PROLOGUE
Calends of May, Anno Domini 1453:
The last of a long winter's cold remained, as the war between Christian I of Denmark and Norway with Karl VIII of Sweden still raged on. The battles have mostly been fought over the provinces of Gothia, fueled by the dreams of both kings in renewing the Kalmar Union. And the land was suffering, the land was weeping as the snow melt over the ashes of burned villages. And men lived and died in despair defending their homes of plunder, rape and butcher.
Yet a land was still unscarred by the thundering fury of the adversaries, unlike Gothia, where armies trampled life under Death's reign. An island in the middle of the Baltic Sea, Gotland. But let us review the why and because this is happening by gazing into the past, and we might even wonder of what it is to come.
In early days there was war between the gotlanders and the swedes, and although the gotlanders always won, they arranged and agreement with them by a tax and an alliance. Before that, gotlanders where used to the ways of trade, and since then they made trade their way of life and the city of Visby became wealthy. Later on german merchants gained control of the city's trade and a civil war between them and the locals was put down by Magnus III of Sweden in 1288, the king that deposed his brother Valdemar I and still had to gain Gothia from him and his allies the danish. The seeds were planted.
In 1361 a danish king, Valdemar IV, was at war with the Hanseatic League and took one of its cities, Visby, and the whole island, only to release it at the end of the war, in 1370 by the Treaty of Stralsund.
Further skirmishes saw the rise of a guild of privateers, the Vitalian Brotherhood, which in the end turned to piracy and in the apex of its power took Gotland in 1394 and used Visby as headquarters. Those pirates ruled the Baltic unmatched until Denmark, Norway and Sweden were united under the regency of Margaret I, daughter of Valdemar IV. The privateers had been hired in 1392 by the King of Sweden, Albert, also Duke of Mecklenburg, to face Margaret I. Neverthenless he's deposed from the throne in 1389, but in the end they both agree to end the pirates threath by offering Gotland to the Teutonic Knights in 1395. In 1398, under the command of the Grand Master Konrad von Jungingen, the Vitalian Brotherhood is driven from Visby into oblivion.
In 1408, pherhaps to fund further agressions against Poland and Lithuania, the Teutonic Knights sell Gotland to Erik, great-nephew and heir of Margeret I, crowned King of the Kalmar Union in 1397, the combined kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
The Kalmar Union starts to fall apart about 1430 due to Erik's policies that upsets the nobles all across the realm, and because of that he's deposed by his nephew Christopher of Bavaria in 1439, who is elected King of Denmark in 1440, of Sweden in 1441 and of Norway in 1442, and from then on Erik takes residence on the fortress he built in Gotland, Visborg.
In 1448 Christopher of Bavaria dies without an heir and Christian I is elected King of Denmark, by marriage with the widow, and Karl VIII King of Sweden and Norway, who in the same year invades Gotland and tries to take Visborg without success. Erik then makes a deal to surrender Gotland and all his claims to Christian I, which happens in 1449 with the arrival of a danish army as the swedish army retreats. In 1450 Christian I seizes the throne of Norway from Karl VIII and war outbreaks again...
It is now that a group of merchants and traders gather in Visby's townhall to discuss their future between the two factions. Although still untouched by battle, they fell the strain on war on their lifes, the wool trade to Lübeck is nearly paralized. What will transpire from the meeting is yet to be known.
Next update almost ready.
Calends of May, Anno Domini 1453:
The last of a long winter's cold remained, as the war between Christian I of Denmark and Norway with Karl VIII of Sweden still raged on. The battles have mostly been fought over the provinces of Gothia, fueled by the dreams of both kings in renewing the Kalmar Union. And the land was suffering, the land was weeping as the snow melt over the ashes of burned villages. And men lived and died in despair defending their homes of plunder, rape and butcher.
Yet a land was still unscarred by the thundering fury of the adversaries, unlike Gothia, where armies trampled life under Death's reign. An island in the middle of the Baltic Sea, Gotland. But let us review the why and because this is happening by gazing into the past, and we might even wonder of what it is to come.
In early days there was war between the gotlanders and the swedes, and although the gotlanders always won, they arranged and agreement with them by a tax and an alliance. Before that, gotlanders where used to the ways of trade, and since then they made trade their way of life and the city of Visby became wealthy. Later on german merchants gained control of the city's trade and a civil war between them and the locals was put down by Magnus III of Sweden in 1288, the king that deposed his brother Valdemar I and still had to gain Gothia from him and his allies the danish. The seeds were planted.
In 1361 a danish king, Valdemar IV, was at war with the Hanseatic League and took one of its cities, Visby, and the whole island, only to release it at the end of the war, in 1370 by the Treaty of Stralsund.
Further skirmishes saw the rise of a guild of privateers, the Vitalian Brotherhood, which in the end turned to piracy and in the apex of its power took Gotland in 1394 and used Visby as headquarters. Those pirates ruled the Baltic unmatched until Denmark, Norway and Sweden were united under the regency of Margaret I, daughter of Valdemar IV. The privateers had been hired in 1392 by the King of Sweden, Albert, also Duke of Mecklenburg, to face Margaret I. Neverthenless he's deposed from the throne in 1389, but in the end they both agree to end the pirates threath by offering Gotland to the Teutonic Knights in 1395. In 1398, under the command of the Grand Master Konrad von Jungingen, the Vitalian Brotherhood is driven from Visby into oblivion.
In 1408, pherhaps to fund further agressions against Poland and Lithuania, the Teutonic Knights sell Gotland to Erik, great-nephew and heir of Margeret I, crowned King of the Kalmar Union in 1397, the combined kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
It is now that a group of merchants and traders gather in Visby's townhall to discuss their future between the two factions. Although still untouched by battle, they fell the strain on war on their lifes, the wool trade to Lübeck is nearly paralized. What will transpire from the meeting is yet to be known.
Next update almost ready.
