98 Sarnowsky
Edward regained the throne in May 1471. Before that, he had crossed the
Channel with the help of 14 hanseatic ships, so that the towns were hoping
for a favourable solution of the conflict. But Edward renewed the privileges of
Cologne in July, at least temporarily, while the towns could not agree on the
prohibition of trading with English cloth. Especially Danzig complained about
Deventer, Wesel, and other cities that sold English cloth to Southern Germany.
Its town council demanded to cancel the earlier decisions, and Danzig mer-
chants in Bruges started to bring English cloth into the Baltic themselves.
At that point, the ships from Danzig contributed mostly to the war of piracy
directed against English, but also against French and Flemish ships. One of
its captains, Paul Beneke, later became famous for his assaults (exploited by
20th c. nationalistic propaganda), one of which being directed against a gal-
ley from Florence with freight said to be worth 60,000 pounds groot, sailing
under a Burgundian flag. Though Charles of Burgundy declared that he would
demand compensation for losses of his subjects and prohibited any help for
the Hanseatic ships like trade with booty and supply with victuals, he contin-
ued his efforts for negotiations.
In May 1472, English envoys proposed talks in Utrecht, and after some delays,
in May 1473, Lübeck declared its consent to the preliminary conditions, also in
the name of the other towns involved. When negotiations started in July, the
English diplomats were struck by the wide ranging demands of the Hanseatic
League, including compensation for the loss of the salt fleets in 1449 and 1458
as for the events in 1468.106 Edward iv did not concede the transfer of the trad-
ing posts in London, Boston, and Lynn into the towns’ property and the explicit
exclusion of the merchants from Cologne, but wanted to conclude peace at
nearly any price. Thus he confirmed nearly all regulations for the Hanseatic
merchants according to the second treaty of London (1437), reduced some
extra duties and guaranteed the quality of English cloth, while he completely
gave up the demand for reciprocity for the English merchants in the Baltic
which had been raised several times before. But this diplomatic success has to
be assessed against the background of the fact that the trade of the Hanseatic
League in England had lost its earlier importance already by 1420.107
106 Jenks, England, 2, 733–36.
107 Ibid., 745; cf. Stuart Jenks, “Der Frieden von Utrecht,” in Der hansische Sonderweg? Beiträge
zur Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte der Hanse, ed. Stuart Jenks, Michael North, Quellen
und Darstellungen zur hansischen Geschichte, N.F. 39 (Cologne, Weimar, Vienna: Böhlau,
1993), 59–76; Lloyd, Reconsideration; Kenneth A. Fowler, “English diplomacy and the peace
of Utrecht,” in Frühformen Englisch-Deutscher Handelspartnerschaft, ed. Klaus Friedland,
Quellen und Darstellungen zur Hansischen Geschichte, N.F. 23 (Cologne, Vienna, 1976),
9–26.