The Victual Brothers: Pirates of the Baltic
The Victual Brothers, also known as the Likedeeler (the equal sharers), were a band of privateers who seized the island of Gotland in the 1390s and used it as a base to prey on Hanseatic shipping. The Victual Brothers were, in many ways, the most formidable enemies the League had ever faced, and the war against them was the most difficult of the League’s military campaigns.
Origins
The Victual Brothers had emerged in the late fourteenth century, in the aftermath of the war of 1367–70 against the king of Denmark. The war had left a number of German mercenaries without employment, and the mercenaries had banded together to form a pirate fleet. The fleet called itself the Likedeeler, the equal sharers, and the fleet’s members shared equally in the proceeds of piracy. The fleet was, in many ways, a sort of pirate co-operative, and the fleet was remarkably successful.
A note on the name: “Victual Brothers” is an English translation of Vitalienbrüder, a German term whose etymology is uncertain. The most common explanation is that the brothers provisioned (vitalis = provisions) the Stockholm castle during a siege in 1389; another theory links it to the English word “victual.” The Likedeeler (“equal sharers”) name is a self-designation, used by the pirates themselves to emphasise their egalitarian sharing arrangements.
Gotland
The Victual Brothers’ principal base was the island of Gotland, in the middle of the Baltic, and the island’s principal town, Visby, was one of the most important commercial centres of the Baltic. The Victual Brothers seized the island in 1394, and the Victual Brothers used the island as a base from which to prey on Hanseatic shipping. The Victual Brothers also allied themselves with the Teutonic Order, which was at war with the Polish-Lithuanian crown, and the Victual Brothers became, in effect, the naval arm of the Teutonic Order.
Visby at this period was in a slow decline: the great days of the Gutland pepper trade and the Gotland-far-Gotland exchange were over, and the city was a shadow of its 13th-century self. The Victual Brothers’ capture of the city was, in part, a symptom of Visby’s decline — a city that could not defend itself against a small pirate fleet.
The League’s response
The League’s response to the Victual Brothers was, in the first instance, economic. The League closed the markets of all member cities to the merchants of the Teutonic Order, and the embargo put substantial pressure on the Order. The embargo was, however, not enough to dislodge the Victual Brothers, and the League decided to use force.
The League’s fleet sailed to Gotland in 1398, and the League’s fleet blockaded the island. The League’s fleet then launched an assault on the island, and the assault was successful. The Victual Brothers were driven from the island, and the island was returned to the Teutonic Order. The Victual Brothers’ principal leaders were captured and executed, and the rest of the Victual Brothers scattered across the Baltic.
A costly victory
The war against the Victual Brothers was a major victory for the League, and the war demonstrated the League’s ability to project military power over long distances. The war also confirmed the League’s control of the Baltic, and the war was an important milestone in the League’s history. The war was, however, also a costly victory, and the war’s costs were one of the factors that contributed to the League’s financial difficulties in the early fifteenth century.
A useful note: the war of 1398 was one of the last great Hanseatic naval victories. After 1398, the League’s military power began to decline relative to the rising power of Denmark and, later, the Burgundians and the Dutch. The Victual Brothers war is, in this sense, the last great success of an earlier era of Hanseatic military power.