Antagonism between the city dwellers and the Gutnish country yeomen heightened; the latter were defeated in battle in 1288, despite the aid of knights from Estonia.

These men would have worn what was known as transitional armour, with iron or steel plates over vital areas and joints over a full suit of chain mail.

Unusually, many of the Gutes appear to have had minimal head protection, with many wearing only a mail coif, a metal skullcap; however any helmets may have been stripped from the bodies after the battle.

Very few weapons have been discovered, but it is likely that both sides used round and heater-type shields, spears, axes, billhooks, pikes, and poleaxes.

Only a couple of items that can be linked with Danish soldiers have been found, including a purse and ornamented armor belonging to a member of the Roorda Family from Friesland.

In 1389 King Albert was defeated in a civil war, in which Queen Margaret supported the "rebels", and he was forced to abdicate.

The first archeological excavations were done in 1905, led by Oscar Wilhelm Wennersten and master builder Nils Pettersson at the place now known as Korsbetningen in Visby, where the first mass grave from the battle was found.

Many of the dead defenders were, unusually, buried in their armour; according to historian John Keegan "...hot weather and their great number (about 2,000 bodies were disinterred six hundred years later) defeated the efforts of the victors to strip them before decomposition began".