The ‘Golden Age’ of the Hanseatic League 77
Livonian towns and to be administrated by them. If the ransom was not paid
within three years, Stockholm was to be delivered to Margaret.52
The dukes of Mecklenburg never had enough money for their activities, and
so Stockholm finally fell to Margaret in 1398. This completed (or nearly com-
pleted) the union of the three Northern kingdoms in her hand and in those of
Eric of Pomerania which had been negotiated at Kalmar in 1397. Though the
documents of the Kalmar Union were never formally ratified,53 it became a
reality until 1523—though with longer intervals of Swedish independency—
with which the Hanseatic League was confronted. The towns reacted prag-
matically and arranged themselves with the new situation, especially since
Margaret continued her reserved policies and confirmed the Hanseatic privi-
leges in her kingdoms. One great problem remained: the victual brothers con-
tinued their activities from Gotland, only partly controlled by members of the
Mecklenburg ducal family. At this point, in 1398, the Teutonic Knights and the
Prussian towns decided to act.54 They gathered 84 ships with 4000 men, 50
knights of the Teutonic Order and 400 horses in the harbour of Danzig, the
ships mainly chartered by or from the towns. When the troops had started the
siege of Visby, an agreement was reached at the beginning of April. The pirates
and Duke John of Mecklenburg had to move out of Gotland within two days
and to promise that they would not any more disturb the merchants and the
trade. Some pirates who resisted were killed, and the privileges of Visby were
renewed.
While the Teutonic Knights kept Gotland until 1408—they even defended
it against a Danish attack in 1403/04—two Prussian citizens, Arnold Hecht
and Arnold Herferten, became admirals of a small fleet to deter the victual
brothers from further attacks on trade ships. Since this was supported by the
other Hanseatic towns, some of the victual brothers ended their activities in
the Baltic and turned to Eastern Frisia where they found support by local rul-
ers. Two campaigns by Hamburg, Lübeck, and the neighbouring towns in 1400
and 1401 helped to reduce their activities, and some of their leaders were exe-
cuted, events which became very famous in later legends.55 In fact, the victual
52 Bøgh, Sejren, 285–86.
53 Poul Enemark, “Denmark and the Union,” in Margrete I. Regent of the North, 47–50, 435,
at 47.
54 Friedrich Benninghoven, “Die Gotlandfeldzüge des Deutschen Ordens 1398–1408,”
Zeitschrift für Ostforschung 13 (1964), 421–77; Raymond H. Schmandt, “The Gotland
Campaign of the Teutonic Knights,” Journal of Baltic Studies 6 (1975), 247–58.
55 Rohmann, “Kaperfahrer”; Nicolai Clarus, Bartholomäus Voet und die Freibeuter der
Hansezeit. Untersuchungen zum Kaperwesen im Nordeuropa des frühen 15. Jahrhunderts,