108 North
At the Imperial Diet of Augsburg in 1582, Emperor Rudolph ii made his
position known on the trade obstructions of neighboring states and also com-
mented on the complaints of the Hanseatic cities in a proposition that was
given to the Imperial estates in a documentary supplement which included the
petitions, memorandums, instructions and documentations of the past negoti-
ations of the Imperial Hanseatic cities. With this the Imperial cities expressed
themselves primarily only in the sense of the demands of the Hanseatic City.13
At the same time, they bombarded the English ambassador, George Gilpin,
and the representatives of the Hanseatic Cities with complaints and defen-
sive writings. The Hanseatic cities came out of the memorandum war as vic-
tors, because the electoral and princely councils (Kurfürstrat and Fürstenrat
respectively) took up deliberations on this problem. In case it did not come
to a compromise between England and the Hanseatic cities with regard to the
privileges, they recommended that:
[.. .] all English and Merchant Adventurers, together with their compa-
nies, their shipping, and their destinations, to approach also the buying
and selling and all stock trade to Emden and otherwise contained within
the Holy Empire with special earnest. By official Imperial mandate this is
forbidden to the Counts of East Frisia, as well as all other estates and sub-
jects of the Holy Empire; moreover, to keep this mandate with obedience,
they shall be liable by loss of title, fifes and other rights, which they have
received, from their majesty and Holy Empire, imposed and offered.14The Imperial cities commented on these considerations in a resolution con-
ceived by Lübeck’s legal counsel, Calixt Schein, and noted that the Hanseatic
privileges and the monopoly problem were two different things, however
the monopolistic practices of the “Merchant Adventurers”15 in the Empire
were independent from the influence of the English Queen. The Hanseatic
Cities made a similar argument. Thereupon the Electoral (Kurfürstenrat) and
Princely (Fürstenrat) Councils took the discussion up again, and both bod-
ies dismissed the resolution; the dismissal served as a basis for a mandate in
favor of the Hanseatic Cities. This banned the English, “monopolistic trade”,
13 I am indebted to Dr. Josef Leeb for providing additional sources of the Holy Roman
Empire.
14 Kölner Inventarband, Zweiter Band: 1572–1591, ed. Konstantin Höhlbaum, Nr. 170 (Leipzig,
1903), 734.
15 Ibid., Nr. 171, 734.