Ep. 117: The Hanseatic League - 14th Century Politics -Embargoes
History of the Germans from the Middle Ages to Reunification
Dirk Hoffmann-Becking
4.9 • 551 Ratings
🗓️ 24 August 2023
⏱️ 35 minutes
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Summary
The Hanseatic League undergoes a fundamental transformation in the second half of the 14th century. It turned from a guild of merchants trading across the Baltic and the North Sea into an alliance of trading cities. An alliance that has proven that it can fight and win wars against major territorial powers. That sits quite uncomfortably with the existing European rulers who wonder what to do with this alien inside their body politic.
The Hanse had acquired a wide range of trading privileges in their main Kontors in England, Flanders, Norway and the Republic of Novgorod. These privileges did not only disadvantage the locals who were unsurprisingly hostile but also challenged the authority of the princes. That was just about bearable as long as this was just a community of grubby merchants from the Empire. Now that these merchants had built formidable cities, commanded great navies and toppled kings, it became an entirely different ballgame.
Furthermore, the legitimacy of the Hansa was fragile. The Hanseatic Cities, apart from Lübeck and Dortmund weren’t free imperial cities, making them at least formally subject to their territorial lords. As such they could not form an actual league of cities as the Northern Italian republics had done a hundred years earlier. Nor were they allowed to conduct foreign policy against their territorial lord, though they sometimes did.
These fault lines will become ever more apparent as we go forward with our history. This week we will get a first glimpse at what will lead to the ultimate demise of the League as we get into the year 1388, a year when the cities face off against three of the most powerful political entities in Northern Europe, the kingdom of England, the county of Flanders and the Republic of Novgorod.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the history of the Germans, episode 117, Embargos. |
| 0:09.0 | The Hanseatic League undergoes a fundamental transformation in the second half of the 14th century. |
| 0:15.0 | It turned from a guild of merchants trading across the Baltic and the North Sea into an alliance of trading cities, |
| 0:22.1 | an alliance that had proven that it can fight and win wars against major territorial powers, |
| 0:28.3 | and that sits quite uncomfortably with the existing European rulers who wonder what to do |
| 0:33.6 | with this alien inside their body politic. |
| 0:38.3 | The Hansa had acquired a wide range of trading privileges in their main contours in |
| 0:43.3 | England, Flanders, Norway and the Republic of Novgorod, and these privileges did not only |
| 0:48.3 | disinvance the locals, who were unsurprisingly hostile, but also challenged the authority of the princes. |
| 0:56.1 | That was just about bearable as long as it was a community of grubby merchants from the |
| 1:00.3 | empire. But now that these merchants had built formidable cities, had commanded great navies |
| 1:06.5 | and toppled kings, it became an entirely different ballgame. |
| 1:12.4 | Furthermore, the legitimacy of the Hanse was quite fragile. |
| 1:16.3 | The Hanseatic cities, while apart from Lübeck and Dortmund, weren't free imperial |
| 1:20.4 | cities, making them at least formally subject to their territorial lords. |
| 1:25.8 | As such, they could not form an actual league of cities |
| 1:28.4 | as the Northern Italian republics had done 100 years earlier. |
| 1:32.0 | Nor were they allowed to conduct foreign policy |
| 1:34.3 | against their territorial lord, |
| 1:36.5 | though they sometimes did. |
| 1:40.3 | These fault lines will become ever more apparent |
| 1:42.9 | as we go forward with our history. |
... |
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