The ‘Golden Age’ of the Hanseatic League 99
Conclusion
The so-called ‘Golden Age of the Hanseatic League’, which started in the mid-
dle of the fourteenth century and somehow lasted until the peace of Utrecht
(1474), was no unity. Relative peak periods like the peace of Stralsund in 1370
and the assembly of the towns’ representatives in Lübeck in summer 1418 alter-
nate with periods of crisis in internal and external affairs, like the constitu-
tional crisis in Lübeck from 1408–1416 or the relations with Denmark in the
1420s. The basic conditions and the parties involved always changed, as did
the political aims of the participants. Thus it is not only difficult but perhaps
also dangerous to generalize the events, especially since the characteristic as a
bloom period has been disputed. Nevertheless, there are some tendencies and
elements which are notable for the years between 1350 and 1474 when com-
pared to the other periods.
After 1358, the assemblies of the towns’ representatives, the Hansetage,
became the most-important instrument for the co-ordination of the towns’
policies and measures. This first proved successful during the blockade of
Flanders after 1358, and continued during the wars with Denmark between 1361
and 1370. Even the peace treaty was negotiated at an assembly in Stralsund.
Time and again, the towns agreed on measures to strengthen their decisions,
also at the assembly in Lübeck in summer 1418. In the time of the great tohope-
saten, the Hansetage were flanked by several meetings of the Wendish and
Saxon towns while the number of common assemblies decreased. This seems
to be a general tendency of the fifteenth century, leading to the period of reor-
ganization in the 1550s. Nevertheless, the Hansetage of the fifteenth century
left a growing corpus of legislation which regulated many aspects of civic life.
At least in two periods, the Hanseatic towns reached a higher degree of co-
operation and organization, with the ‘Confederation of Cologne’ (1367–1385)
and the tohopesaten of 1443/51. It is obvious that in both cases the alliances
were only intended for limited periods and goals and that no permanent inten-
sification of the Hanseatic League or even the formation of an urban union
was intended, at least by most of the leading representatives involved. It has
been pointed out that the imperial legislation only allowed urban alliances for
the restoration of regional peace.108 Maybe this influenced the towns’ policies,
but the restrictions are in line with the general tendencies of the town coun-
cils’ policies, which aimed at defending their self-government and relative
108 See the Goldene Bulle of 1355/56. In: Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Legum sect. iv.:
Constitutiones et acta publica imperatorum et regum, vol. 11: Dokumente zur Geschichte
des Deutschen Reiches und seiner Verfassung. 1354–1356, ed. Wolfgang D. Fritz (Weimar:
Hermann Böhlau 1978–1992), 535–633, § 15, at 600.