56 Hammel-Kiesow
in travels upon the land or the sea. Such treaties often included the noble sover-
eigns. On the other hand, they were intended to create common municipal laws
in the spirit of a continuing development of the old merchant right. Originally,
there were bilateral agreements, as, for example, those sealed between Lübeck
and Hamburg in 1241 or between Munster and Osnabruck. These bilateral
agreements were soon complemented or completely replaced by regional
groups. For example, the agreements between Munter and Osnabruck were
replaced in 1246 upon the conclusion of the Alliance of Ladbergen. This alli-
ance included a regional group comprising the Westphalian cities of Munster,
Osnabruck, Minden, Coesfeld and Herford. Another such group was created
by the City Alliance of Werne in 1253 and included Dortmund, Soest, Munster
and Lippstadt.115 In Lower Saxony, Munden and Northeim also came together
to form a treaty in 1246, which became, as it were, the first precursor of the
Lower Saxon Alliance of Cities. This alliance would come to include up to 15
cities under the leadership of Braunschweig.116 In these covenants and treaties,
one can recognize for the first time, the particular regions, which constituted
the Hanse. These regions included cities in the Zuijdersee, Westphalian, Lower
Saxon, Wendish, Prussian and Livonian areas. However, throughout the Hanse,
regional and individual municipal interests were far older than the Hanse itself
and as a result often super-ceded certain specific interests of the Hanse. It was,
therefore, often a difficult process, which initially led to joint trading within
the individual regions and, eventually, supra-regionally.
Due to their competition with one another, the Wendish cities had a partic-
ularly difficult time coming together. The subsequent core group of the Hanse,
including Lübeck and Hamburg, had worked closely together since 1241,117 but
only in 1259 did the Baltic cities of Lübeck, Wismar and Rostock conclude a
treaty for the protection of seafaring, which in 1265 was extended to include,
among other things, the decision to council together annually about common
affairs. Stralsund, which was besieged and partially destroyed by Lübeck in
115 Eva-Marie Distler, Städtebünde im deutschen Spätmittelalter. Eine rechtshistorische
Untersuchung zu Begriff, Verfassung und Funktion [Studien zur europäischen Rechts-
geschichte; vol. 207] (Frankfurt/Main: Vittorio Klostermann 2006).
116 Johannes Schildhauer and Konrad Fritze and Walter Stark, Die Hanse (Berlin: veb
Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften 1974), 76f; Matthias Puhle, “Der sächsische
Städtebund und die Hanse im späten Mittelalter”, in Hansische Geschichtsblätter 104
(1986), 21–34, 21f.
117 Not 1230! See further Klaus Wriedt, “Die ältesten Vereinbarungen zwischen Hamburg
und Lübeck,” in Civitatum communitas. Studien zum europäischen Städtewesen. Festschrift
Heinz Stoob zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Helmut Jäger et al., Städteforschung A/21 (Cologne:
Böhlau, 1984), 756–764; Jenks, “Welfen,” 507–513.