54 Hammel-Kiesow
From the privileges jointly obtained by the merchants, one can conclude
that the people of Lübeck were continually advancing into the foreground of
privileged Hanse cities. In treaties concluded until the mid-thirteenth century,
Lübeck and her citizens were only mentioned next to the representatives of
the other cities, and never first (1229 Smolensk and 1237 England). Beginning
in the second half of the century, Lübeck almost always appeared at the top of
such lists (1252 Sweden, 1259/60 and 1269 Novgorod).111
When it came to the second category of charters, those that applied to all
merchants and which had come about due to Lübeck’s initiative, the city of
Lübeck served as the acting institution. In contrast to the privileges of the
first group of charters, these did not serve local trade traffic within the for-
eign branches, but primarily served to secure and pacify the routes bound
for foreign trading places as well as to reduce or waive the customs on these
routes. Such charters occur until the late thirteenth century, and were, for the
most part concluded with persons of a clerical rank (Archbishop of Livonia,
Estonia and Prussia, the Bishops of Courland and Oesel, the Livonian master of
the order, Cardinal, priest and Legate Guido, and many others) and primarily
served to secure the sea route to Riga and Novgorod.112
The possible fourth group, after the individual city charters, comprised the
so-called ‘privileges by union’ or ‘unified privileges.’ Almost everywhere, Lübeck
was the first of the future Hanseatic Cities to obtain certain privileges for their
own merchants, and this when considering the entire trading region of the
Hanse: a region that included Scandinavia and the area along the entire East-
West route from Livonia via Pomerania and Mecklenburg to England, Holland
and Brabant. The desire of other cities to obtain identical rights resulted in a
new phenomenon: privileges by union. In fact, the (granted) privileges of this
group began with King Erich iv’s transference of rights from the merchants of
Cologne to the merchants of Soest (in Denmark) in 1232, but it is interesting
that, in 17 of 23 subsequent charters issued from that time until 1298, Lübeck
was listed as the first transferee.113
The mid-thirteenth century privileges of Flanders present a special case.
These privileges were negotiated by a town councilman of Lübeck named
111 Antjekathrin Graßmann, Rolf Hammel-Kiesow, “Lübeck,” in Lexikon des Mittelalters ,
vol. 5 (München et al.: Artemis, 1991), 2146–2150.
112 hub 1, No. 243 (1232) until Urkundenbuch der Stadt Lübeck, ed. Verein für Lübeckische
Geschichte, vol. i (Osnabrück: H. Th. Wenner, 1976; New printing of the 1843 edition) [in
the following: UBStL i], No. 637 (1295); Jenks, “Welfen,” 515f.
113 Jenks, “Welfen,” Appendix 1, 521f; in two cases, Lübeck, together with the ceteri civitatis
Sclavie et maritime, the Wendish cities, acquired the first charter.