114 North
When Frederick i of Denmark asked Lübeck to support him in the conflict
with his nephew, Christian ii in 1531, Lübeck made support conditional upon
the expulsion of the Dutch from the Baltic. This went too far for Frederick as
well as for those Prussian Hanseatic cities dependent upon Dutch shipping.
Because Frederick joined with the Dutch and lured his nephew to Denmark
in order to imprison him there for the rest of his life, Lübeck stood alone in its
conflict with Amsterdam and began a hijacking war against Dutch ships. After
the Hanseatic cities entered into ceasefire negotiations in 1534, Wullenwever
sought to stir up war again. Yet from his point of view he was unsuccessful
in influencing the Danish succession: Frederick i died in 1533. In an overesti-
mation of his own powers, Wullenwever took on the Danish crown as well as
the Catholic Duke Albert of Mecklenburg, the Saxon electors, and Henry viii.
When the new Danish king Christian iii successfully besieged Lübeck and
even Gustav Wasa no longer supported it, the attempt at Lübeck’s Baltic over-
lordship collapsed in 1534/35. At the peace negotiations of 1536, the council
of Hamburg stepped into the foreground as mediator, and even Wullenwever
had to accept the return of the old council members. Dutch supremacy in the
Baltic was, in any case, not to be stalled in the long run by military means from
the Hanseatic camp, especially after 1544 when Christian iii finally agreed
with Charles V upon free passage into the Baltic through the strait.
Even though the successor of Christian iii, Frederick ii, confirmed the
Hanseatic trade privileges, tensions between Denmark and Hamburg increased.
Moreover Denmark, which regarded Hamburg merely as a country town in
Holstein, hindered the trade of the Elbe metropolis. In the meantime, although
the Imperial Chamber Court (Reichskammergericht) agreed with the Imperial
immediacy of Hamburg over the course of a long process (1548–1618), this
immediacy was not recognized by Denmark-Holstein. Relations with Sweden
were also strained, because Gustav Wasa considered Lübeck’s attempts at the
restoration of their Hanseatic monopoly an unfriendly act. In 1548, Gustav
Wasa banned Lübeck’s shipping and the trade with Sweden and confiscated
ships and wares. His successor, Erich xiv, impeded trade with Narva, which
was viewed as a rival to the Livonian cities. In the fight against Sweden, Lübeck
allied itself with its old rival, Denmark, without, however, being able to moti-
vate other Hanseatic cities for the war. In the Peace of Stettin in 1570, Lübeck
obtained an unimpeded access to Narva and to Swedish ports, although this
was soon disputed again by King Johann iii of Sweden. Lübeck was also dealt a
bad hand in the conflict between Sweden and Poland that would follow (1602–
1605), and even the new Danish king Christian iv limited the trade of Lübeck
and Hamburg as much as he could. The foundation of Glücksstadt in 1616 as