"The Hanseatic League of northern towns went its way and achieved its
greatest prosperity in the fourteenth century. Already in the twelfth and
thirteen centuries German traders had obtained privileged settlements or
'Kontors' in London, Bergen, Visby in Gotland, Novgorod and Bruges. The
leading cities were Cologne and Lubeck; Hamburg was important later. They
exchanged the furs and other products of the north-east, and especially the
herrings of the Danish Sound and the cod of Norway, for the cloth and
manufactures of Flanders and the west. Their association in the Kontors led
naturally to allainces among themselves. Such was the League of 'Wendish' towns
under Lubeck, which shaped and directed the common policy of these Hansa towns.
Their alliances were tested by the ambitions of Denmark. Eric VI Menved
(1286-1319) compelled the Wendish towns to submit to his overlordship, from
which they were rescued by a period of Danish anarchy. But in the same years
the towns had forced Eric II the Priest-hater of Norway to agree to their terms
in the Treaty of Tonsberg (1294) by means of a commercial blockade, with which
Novgorod had already (1199) and Bruges was soon (1307) to be coerced. In the
Norwegian dispute Bremen was expelled from the growing league for not falling
into line, a punishment (the Verhansung) which was used in future against
recalcitrant towns.
The full formation of the 'German Hanse', however, only came about in c. 1356.
The Baltic and Russian trade was largely controlled by Lubeck, Danzig, Rostock,
Riga and Reval, the North Sea and English trade by Cologne, Dortmund, Hamburg
and Emden, while many inland cities -- Brunswick, Luneburg, Magdeburg, Goslar,
etc. -- were also members and derived substantial advantages from the fact. The
first success of the League was to compel Bruges to extend its privileges
(1360). But it was immediately threatened by the expansion of Denmark, once
more united under Waldemar IV. In 1360 he sacked Visby, which never recovered
from the blow. The Hansa replied by a great confederation, including Norway,
Sweden, and the Teutonic Knights. The war went so badly that a first peace
(1365) was unsatisfactory and did not restrain Waldemar from his hostility. In
1368 the Hansa renewed the war, and this time won a signal victory. By the
peace of Stralsund (24 May 1370) complete freedom of trade and fishing off
Scania was secured with territorial guarantees and the singular right of the
League's assent being necessary for the accession of a King of Denmark. The last
stipulation, however, was withdrawn in 1376 after Waldemar's death in agreements
with Margaret, Regent of Denmark, and her husband Haakon VI of Norway.
The Hansa had soon enough to do in combating the piracy of the so-called Victualler Brethren, which grew up in the wars between the Scandinavian states and the claimants of their thrones. Not till 1404 was there comparative safety in the Baltic. For all that the Hansa dominated the Baltic commerce, the Sound fisheries, and the whole trade of Norway. They had a large share of English trade in spite of native rivalry, and maintained their position in Flanders. They, with the southern German towns, controlled the internal and foreign commerce of Germany.
Strange to say, the number of members of the Hansa League was always uncertain, even to the League itself. Round about seventy is perhaps the best average figure, but towns would slip out of or into the League according to circumstances. At the rare Hansetage or congresses of representatives the attendance of towns seldom exceeded thirty, yet the League was able to act as a powerful union. Only a few members, like Lubeck and Goslar, were practically soevereign states owing allegiance direct to the Emperor; the rest were subject to the more effectual rule of territorial princes such as the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, the Bishop Munster, or the Duke of Mecklenburg. In internal government the Hansa towns in general were still ruled by close oligarchies, the so-called patricians, the descendants of the original merchants, who conducted their commerce and were the owners of their ground. In the fourteenth century, however, the discontent of the manufacturing gildsmen and employees was rising. Up to the death of Charles IV their revolts had been harshly suppressed, and in Nuremburg (outside the Hansa) Charles himself intervened (1349) to restore the patriciate. But more persistent and successful efforts were to come elsewhere . . ."
Later in the volume, the slow decline of the Hanseatic League in the fifteenth century is laid out, but I have tried your patience enough! I love the name Eric II the Priest-hater; can imagine a LARP with an equivalent meeting of a commercial league, and wonder where the Gloranthan equivalents of the Teutonic Knights (as an INDEPENDENT state) and the Swiss Republic are!
Jim Chapin
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