The Battle of Visby 1361
and its Contemporary Heritage
Thomas Neijman & Kurt Villads Jensen
Published by Arc Humanities Press, september 2025
In summer of 1361, the Danish king conquered the island of Gotland, the centre of Baltic communication and trade.
The invaders clashed with local forces outside the walls of Visby. The battle is well known from the excavated
mass graves with human skeletons and large quantities of armour, which reveal the savage reality of the medieval
battlefield. How was victory possible? Did Danish hyper-professional armies with mercenaries slaughter ill-equipped
Gotlandic peasants, while German merchants were passive spectators from the walls of the main city, as historians
have claimed? This book challenges traditional interpretations by investigating the human remains and equipment
from their societal position, and puts the conquest of Gotland into a broader historical context of the medieval
battle for dominium over the Baltic. It also discusses contemporary interpretations of the battle in museums,
literature, media, and legends.
Thomas Neijman is a doctoral student at the Centre for Medieval Studies, Stockholm,
and a specialist on the invasion of Gotland in 1361. He is the founder of the Battle of Visby re-enactment event.
Kurt Villads Jensen is Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies, Stockholm
and a specialist on crusading history in the Baltic and in Iberia.
(The text above comes from the back of the book)
I've pre-ordered this book, so I'm still waiting for it...
Martin