Battle
The Danish troops moved towards Visby. The first day of the invasion, two minor skirmishes were fought on marshy ground between yeomen farmers and the army. The next day, from 800 to 1000 farmers were killed after massing for battle near Fjäle myr.
On 27 July a Gutnish yeomen army fought the Danes just outside the city, and was severely beaten, with an estimated death toll of about 1,800 peasants killed, while the Danish casualties remain unknown. Only a couple of items that can be linked with Danish soldiers have been found, including a purse and an ornamented armour belonging to a member of the Roorda Family from Friesland. Casualties can be compared with those that the French suffered at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356 and should be seen as high in medieval standards.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Visby
Famous quotes containing the word battle:
“Forty years after a battle it is easy for a noncombatant to reason about how it ought to have been fought. It is another thing personally and under fire to have to direct the fighting while involved in the obscuring smoke of it.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“It is humiliating to remain with our hands folded while others write history. It matters little who wins. To make a people great it is necessary to send them to battle even if you have to kick them in the pants. That is what I shall do.”
—Benito Mussolini (1883–1945)
“The easiest period in a crisis situation is actually the battle itself. The most difficult is the period of indecision—whether to fight or run away. And the most dangerous period is the aftermath. It is then, with all his resources spent and his guard down, that an individual must watch out for dulled reactions and faulty judgment.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)