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Reference to the 19 foot Feldschlange gun recovered from Storebekcer
The Frisan / Saxon peasant republic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dithmarschen
https://books.google.com/books/about/Dithmarschen.html?id=3TFoAAAAMAAJ
Eddie Izzard tries to speak Old English in Friesland
The walls of Visby, wrecked in 1361
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Visby_Wall.jpg
We need to explore all these guys next time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_privateers
and then do the Anglo Hanseatic War!
The previous entry was from page 79, this is page 80.
“The Hansa tried to bring pressure to bear on Rostock and Wismar to stop themsheltering the pirates, but the two towns made the loyalty due to their overlord an excuse for refusing to take any action against the pirates or even to return goods which had been looted. The insecurity at sea was such that the [Hanseatic] diet of 1392 had to order a suspension of all trade with Skania for a period of three years. As a result, according to Detmar, the price of herring rose, in Prussia to three times the previous level and in Frankfurt ten times. Lübeck and Stralsund fought a hard battle with the pirates simultaneously. But if the seaways were to be made safe the co-operation of the Teutonic Order was indispensable. However the Grand Master, Conrad von Jungingen, was dreaming of further territorial expansion in the Baltic; he intended to profit by the war and did not choose to further the cause of Denmark.
A great step forward was finally achieved in 1395 when the Hansa induced the belligerents to accept its mediation. By the peace of Skanör Albert was set free, and Stockholm was handed over to a group of seven Hansa towns – Wendish, Prussian and Livonian – to be ceded to [Queen] Margaret [of Denmark] after three years against a ransom of 60,000 marks, which however was never paid. This treaty ensured Margaret’s triumph over her enemies. In 1397 she caused a proclamation to be made at Kalmar establishing the union of the three Scandinavian kingdoms under her grand-nephew, Eric of Pomerania. This union was to remain in existence, at least in theory, for more than a hundred years. A year later, in 1398, the queen made a triumphal entry into Stockholm, after confirming the Hanseatic privileges in all three kingdoms.
The Peace of Skanör removed the justification for piracy, but it remained rampant in the area around Gotland and would have persisted even longer if the Grand Master had not at least decided to co-operate with the Hansa in putting a stop to it. He may have been afraid that if he refrained from doing so he would lose to Denmark all the benefits of pacification. So he assembled 84 ships and 4,000 men at Danzig, and captured Visby without difficulty. The combined fleets of Lübeck and the Prussian towns then pursued the pirates so energetically that by 1400 the Baltic was entirely free of them.
However most of the Vitalienbrüder had merely moved on to another theater of operations. They took refuge in the North Sea, where they met with a friendly reception from the count of Oldenburg and the minor lords of east Frisia. Bremen and Hamburg only got the better of them by a considerable effort, but in 1400 the pirates suffered a serious defeat in Frisia, and in the following year the last of their leaders, Godeke Michels and Klaus Störtebecker, were captured and beheaded in Hamburg, together with hundreds of their companions, whose heads weere displayed to the people.”
[this is where the Chronicles of Three Free cities excerpts up above take over for a minute]
This is from Philippe Dollinger, “The German Hansa” 1970. Dollinger is basically the top 20th Century expert on the Hanseatic League. This first part is kind of the origin-story of the Victual Brothers:
“In 1389, when a rebellion of the Swedish nobility drove Albert [of Mecklenburg] from his throne and put him in prison, she [Queen Margaret of Denamrk] became also queen of Sweden. Stockholm, however, remained loyal to Albert, thanks to the support of the German population of the town.
In their almost desperate situation the Mecklenburgers decided to wage the war of piracy with added vigour. In a sensational proclamation they promised to open their ports ‘to all those who at their own risk would got to sea to harm the kingdom of Denmark‘. The appeal was highly successful. Knights, townsfolk, peasants and gallows-birds hastened to enlist under the leadership of the Mecklenburg nobility. Rostock and Wismar became pirate bases, where ships were armedand equipped, raids planned and booty safely stored and divided up. Piracy soon made navigation almost impossible in the Baltic, for the corsairs did not confine their attacks to Danish ships. The Hansa not only suffered material loss in the war, but was once again torn by an internal crisis, when two of the Wendish towns, through self-interest and loyalty to their overlord, dissociated themselves from the common cause.
It was in this period that pirates were first called Vitalienbrüder, a name which has remained associated with them. It is of French origin. At the beginning of the Hundred Years War, the vitalleurs were the soldiers responsible for supplying the armies, which they eventually did by brigandage pure and simple. At seat the name was given to ships carrying supplies to fleets and ports, and finally it reached the Baltic, where it became synonymous with pirate.
Piracy enabled the Mecklenburgers to win some resounding successes. They were able to succour the garrison of Stockholm on several occasions, to carry out devastating raids along the Danish and Norwegian coasts, and to inflict serious losses on the Danish fleet. In 1391 the Mecklenburgers captured Bornholm, Visby, which provided them with an excellent base for their operations, Abo, Viborg, and various strongholds in Finland. Two years later Bergen was sacked, and its inhabitants took an oath of loyalty to Albert of Sweden. In the following year Malmö too was pillaged.”
