Term
Victualbrüder
also known as Victual Brothers, Vitalienbrüder
Etymology
Middle Low German Vitalienbr\xC3\xBCder, “brothers of provisions”; the “victuals” were the supplies they ran through the Danish blockade to relieve besieged Stockholm in 1392–1395.
Definition
The Hanseatic-era pirate fraternity originally raised in 1392 as a licensed Mecklenburg privateering fleet to provision Stockholm during the Danish queen Margaret I’s siege. The fleet continued operating piratically against Hanseatic League shipping after the political circumstances that had created it dissolved, and reorganised after their expulsion from Gotland in 1398 as the Likedeeler. The Hamburg suppression campaign of 1401 effectively ended the period as one of organised Baltic piracy.
