The Greenland Crusades (Fish-Eating Norse)

Once Eirikur had rejected Christianity, crusades against the pagan Norse of the New World was inevitable as soon as Europe had the manpower to spare. The slow development of sailing technology, the Black Death, the onset of the Little Ice Age and the Holy Land Crusades all made the Europeans reluctant to contribute large numbers to the subjugation of pagans occupying such a marginal territory (as they believed). Thus until the 15th century the Greenland pagans were viewed by the rest of Europe as a Skandanavian problem.

1259: The Iceland Crusade
King Hakon Hakonsson (Hakon IV) of Norway received dispensation from Innocent IV to use all of Norway's Crusade tithe to equip and sail a fleet out to crush the pagan Greenlanders and reclaim Iceland for Christianity. En route, the fleet became embroiled in the Norweigan conflict with the Scots over the Western Isles and half the fleet was left behind to be re-enforced from Norway. As a result, only 22 ships continued on to the Faroes and then to Iceland.

Arriving in Iceland, the Norweigans overpowered the Vinlanders and Odinist Icelanders in 2 months of skirmishes gained control of the island. The Vinlanders were able to retreat to Greenland in good order and the Norweigans did not feel confident enough, or numerous enough, to pursue them immediately. Instead, they stayed on Iceland for a year to persecute and execute Odinists, killing about 300 Icelanders and claiming their meager possessions as booty. They also restored several churches and the cathedral of Rejkjavik, which had been burned by the Odinists.

In 1261 the fleet was recalled to Norway to participate in an invasion of Scotland (the Battle of Largs).

1405: The Second Iceland Crusade
The Danish Crown, troubled by unrest and famine at home was all too willing to abandon the increasingly marginal colony of Iceland to its fate in 1401. Pope Boniface, however, took a dim view of the loss of a whole island to Chistendom and demanded that Queen Margarete lead a crusade to re-take the island and exterminate the Greenland pagans.

The Danish fleet which set sail in 1405 was unprepared for how much sailing and living conditions in the North Atlantic had deteriorated. Stopping at first the Orkneys and then the Faroe Islands, they found in both places that the islanders were near-starving and unable to supply or house the fleet adequately. As a result, the fleet which left the Faroes for Iceland in late August was already fatigued when they met Eirikur Gunnarsson's fleet at sea.

The Danish were definitely superior in numbers and technology, posessing early cannon and 58 ships. They were unprepared for the manuverability of Eirikur's sealskin boats, however, and found them difficult targets for the cannon. After several hours, with darkness approaching and 11 of Eirkur's 32 ships destroyed, and three Danish ships aflame, the Vinlanders were able to slip away into an encroaching storm front without pursuit.

The Danish returned to the Faroe Islands for the winter. This proved a disasterous decision (as it would, again, in 1491). The islanders had been surviving only by the mercy of barley and charcoal shipments from Norway; the growing season had become too short and unreliable for any crops to succeed and the Faroes had no trees. Islanders and sailors alike survived on a starvation diet of seal and cod stew through the winter, leaving the sailors malnourished, frozen, and sick. To make things worse, the Faroe harbors iced over that winter, cracking the hulls of many Danish ships.

As soon as the harbors of Iceland were clear of ice in 1406, Eirikur sailed off for the Faroes, and caught the Danish unprepared. Eirikur was able to burn many of the Danish ships in harbor and capture a cannon and its crew. There were too many Danish for Eirkur to seize the Faroes, though, and he became mortally wounded trying.

The Vinlanders retreated to Iceland and the Danish to Skandanavia. Tales of the fierceness of the Norse warriors and the even fiercer Atlantic weather caused Margarete to turn a deaf ear to demands from the Vatican for another attempt.

1491: The Third Greenland Crusade
More later ...