The Hanseatic League in the Early Modern Period 115
a competitor to Hamburg and the establishment of a toll on the Elbe, as well
as the occupation of Stade in 1619 were also part of this trade limiting policy.
Reorganization Attempts and the Thirty Years War
The conflicts surrounding the establishment of the merchant adventurers
and the restoration of the trade privileges in England demonstrated that the
Hanseatic League, as an organization, was only still partially capable of action
in the sixteenth century. Even to receive the support of the Imperial Diet and
the Emperor, a unified front would be a necessity. Correspondingly, it is unsur-
prising that leading protagonists like Cologne native Heinrich Suderman, the
“legal counsel of the Hanseatic League,” who also played an important role in
the negotiations with the emperor and with England, attempted to reorga-
nize the Hanseatic League as a body for the last time. This occurred in a time
when the Hanseatic cities, in the wake of their financially depressing expe-
riences during the Schmalkaldic War, attempted to become relevant again.
From 1553 on, Hanseatic Diets were again held regularly, however, after 1568,
they met only irregularly. To be sure, the Hanseatic Diet (Hansetag) of 1557 had
adopted a “resolution of confederation” with initial enthusiasm, which reso-
lution contained the representation of the Hanseatic Diet as well as a court
of arbitration for disputes between cities and a collective proceeding against
disturbers of the peace. However, the presence of cities in the Hanseatic Diet
remained small, especially the Dutch cities, though even those of the Eastern
Baltic were hardly seen anymore.
A “Hanseatic treasury” (Hansekasse), which was to be used for the financ-
ing of the alliance of cities, was not executed and even the establishment of
one such in 1612 did not improve the collective financial maneuverability of
the Hanseatic League. Only the designated legal counsel of the Hanseatic
League, Heinrich Suderman, embodied and articulated the Hanseatic interests
over an extended period. For thirty-five years he took part in all Hanseatic Diets
and negotiations and led almost fifty diplomatic missions in the Netherlands
and to England, and also to the Imperial Diet and the Emperor’s Court. Even
the reorganization of the Hanseatic branch office in Antwerp constituted one
of his journeys, although this reorganization was only intended to develop eco-
nomic relevance for a short time. That the office of legal counsel remained
vacant for more than ten years after the death of Suderman accounts for the
decline of its associated duties. In 1605, however, the Stralsund legal coun-
sel Johann Doman succeeded to Suderman’s position. Doman compiled a