League tried repeatedly but unsuccessfully to completely control the Baltic Sea. Many Victual Brothers still 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 other locations in Friesland. The successors to the Victual Brothers gave themselves the name Likedeelers ("equal sharers"): they shared with the poor coastal population. They expanded their activities into the North Sea and along the Atlantic coastline, raiding Brabant and France and striking as far south as Spain.

Their most famous leader was Captain Klaus Störtebeker. He allegedly got his name because he could swallow four litres of beer without taking the beaker from his mouth. However, it might simply be a family name from Wismar. The Low German word Störtebeker means "Down the beakerful". In 1401 the Hamburg warship Bunte Kuh, leading a small fleet under Commander Simon of Utrecht, caught up with Störtebeker's forces near Heligoland. After three days' running battle, Störtebeker and his crew were finally overpowered and trapped by means of a trick.

However this was not the end of piracy and coastal raiding by the Likedeelers. In 1429, some 28 years after the execution of Störtebeker, other members 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 both the North Sea and the Baltic Sea was seriously in danger of attack by the Likedeelers.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vitalienbrüder.

External links

Agreement on reparations for injuries and damages by vitalians (made between King Henry IV of England and the Hanseatic League)
Vitalienbrüder (in German)

v t e Piracy

Historical times	1610s 1620s 1630s 1640s 1650s 1660s 1670s 1680s

Modern times	1995 1996 1998 1999 2000 21st century

Types of pirate	Pirates Privateers Buccaneers Corsairs Sindhi corsairs Timber pirate River pirate Caribbean Pirates Barbary pirates Moro Pirates Wōkòu Vikings Ushkuiniks Narentines Cilician pirates Baltic Slavic pirates Uskoks Cossack pirates Sea Beggars Sea Dogs Freebooters

Areas	Piracy in the Caribbean Piracy on Lake Nicaragua Piracy in the British Virgin Islands Piracy in the Strait of Malacca Piracy in Somalia Piracy on Falcon Lake Anglo-Turkish piracy Port Royal Tortuga Saint-Malo Barbary Coast Lundy Lagos Salé Piracy in Nigeria Piracy in Indonesia Barataria Bay

Famous pirates	Bartholomew Roberts Hendrick Lucifer Hayreddin Barbarossa Blackbeard Stede Bonnet Anne Bonny Abshir Boyah Laurens de Graaf Michel de Grammont Calico Jack Alexandre Exquemelin William Kidd Edward Low Redbeard William Dampier Black Caesar Henri Caesar Roberto Cofresí Jean Lafitte Henry Morgan François l'Olonnais Henry Strangways José Gaspar Charles Gibbs Benito de Soto Diabolito Pedro Gilbert Mansel Alcantra Hippolyte de Bouchard Samuel Hall Lord Nathaniel Gordon Albert W. Hicks Eli Boggs Bully Hayes Rahmah ibn Jabir al-Jalahimah Louis-Michel Aury Shirahama Kenki John Newland Maffitt Joseph Baker Joseph Barss Jørgen Jørgensen Vincent Gambi Dominique You Pierre Lafitte John Hawkins Peter Easton Moses Cohen Henriques Piet Pieterszoon Hein Charlotte de Berry Samuel Bellamy Benjamin Hornigold Samuel Mason Henry Every Gan Ning Liang Dao Ming Wang Zhi Limahong Zheng Zhilong Zheng Jing Cai Qian Cheung Po Tsai Ching Shih Shap Ng-tsai Chui A-poo Lai Choi San Fuma Kotaro

Categories	Pirates By nationality Barbary pirates Female pirates

Pirate ships	Adventure Galley Fancy Ganj-i-Sawai Queen Anne's Revenge Quedagh Merchant Whydah Gally Marquis of Havana Ambrose Light York

Pirate hunters	Pedro Menéndez de Avilés Angelo Emo Richard Avery Hornsby Robert Maynard Chaloner Ogle Pompey Woodes Rogers David Porter James Brooke

Pirate battles and incidents	Turkish Abductions Chepo Expedition Battle of Mandab Strait Blockade of Charleston Battle of Cape Fear River Battle of Ocracoke Inlet Capture of the William Battle of Cape Lopez Capture of the Fancy Persian Gulf Campaign Battle of New Orleans Anti-Piracy in the Aegean Anti-Piracy in the West Indies Capture of the Bravo Action of 9 November 1822 Capture of the El Mosquito Battle of Doro Passage Falklands Expedition Great Lakes Patrol Balanguingui Expedition Battle of Tysami Battle of Tonkin River Battle of Nam Quan Battle of Ty-ho Bay Battle of the Leotung Battle of Fatshan Creek Antelope Incident North Star Affair Battle off Mukah Salvador Pirates Battle of Boca Teacapan Capture of the Ambrose Light Irene Incident Operation Enduring Freedom – HOA Action of 18 March 2006 Action of 3 June 2007 Action of 28 October 2007 Operation Atalanta Action of 16 September 2008 Action of 11 November 2008 Action of 9 April 2009 Maersk Alabama hijacking Operation Ocean Shield Action of 25 March 2010 Action of 1 April 2010 Action of 30 March 2010 Action of 5 April 2010 Action of 6 May 2010 Operation Dawn of Gulf of Aden Operation Dawn 9: Gulf of Aden Beluga Nomination Incident Battle off Minicoy Island Quest Incident

Slave trade	African slave trade Atlantic slave trade Arab slave trade Barbary slave trade Blockade of Africa African Slave Trade Patrol Capture of the Providentia Capture of the Presidente Capture of the El Almirante Capture of the Marinerito Capture of the Veloz Passagera Capture of the Brillante Amistad Incident Capture of the Emanuela

Fictional pirates	Tom Ayrton Hector Barbossa Captain Blood Captain Crook Captain Flint Captain Hook Don Karnage Monkey D. Luffy Nami Captain Nemo Captain Pugwash Red Rackham Captain Sabertooth Captain Stingaree Sandokan Long John Silver Jack Sparrow Roronoa Zoro

Miscellaneous	Truce of Ratisbon Piracy Act 1698 Piracy Act 1717 Piracy Act 1837 Paris Declaration Respecting Maritime Law Golden Age of Piracy Jolly Roger Walking the plank Treasure map Buried treasure Pirate booty Marooning Pirate code Pirate utopia Victual Brothers Pirate Round Libertatia Sack of Baltimore A General History of the Pyrates Mutiny Pegleg Eyepatch Letter of marque Davy Jones' Locker Space pirate

Lists	Pirates Privateers Timeline of piracy Years in piracy Pirate films Women in piracy Pirates in fiction Pirates in popular culture List of ships attacked by Somali pirates

Literature	Treasure Island Facing the Flag On Stranger Tides Castaways of the Flying Dutchman The Angel's Command Voyage of Slaves Pirate Latitudes

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.