Battle of Visby

Battle of Visby
Date 27 July 1361 Location Visby Result Danish victory
Belligerents
Denmark	Gotland
Commanders and leaders
Valdemar IV of Denmark	unknown
Strength
unknown	unknown
Casualties and losses
300	~1,700

The Battle of Visby was fought in 1361 near the town of Visby on the island of Gotland, between the forces of the Danish king and the Gutnish country yeomen. The Danish forces were victorious.

Background

On 22 July 1361, King Valdemar IV of Denmark (Valdemar Atterdag) sent an army ashore on Gotland's west coast. The Gutes of Gotland paid taxes to the King of Sweden, though the population of Visby was diverse and included Russians, Danes and Germans. In 1280, the city of Visby had joined the Wendish City-alliance along with Riga, Lübeck, Tallinn and other large population centres from northern Europe, further separating Visby from the Gutnish countryside. Antagonism between city-dwellers and the Gutnish country yeomen heightened, and the latter were defeated in battle in 1288 despite the aid of knights from Estonia.

Battle

Picture of the Visby city wall, near the North gate. The main battle was fought within 300 metres of the city's fortifications.

The Danish troops moved towards Visby. The first day of the invasion, two minor skirmishes were fought on marshy ground between yeomen farmers and the army. The next day, from 800 to 1000 farmers were killed after massing for battle near Fjäle myr.

On 27 July a Gutnish yeomen army fought the Danes just outside the city walls, and was severely beaten, with an estimated death toll of about 1,800 peasants killed, while the Danish casualties remain unknown. Only a couple of items that can be linked with Danish soldiers have been found, including a purse and an ornamented armour belonging to a member of the Roorda Family from Friesland. Casualties can be compared with those that the French suffered at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356 and should be seen as high in medieval standards.

Aftermath

The Visby ransom as Carl Gustaf Hellqvist imagined it.

Following the devastating battle, the citizens of Visby decided to surrender to avoid further losses. To save the city from sacking the inhabitants paid a large amount of their wealth to King Valdemar. This extortion of contributions became a legendary event, although it can not be confirmed to have taken place, and if so, the events are unclear. Despite the payment, the Danes plundered several churches and monasteries. King Valdemar appointed sheriffs to govern Visby and then set sail again. It would take another year before Valdemar officially added "King Of Gotland" to his many titles. When Albert, King of Sweden took the Swedish crown he claimed Gotland as part of his domains and held the island at least until 1369; thus the Danish presence there couldn't have been strong, as it so rapidly and easily returned to the Swedish crown. The island would be disputed over by the House of Mecklenburg and the Danish Crown until 1376 when Queen Margaret (the daughter of the late King Valdemar) officially claimed the island for Denmark.

King Albert was defeated in a civil war in 1389, in which Queen Margaret supported the "rebels", and he was forced to abdicate. However, he was granted Gotland and its "capital" Visby, where he remained with a "pirate" organisation called the Victual Brothers. It was not until 1408 that the last remains of the house of Mecklenburg and the above mentioned pirates were driven out for good.

Archaeological excavation

Graves have been excavated in modern times to bring clarification in the events. It showed that at least a third of the Gotlandian army consisted of minors and elderly. Many of the dead defenders were unusually buried in their armour; because supposedly, according to historian John Keegan "...hot weather and their great number (about 2,000 bodies were disinterred six hundred years later) defeated the efforts of the victors to strip them before decomposition began." The site of the excavation "yielded one of the most fearsome revelations of a medieval battle known to archaeologists."

Five mass-graves were located outside the city's walls.

Further reading

• Thordeman, Bengt Invasion på Gotland 1361, 1944
• Thordeman, Bengt Armour from the Battle of Visby I-II (in collaboration with Paul Nörlund and Bo E. Ingelmark), 1939–40
• Westholm, Gun Visby 1361, Invasionen

External links

• Medieval Times page
• Peter Fairweather page with photos of disinterred corpses.