Hanseatic Piracy
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Klaus Störtebeker
Klaus Störtebeker was the best-known leader of the Victual Brothers (Vitalienbrüder), a fraternity of privateers-turned-pirates that raided Hanseatic League shipping in the North and Baltic Seas in the late 14th century, after originally being hired to supply besieged Stockholm during a war between Sweden and Denmark. Much of his popular legend, including his name, was…
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Godeke Michels
Godeke Michels was, alongside Klaus Störtebeker, one of the principal captains of the Victual Brothers, a North Sea and Baltic pirate fraternity that preyed on Hanseatic League shipping in the late 14th century, operating from a home port on the island of Heligoland. He evaded capture when Störtebeker was taken in 1401 but was hunted…