The Victual Brothers, Vitalien Brothers or Vitalian Brethren (, ) were a loosely organized guild of 14th century Germanic privateers. They initially included Mecklenburg nobility, but later became an organisation of commoners, and later evolved into piracy. The guild had a clear historical effect in that era on maritime trade in the North and Baltic Seas. As privateers, they provisioned blockaded locations and otherwise served as a naval contingent on behalf of regional rulers, with clients that included the Queen of Denmark, and rulers of Mecklenburg and East Frisia. As their activities turned to piracy, the aims devolved to personal enrichment.
The pledge of their adopted base of Gotland to the Teutonic Order by King Albert of Sweden led to Gotland's invasion and the destruction of Visby by Konrad von Jungingen and the Order in 1398. This disruption, the executions of some of their band in Hamburg, and the Hanseatic League's continuing effort to control and make safe trade on the Baltic Sea led to changing maritime influences and a decline of the band.
The Victual Brothers band either were sometimes known or possibly became a somewhat distinct group known as the Likedeelers. Klaus Störtebeker was identified with both, as a subordinate in the Victual Brothers and as one in command in the Likedeelers.
Background
The Victual or Vitalien Brothers, names drawn from the German Vitalienbrüder and associated with the Norse vitaliebrødrene, were a loosely organized guild of privateers, later turning to piracy, who affected maritime trade during the 14th century in the North and Baltic Seas. The name Victual Brothers is derived indirectly from the Latin word for provisions, victualia, and makes reference to their first mission, which was to supply the besieged city of Stockholm. More directly and specifically, as Dirk Meier explains in his Seefahrer, Händler und Piraten im Mittelalter (Seafarers, Merchants and Pirates in the Middle Ages):During the Hundred Years' war [1337-1453], the people who provisioned the army were called vitailleurs. In 1394, when Mecklenburg was at war with Denmark, the Dukes of Mecklenburg hired pirates (known as Vitalienbrüder) whose job was to maintain a supply of food for the city of Stockholm, under siege by the Danes. As privateers, they served as a naval contingent on behalf of various regional rulers, work that included provisioning blockaded locations, with clients that included the Queen of Denmark, and rulers of Mecklenburg and East Frisia. Eventually, as the efforts became more thoroughly the efforts of commoners, and especially, as the band turned to piracy, their activities were aimed at their own enrichment, and not the provisioning of others. As historian Jörgen Bracker of Hamburg's Municipal Museum notes, the "Vitalien Brothers divided up all their loot among themselves", arguing that the notion that "these men were willing to give up any of their booty" was a false notion.
History of the Guild
During the 14th century, Queen Margaret I of Denmark was battling Albert of Mecklenburg for Scandinavian supremacy. Albert had been King of Sweden since 1364 and Duke of Mecklenburg since 1383. Queen Margaret imprisoned Albert and his son, Eric of Mecklenburg, in order to subdue the Kingdom of Sweden, and her forces began a siege of Stockholm. As the dukes of the House of Mecklenburg were without a navy, they sought instead to wage a Kaperkrieg (Privateers' War) against Denmark and in the relief of Stockholm.
To do so they engaged both the owners of commercial ships and the seafaring masses through issue of letters of marque to authorize the taking and disposal of plundered goods—letters that included the ports and towns of Rostock, Wismar, Ribnitz, and Golwitz. That, in the words of Dirk Meier, likely offered a way that the "nobility of Mecklenburg", through their "compact with bands of roving and unorganised pirates", could encourage some among the minor aristocrats of Mecklenburg to "support and indeed join the pirates, in the hope of sharing some of their booty". Through these letters, Mecklenburg was able to raise a force of Baltic Sea pirates that would rise to number in the order of 1,400 persons, a force that in 1392 was pressed into the fight against Denmark, including as blockade runners in the supply of Stockholm.