”In the year of the Lord 1361, King Valdemar of Denmark captured Gotland and Visby, where he killed about one thousand eight hundred peasants in a battle the day before St. James’ Day.”

The words are found in the yearbook of the Visby Franciscans and are about the Battle of Visby this year, and the event should probably be described more as a massacre than a battle or a battle.

But we’ll go back to the beginning.  After the Danish king Valdemar Atterdag had conquered the Scania lands in 1360, as a result of which he could not afford to buy them back from Magnus Eriksson, he set his sights on the Swedish islands of Öland and Gotland.

King Magnus, who knew where Atterdag was going, wrote several letters to warn the Gotlanders of the approaching threat.

It would take some time into the Middle Ages before Gotland could be seen as a fully integrated part of Sweden. At this time, the island could almost be described as a type of peasant republic where the people also minted their own coins.

It was on 22 July 1361 that a fleet was sighted at Stora Karlsö off the coast of Gotland, and the forces it transported probably landed at Vivesholmen in Klintehamn on the same day. Another option mentioned is that the disembarkation would have occurred at Ekstakusten on the island’s west side. Regardless of what the uninvited Danes landed, the Gotland population was prepared to offer resistance, and it is believed that the Danes, or as I said, essentially the Germans, were met by Gotlanders who were ready to defend their island against the invading forces already on the beach.

The first real battle is said to have been fought three days after the landing when 1,500 Gotlanders are said to have entrenched themselves at Fjäle Myr. This was after the bridge over the Sudertings creek was first demolished, and 600 years later (1961), a memorial stone was erected for those who fought and died.

The Danes are said to have met with stronger resistance than they expected and decided after the battle had been going on for a while to make a circling movement and thus get past the Gotlanders. However, this did not spare the defending forces; most died in the battle, and the Danes continued towards Visby.

In other words, it was an uneven battle right from the start. The Danish forces consisted mainly of professional German soldiers. At the same time, the Gotlanders were young and old peasants with various physical capabilities for battle, who, except for the wealthiest peasants who had arms and armour, had taken whatever weapons were at hand: rifles, grapples, clubs and axes. Even the protective armour that might have been available was inevitably inferior to the professional army they now faced. In some cases, it could be seen as ancient as early as the 14th century. The oldest and the youngest had no armour to protect them in battle.

The two sides clashed twice, both times with Danish victories. On 27 July, they met outside the Visby city wall for a final clash.

The Gotland forces are said to have consisted of around 2,000 men who had positioned themselves between Söderport and Solberga monastery, which, despite its size at the time, only remains today as single walls. The Gotlanders were numerically superior to the Danish troops, which did not help at all.

Valdemar Atterdag and his forces had already reached Visby the day before. The following day, they attacked the Gotlanders with crossbows, which is considered to have reduced the Gotland forces by around a fifth.

While the arrows rained down on the Gotlanders from the front, they were also attacked from Solberga monastery, which the Danes had captured as soon as they arrived in Visby the day before.

The double shelling is believed to have created confusion and fear among the unaccustomed islanders, and it is not unlikely that some had enough already here and tried to escape. However, they were cut down without pardon; the laws and rules of martial morality of the time covered only the combatants of the upper classes, not the poorly armed peasants.

The poorly armed Gotlanders didn’t stand a chance when the meele began. During the battle, the gates in the city wall were also locked. No one from the better-off city came to the rescue of the struggling peasants, nor could injured individuals seek shelter within the walls.

Some historians suggest that it is not unlikely that townspeople climbed the Ring Wall to watch the carnage that was taking place outside. The supposed lack of will to rescue the struggling and dying peasants was not unlikely to have its explanation in the civil war between town and country fought on Gotland in 1288, but more on that in another blog post.

This melee is believed to have lasted no more than half an hour, and when it was over, about 1,800 Gotlanders out of 2,000 were dead. The Danes are considered to have lost around 300 men.

The townspeople who had watched the whole thing unlocked the gates for the Danes and surrendered without the slightest fight, which led, among other things, to a heavy forced taxing of Visby.

At Solberga monastery, a cross was erected in memory of the fallen, which still stands today.

The dead were buried in the grounds around Solberga monastery, just outside the walls, and there they remained until an archaeological excavation found them again during excavations carried out during the 20th century. During these excavations, the remains of 1,185 people and a large amount of chain mail and armour have been found, making the site unique in Europe.

Sources:

I kung Magnus tid – Michael Nordberg (In the time of king Magnus)

Medeltidens svenska krig – Ulf Sundberg (Medieval Swedish wars)

Den Långa Medeltiden – Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist (The Long Middle Age)

Krigargravarna vid Korsbetningen utanför Visby – Bengt Thordeman/Fornvännen (Warrior graves at Korsbetningen outside Visby)

Images:

Rasmus Christiansen – Danish State Archives

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