Pirates, Doodles and Sinking Castles - Medieval News Roundup

This week's collection of news and tweets for medievalists.

Skull of Medieval Pirate stolen from German Museum

A nail-pierced skull believed to belong to the legendary medieval pirate Klaus Störtebeker has been stolen from a museum in the northern German port city of Hamburg, authorities said Tuesday.

The skull was stolen from the Museum for Hamburg History on January 9, but the museum didn't immediately announce the theft so as not to hamper the investigation. It wasn't clear how the exhibit was stolen, or why.

"We are all very upset about the theft," museum director Lisa Kosok said in the press release. "We very much hope that it will either be returned or found."

The museum said it was offering a reward of several thousand euros for information leading to the recovery of the skull, but didn't give an exact amount

The skull, impaled on a large rusty nail, was discovered in 1878 during construction for a warehouse district in an area where pirates had earlier been beheaded and their heads displayed on spikes as a warning against other pirates.

The museum displayed the skull since 1922, which is missing its jawbone. The museum also did a reconstruction of the face based on information from the skull.

Later forensic analysis determined that the skull may well belong to a man beheaded around 1400, although not necessarily Stoertebeker.

The museum tried to use DNA analysis of the skull to compare it with possible descendants, but they failed to find a definite match.

Klaus Störtebeker (c. 1360 – 20 October 1401), was a leader and the best known representative of a companionship of privateers known as the Victual Brothers. The Victual Brothers were originally hired during a war between Denmark and Sweden to fight the Danish and supply the besieged Swedish capital Stockholm with provisions. After the end of the war, the Victual Brothers continued to capture merchant vessels.

A large number of myths and legends surround the few facts known about Klaus Störtebeker's life. Störtebeker is only a nickname, meaning "empty the mug with one gulp" in Old German. The moniker refers to the pirate's supposed ability to empty a four-litre mug of beer in one gulp.

His ship was captured in 1401 and Störtebeker and his crew were taken to Hamburg, where they were executed outside the walls of the Hanseatic League city. When authorities took apart his ship they discovered that the masts contained cores of gold, silver and copper.

See also our earlier news article: Medieval pirates plundered the Baltic Sea, study finds

Medieval pirates plundered the Baltic Sea, study finds

A new article reveals pirate activities in the Baltic Sea during the later middle ages, and finds them being used as privateers by various city-states and local powers during wars.

"Living on the Edge: Pirates and the Livonians in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries," was written by Juhan Kreem, vice-director of the Tallinn City Archives in Estonia. His article focuses on the medieval city of Tallinn, which was called Reval in the Middle Ages.

His research discovers many instances of pirate bands operating in the Baltic. In records of cities such as Reval, Lubeck and Gdansk one can find instances of pirate bands being hired by the cities, as well as laws and practices to defend against them.

Kreem compares these pirate groups to the "free companies", mercenary armies who became quite powerful in Italy and France during the Hundred Years War. The various port cities would hire out pirate bands, either to help protect their fleets or to attack their enemies during times of war.

One of the earliest references to pirates was in the late fourteenth century, when the dukes of Mecklenberg called upon "all those who want to damage to the Danes" to come to their aid. By 1389, a pirate band known as the 'Victual Brethren' was formed - for several years they served the counts of Mecklenburg, but also sailed in other parts of the Baltic and North Seas serving various lords.

In 1427, the city of Lubeck hired three pirate leaders, named Bartholomeus Voet, Kalus Glokenere, and Michael Rute, to fight against the Kalmar Union (Norway, Sweden and Denmark). The pirates had a fleet of two large ships, seven smaller ones, and a crew of 300 men. The pirates plundered the Norwegian town of Bergen in 1429. After peace was agreed between the Lubeck and the Kalmar Union, the pirate band moved on and were hired by the Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order.

City records also show many instances of efforts being made to protect against pirate attacks or hunt down pirate bands that had been roaming in their area. Merchant fleets would often split up the cargo of individual merchants into several vessels, so that if one ship was lost to pirates, the merchant would not lose everything.

Kreem's article can be found in The Edges of the Medieval World, which he edited along with Gerhard Jaritz, and published by Central European University Press. It has 11 articles on how people in the Middle Ages lived and viewed the edges of their civilizations. Click here to purchase this book from Amazon.com