The shipwreck of Gribshunden revealed distinctive artillery and insights into European exploration. Denmark, nonetheless, prioritized Baltic management over Atlantic enlargement.
Archaeologists from Lund College have uncovered new details about late medieval artillery preserved within the wreck of the royal Danish-Norwegian flagship Gribshunden.
This vessel is the one surviving instance of its form from the medieval period, with each the ship and its weaponry intently resembling these later utilized by early Spanish and Portuguese explorers. The analysis highlights how maritime powers of the late fifteenth century had been geared up to start asserting management and establishing colonies throughout the globe.
“Exploring a royal shipwreck from the late medieval interval is thrilling by itself. But the best reward comes after we can assemble the proof afterward, drawing on Martin’s experience in castles and Kay’s deep data of artillery,” explains Brendan Foley, the marine archaeologist main the mission. He collaborated with fellow Lund College archaeologist Martin Hansson and medieval artillery specialist Kay Douglas Smith.
Gribshunden, the flagship of King Hans of Denmark and Norway, sank beneath mysterious circumstances in 1495 close to Ronneby, Sweden. Its stays are of worldwide significance, representing the best-preserved ship from the Age of Exploration and serving as a detailed parallel to the vessels of Columbus and Vasco da Gama.
Ocean-going ships equivalent to Gribshunden, together with the artillery they carried, turned important applied sciences for European seafaring after 1492. These improvements enabled voyages to the Americas and into the Indian Ocean across the Cape of Good Hope, paving the way in which for widespread European colonization. Gribshunden is especially invaluable to archaeology as a result of it’s the most intact instance but discovered of a late medieval carvel-built warship.
The ship was armed with 50 or extra small-caliber weapons that fired lead projectiles with iron cores. These weapons had been designed for close-range fight, focusing on the crews of enemy vessels to disable them earlier than boarding for seize.
Below the path of Professor Nicolo Dell’Unto, the Lund College workforce digitally reconstructed these weapons utilizing 3D fashions created from the recovered artifacts.
A Danish ‘floating fortress’
Gribshunden was constructed close to Rotterdam between 1483-84. King Hans of Denmark and Norway had taken possession of the ship by spring 1486. The excessive price of constructing and equipping these ships meant Gribshunden in all probability absorbed about 8% of the Danish nationwide finances in 1485.
Hans utilized his flagship in a different way from different monarchs; he personally sailed on it continuously, utilizing it not for exploration, however to solidify his grasp on his kingdom. It was his floating fortress, enabling royal journey to Sweden and throughout the Danish realm, together with Gotland and particularly Norway.
The king used this vessel in methods just like a terrestrial royal fortification. This included a number of tender energy features: financial, diplomatic, social, cultural, and administrative. Underpinning all of those was the plain laborious energy of the ship’s martial goal embodied by the weapons and different weapons carried aboard.
Proof of explosion
Gribshunden served the crown for a decade earlier than sinking whereas the king was en route from Copenhagen to a political summit in Sweden, the place he anticipated to unify your complete Nordic area in a brand new Kalmar Union.
Historic paperwork, together with eyewitness accounts, relate that whereas Hans was ashore in Ronneby, an explosion and hearth claimed the ship whereas it was anchored off the city.
Among the many 22-lead artillery pictures from Gribshunden, a number of are flattened on one or two sides. This can be a results of the explosion that sank the vessel. Shot saved within the maintain close to the gunpowder ricocheted contained in the ship.
No Nordic enlargement into North America
So, given the existence of those warships, why didn’t Denmark compete in increasing to the Americas? Denmark and Norway shared the lengthy Viking and medieval Nordic historical past of exploration and settlement within the west, with colonies in Iceland and Greenland, and settlements in North America.
Coupled with the adoption of this new enabling expertise, Hans may need efficiently competed with the Iberian rulers in world exploration and enlargement to the Americas.
Nonetheless, Hans’ main concern was consolidating rule over the Baltic area. In pursuit of that aim, Hans himself sailed on Gribshunden into the Atlantic on a number of royal visits, and to Kalmar on the ship’s ultimate voyage.
One motive for Denmark’s inattention to the Americas may need been a 1493 papal bull signed by Pope Alexander VI. This granted Spain rights to the Americas, and a treaty between Spain and Portugal ceded the Indian Ocean to the latter. Previous to the Reformation, the specter of excommunication for ignoring the papal ‘Inter Caetera’ was very actual.
Reference: “Late Medieval Shipboard Artillery on a Northern European Carvel: Gribshunden (1495)” by Brendan Foley, Kay Douglas Smith and Martin Hansson, 31 July 2025, Worldwide Journal of Nautical Archaeology.
DOI: 10.1080/10572414.2025.2532166
The analysis was funded by grants from the Swedish Analysis Council (Vetenskapsrådet), Crafoordska Stifltelsen, Huckleberry Basis (USA), and with assist from Blekinge Museum and the Lund College Division of Archaeology and Historical Historical past.
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