Magister Wigbold (died 1401), (alternative spellings: Wygbold, Wycholt), also called “Master of the Seven Arts” was a German pirate who belonged to the famous

Likedeeler , native_name_lang = , named_after = french: vitailleurs (provisioners, Hundred Years' War) , image = Vitalienbrueder, Wandmalerei in d, Kirche zu Bunge auf Gotland, gemalt ca. 1405.JPG , image_size = 250px ...

pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

Klaus Störtebeker "Nikolaus" Storzenbecher or "Klaus" Störtebeker (1360 – supposed 20 October 1401) was reputed to be leader of a group of privateers known as the Victual Brothers (german: Vitalienbrüder). The Victual Brothers ( la, victualia) were ...

who were active in the North and Baltic seas. Wigbold was one of the most noted Likedeeler, along with

Gödeke Michels Gödeke Michels (Low Saxon; died 1402), also known as Gottfried Michaelsen in High German, was a German pirate and one of the leaders of the Likedeeler, a combination of former Vitalienbrüder. Early life Career Together with Klaus Störtebe ...

and Störtebeker. The nickname Wigbold comes from ''wig'' (strife) and ''bold'' (courageous, bold). Whether Wigbold was a nickname, or possibly his real name, is unknown.

Life

Nothing is known about Wigbold's early life. Contemporary chronicles call him a Master of the Seven Arts. According to the historian Ludwig Bühnau, he may have attended university at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. His name or variants of it are however not listed in A.B. Emden's Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D.1500. It is possible that he studied under a different name, or that records of his time at Oxford have been lost. Wigbold is first mentioned as one of those pirates who left the Baltic Sea in 1395 for the North Sea. Matthias Puhle calls him a Likedeeler captain of the second generation, no longer members of the Mecklenburg aristocracy. They operated from

East Frisia East Frisia or East Friesland (german: Ostfriesland; ; stq, Aastfräislound) is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisia ...

, where the local chieftains supported them. In 1400, the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...

sent a sizable military force to smash the group. Michels and Wigbold escaped at first, and probably spent a winter in Norway, before returning to East Frisia, where they were finally captured. One year after the death of Störtebeker, they too were executed on the

Grasbrook is a quarter (''Stadtteil'') of Hamburg, Germany within the borough (''Bezirk'') of Hamburg-Mitte. It is situated on the eponymous island between the Northern and Southern branches of the Elbe river (''Norderelbe'' and ''Süderelbe''), together wi ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

together with eighty other pirates.

Literature

Non-fiction

* Matthias Blazek: ''Seeräuberei, Mord und Sühne – Eine 700-jährige Geschichte der Todesstrafe in Hamburg 1292–1949.'' ibidem, Stuttgart 2012, . * Ortwin Pelc: ''Seeräuber auf Nord- und Ostsee: Wirklichkeit und Mythos.'' Boyens, Heide, 2005, . * Matthias Puhle: ''Die Vitalienbrüder: Klaus Störtebeker und die Seeräuber der Hansezeit.'' Campus Verlag, Frankfurt, 2012, .

Fiction

* Thomas Einfeldt: ''Störtebekers Kinder''. Ravensburger Buchverlag, Ravensburg 2002, . * Gustav Schalk: ''Klaus Störtebeker''. Ueberreuter, Wien 2002, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wigbold, Magister 1401 deaths German pirates Executed German people People executed for piracy People executed in the Holy Roman Empire by decapitation 15th-century executions Medieval pirates