A battle of the Livonian War took place near Tallinn in 1560 in which its citizens faced the forces of the Russian czar Ivan IV. The Tallinn Brotherhood of Blackheads uniting unmarried merchants lost 10 members in the battle. The memorial epitaph was commissioned in their honour in 1561 and what makes it remarkable among other things is the oldest preserved view of Tallinn depicted on it.
The memorial is now displayed in Kiek in de Kök cannon tower.