Stedingers

Stedingers 

free peasants, probably of Frisian and Saxon origin, who in the 11th and 12th centuries settled in the marshy area along the lower course of the Weser River, below the city of Bremen, on land owned by the archbishop of Bremen. For a long while the Stedingers successfully resisted enserfment. They were proclaimed heretics in 1230, and a crusade was conducted against them from 1232 to 1234. They were defeated in 1234 by the united forces of the princes at Altenesch. Some of the Stedingers were later killed; others became feudally dependent peasants.