Chapter 1

I - How Wulf Isebrand and the Peasants of the Free Marshes Fought and Conquered the Great Army of the Danish

The men were sweating, in spite of the cold weather and the sleet rain of the mid-February night. It was February 11, A.D. 1500, and the three hundred peasants were busy building a barricade across the only road for miles around, at a place called Hemmingstedt. They were too busy to be afraid, too busy to realise the folly of three hundred men trying to block the approach of an army of twelve thousand.

The Danish King John and the Duke of Holstein were trying to subdue the free peasants of the marshes, in the low lands north of the River Elbe estuary, where German lands bordered on Denmark. Their huge army had already taken the centre of the region, the small town of Meldorf, and they were marching northward. The free peasants, being free as they were, had no military leaders. They were armed, but without a unified command, and being outnumbered three to one, it appeared to be a matter of time only before the peasant republic would fall to the Danish.

The people of the marshes were no Frisians like their neighbours; they were descendants of Saxon tribes who had fought against the hostile North Sea for generations to win the land they cultivated. Other Saxons had settled upstream along the River Elbe, while still others had conquered Britain, centuries ago, only to be vanquished in turn by Norman invaders.

Wulf Isebrand was not a son of the marshes. He had married a woman of the marshes though, and he stood to lose as much as the others. He was a Dutchman, and he had served in the armies of a few free towns and small duchies. That was why the elders had given him the command of the barricade. When he told them to open the gates in the dikes to flood the precious marshes they had objected at first. But he had prevailed. The Danish King's "Great Guard" was heavily armed and mounted on heavy chargers, as was the custom of the time. Their effectiveness would be close to naught on a flooded, swampy ground.

The barricade finished, Wulf Isebrand surveyed the situation. The "Great Guard" had but two options, storm the fortified barricade or circumvent it. With the salty water of the North Sea slowly flooding the low lying land, thawing the icy ground, there was no way a mounted warrior in heavy plate armour could move in the man-made bog.

Excited cries announced the arrival of the vanguard of the enemy. Wulf Isebrand had seen the man in command of the guard, the Junker Slentz, during the defence of Meldorf. He was an able soldier, of that there was no doubt. What would he do when he saw his path obstructed?

With the first light of dawn, the answer to that was given. The riders charged against the barricade. The defenders, however, held firebrands ready to hurl them at the charging horses and to shy them. Many riders were thrown while the rest found themselves facing the long lances of the peasants. A short skirmish ensued where the defenders gained the upper hand, and the horsemen withdrew. A number of riders had lost their mounts and were killed by the men of the marshes, earning more weapons for the defenders. Wulf Isebrand obtained a good two-handed sword for himself, and a battle-axe. Thus encouraged, the men awaited the next move by the Danish.