In the 12th century, cities like Lubeck, Hamburg, Bremen, Danzig, and others along the Baltic and the North Sea coast experienced an increase in maritime trade.

And of course, wherever there are valuables for the taking, there were pirates.

To help address the issue, Lubek and Hamburg created the

Hanseatic League in 1241, also commonly called Hansa, the term means fellowship or community.

More of a mercantile alliance than a city-by-city effort, the league both supervised maritime trade

and helped to safeguard ships against pirates. By 1,300, 19 major

ports had joined. Some countries, like Denmark, were against Hansa and the mercantile monopoly

the League had become. The opposing country's solution was to create smaller brethren organizations.

One such group of freebooters, the Vitalenbruder, or Victual Brothers, consisting of mercenaries

and pirates, had been hired to bring food provisions to Stockholm.

In the 1390s, the Danes had waged an assault on the city in an attempt to capture and control

it.

In response, two Hanseatic cities in Mecklenburg put out a call for freebooters.

At their own expense, the Victual Brothers would harass and plunder ships from Denmark and Norway.

Thus began the privateers war.

But seeing as the applicants lining up for a license had seedy reputations, the conflicts

seem more like pirates versus pirates.

The Victual Brothers frequently targeted ports outside of Mecklenburg that belonged to the Hansa.

Lubeck became a favorite target, although the brothers attacked any ship in the Baltic they pleased.

While they might have government allies, their actions showed that they were first and foremost, pirates by nature.

One of the brothers' vessels made the mistake of

attacking a German ship in 1391. The German sailors bested the pirates and stuffed them

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