Everything about The Victual Brothers totally explained
The
Victual Brothers resp.
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 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.
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 the Victual Brothers engaged in
sea-war-activities 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 bring needed supplies to the besieged town of Stockholm.
The Victual Brothers were organised as a brotherhood or
guild and attracted men from all over Europe. 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 at first encouraged the Victual Brothers. Most of the Hanseatic towns had no desire to see Denmark victorious, since its location was strategic for the control 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. However, they soon 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.
At the climax of their power, the Victual Brothers occupied
Gotland in
1394 and set up their headquarters in
Visby. Baltic Sea maritime trade virtually collapsed, and the herring industry suffered from their depredations. Queen Margaret even turned to King
Richard II seeking to charter 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. Thus, the
Hanseatic League was forced to cooperate with her, foreshadowing its eventual decline.
At the same time, the Victual Brothers impartially raided 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.
Likedeelers, the successors of the Victual Brothers
After the Victual Brothers' defeat and expulsion from Gotland in 1398, the Hanseatic League tried repeatedly to end the anarchy in the Baltic Sea, but with little luck. 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 from other locations in
Friesland. The successors of the Victual Brothers gave themselves the name
Likedeelers, which means to share in equal parts, which they even did 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 striking as far south as
Spain.
Their most famous leader was Captain
Störtebeker. He got his name allegedly 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 in English:
"Down the drink in the beaker". In
1401 the
Hamburg warship
Brindled Cow, leading a small
fleet under Commander
Simon of Utrecht, caught up with Störtebeker's forces near
Heligoland. After three days of running battle, Störtebeker and his crew were finally overpowered and trapped by means of a trick.
Yet this wasn't the end of piracy and coastal raiding by the Likedeelers. In
1429, 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.
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