In 1431 King Eric of Pomerania complained to the English king, Henry VI., of the illegal trading which the English had carried on for the previous twenty years (that is, since 1411) with “Norway’s Lands and Islands”: Iceland, Greenland, the Faroes, Shetland, the Orkneys, Helgeland and Finmark; and of the acts of violence and piratical incursions, with fire and rapine, that they had committed in this period, by which they had carried off many ships laden with fish and other goods, and many people had perished.[91] As early as 1413 King Eric’s ambassador to the English king, Henry V., had made a strong protest against all foreign and unprivileged trade with these countries. On Christmas Eve, 1432, a treaty was signed between the two kings, whereby Henry VI. engaged himself to make good all the damage the English had caused to King Eric’s subjects in the said countries, and all the people who during those twenty years had been violently carried off were, by the direction of the English king, wherever they might be found in his dominions, to receive payment for their services and to return freely to their native places. Further, the old prohibition of trading with the Norwegian tributary lands was renewed. The same prohibition was renewed and enforced on the English side by Henry VI. in 1444, and by a new treaty between him and Christiern I., concluded at Copenhagen, July 17, 1449; but this was only to remain in force till Michaelmas 1451. After that time the English merchants, some of whom no doubt were Norwegians established at Bristol, seem to have seized upon nearly the whole of the trade with Iceland, and often conducted themselves with violence there. But in 1490 this trade was made free on certain conditions.
These negotiations give us an insight into the state of things in Northern waters at that time. At the same time there were difficulties with the Hanseatic League, which tried to seize upon all trade.
Among these so-called Norwegian tributary countries was Greenland, which is mentioned with the others in the complaint of 1431; but whether this means that the English extended their trading voyages, which frequently became piratical expeditions, so far, we do not know; in any case it is not impossible, although of course the voyage to Iceland with its rich fisheries was much more important. We know that this was carried on from Bristol in particular, where, as has been said, many Norwegians were established.
Possibility of voyages to Greenland in the 15th century (?)
The statements about Greenland contained in the papal letter of 1448 were, as we have seen, false. Perhaps not very much more weight is to be attached to the story, in Peyrere’s “Relation du Groënland” (Paris, 1647), of Oluf Worm of Copenhagen having found in an old Danish MS. a statement that about 1484 there were more than forty experienced men living at Bergen, who were in the habit of sailing to Greenland every year and bringing home valuable goods; but as they would not sell their wares to the Hanse merchants, the latter revenged themselves by inviting them to a supper and killing them all at night. This then was said to be the end of the Greenland voyage, which had to cease thenceforward, because no one knew the course any more [cf. Grönl hist. Mind., iii. pp. 471, f.]. The story as given here is in many respects improbable; but even if the forty or more men and the annual voyage are exaggerations, there are other indications that about that time there may have been some sort of communication with Greenland or the countries to the west of it, as will be mentioned later. The royal monopoly of the Iceland trade was no longer in force, and the same may have applied to Greenland. It is then conceivable that merchants may have gone there; and if their trading prospered they had every reason to keep it as secret as possible, lest others should interfere with their livelihood. This would explain why such voyages are not mentioned by historical authorities. Just then, too, was an uneasy time, with a sort of war of privateers between England and Denmark-Norway, which was not concluded until the provisional peace of 1490; there were thus many pirates and privateers in Northern waters, who may well have extended their activity upon occasion to the remote and unprotected Greenland, where they could plunder with even greater impunity than in Iceland, and perhaps they increased the ruin of the settlements there.
Papal letter on Greenland, 1492
Of great interest is a letter from Pope Alexander VI.[92] of the first year of his papacy, 1492-1493, which was written in consequence of a Benedictine monk named Mathias having applied to the Pope to be appointed bishop of Greenland, and declared himself willing to go there personally as a missionary to convert the apostates. The letter runs:
“As we are informed, the church at Gade [i.e., Gardar] lies at the world’s end in the land of Greenland, where the people, for want of bread, wine and oil, live on dried fish and milk; and therefore, as well as by reason of the extreme rarity of the voyages that have taken place to the said land, for which the severe freezing of the waters is alleged as the cause, it is believed that for eighty years no ship has landed there; and if such voyages should take place, it is thought that in any case it could only be in the month of August, when the same ice is dissolved; and for this reason it is said that for eighty years or thereabouts no bishop or priest has resided at that church. Therefore, and because there are no Catholic priests, it has befallen that most of the parishioners, who formerly were Catholics, have (oh, how sorrowful!) renounced the holy sacrament of baptism received from them; and that the inhabitants of that land have nothing else to remind them of the Christian religion than a corporale [altar-cloth] which is exhibited once a year, and whereon the body of Christ was consecrated a hundred years ago by the last priest who was there.” For this reason, “to provide them with a fitting shepherd,” Pope Alexander’s predecessor, Innocent VIII., had appointed the Benedictine monk Mathias bishop of Gade [Gardar], and he “with much godly zeal made ready to bring the minds of the infidels and apostates back to the way of eternal salvation and to root out such errors,” etc. Then follow exhortations to the Curia, the chancellors, and all the religious scriveners under pain of excommunication to let the said Mathias, on account of his poverty, escape all expenses and perquisites connected with the appointment and correspondence, etc.
The statements in the letter agree remarkably well with what we gather from other historical sources. In 1410—that is, eighty-two years before the date of the letter—the last ship of which we have any notice arrived in Norway from Greenland (see above, [p. 118]). This agrees with the statement in the letter that no ship had been there for eighty years. In 1377 the last officiating bishop of Gardar died, and six years later the news reached Norway, that is, 109 years before the date of the letter. This agrees with what is said about the altar-cloth being used a hundred years before by the last priest (“ultimo sacerdote,” perhaps meaning here bishop ?) at the administration of the sacrament. The assertion that it was not until August that Greenland became free of ice and that voyages could be made thither also shows a certain local knowledge; for it was not till late in the summer, usually August, that “Knarren” was accustomed to sail from Bergen to Greenland.
