60 Hammel-Kiesow
Lübeck argued that this corresponded with the reinstitution of the old law.
Only a few cities (Riga and Osnabruck are known) ever refused their consent
to this action by the Wendish cities. Those that did, raised the issue that at the
Court of Novgorod, those libertates had always been effective that had been
kept by the ‘common merchant’ of Gotland for the longest time.131 Lübeck did
not succeed. In the 14th century the appellate court took place by annual turns
in Visby and Lübeck, a classic compromise.
The prohibition on the further use of the common merchant’s seal is even
more revealing of the stance taken against Visby. The city is not addressed by
name, but the decision clearly stated that the seal of the common merchants
was never to be used again on Gotland. This prohibition was justified by the
rational that other cities did not have this chance, and by the consideration
that each city had its own seal with which to affix its stamp upon the affairs of
its merchants.132 This withdrawal of a centralized legal means for authentica-
tion within a particular city corresponds to the legal constitution for the alli-
ance of those cities, which were unwilling to permit that something that they
had not unanimously consented to, should receive a seal of approval in the
name of them all.
Consequently, in the period from the turn of the thirteenth until the four-
teenth century, the alliance of the gemene stede had developed the organiza-
tional criteria necessary to enable the alliance to create the institutionalized
form of the dudesche hense about a half-century later. The economic and polit-
ical turbulence in the first decade of the fourteenth century, which brought
the majority of the Hanse’s core members, the Wendish cities, under the sover-
eignty of the noble lords and in turn limited the foreign and economic political
autonomy of these cities, was at fault for this delay. After all, throughout the
first two decades of the fourteenth century, the Wendish federation of towns,
which constituted the most active of the regional Low German federations
involved in the affairs of the early Hanse, was thrown back and temporarily
subjected by the renewed Danish aggression under King Erich Menved (1286–
1319) and by a form of the princely politic of re-vindication employed by the
sovereigns of the southwest Baltic coast. In 1306, Lübeck was forced to seek
protection from the Danish King in its struggle against neighboring princes
(no help came from the partners in the treaty that was extended in 1296 and
included Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund and Griefswald). Furthermore, Lübeck
was obliged to pledge its support to the transfer of the city, by any means
131 hr i, 1, no. 66–69; regarding Riga and Osnabrück no. 70–72; whether the transfer of juris-
diction to Lübeck ever took place is questionable; see also no. 80, 41f.
132 hr i, 1, no. 80, 41f.