116 North
Hanseatic maritime law, which was adopted by the Hanseatic Diet in 1614, yet
his maneuverability was increasingly reduced. This was evident in the opening
phase of the Thirty Years War.28
To start with, the Hanseatic cities had to fend off the reprisals of Christian
iv; they could breathe easily again when the army of the Catholic League
defeated him in 1626 and in 1629 forced him into peace. Yet the Hanseatic cit-
ies hesitated—in 1628 Braunschweig, Bremen, Danzig, Hamburg, Hildesheim,
Cologne, Lübeck, Lüneburg, Magdeburg, Rostock, and Stralsund gathered at the
Hanseatic Diet of Lübeck—to veer into the Imperial camp, because Imperial
expansion was demonstrated clearly in the occupation of Mecklenburg by
Wallenstein and the imperial attacks on Stralsund. However, nothing more
than a cautious maneuver appeared possible to the cities. In the end, Lübeck,
Hamburg and Bremen decided on a defensive alliance in 1630, which took over
the leadership of the Hanseatic League. It was, however, less the defensive alli-
ance than the economically meaningful position of Hamburg which kept the
foreign powers at bay, while the alliance was strengthened by the Hanseatic
cities. It appeared more lucrative to make use of Hamburg as a finance and
communication center as well as the handling point of the weapons trade for
their own defensive efforts. In 1636, negotiations between the warring par-
ties took place several times, which by 1641 ended in the preliminary Peace of
Hamburg.
For the Hanseatic cities, the successes of Sweden meant additional maneu-
verability in trade politics. Thus the Hanseatic League was included in the
1645 Peace of Brömsebro and subsequently, Hamburg and Denmark agreed
upon the lifting the Glückstädter Elbe toll in the “Copenhagen Conception”.
However, Sweden claimed the mouths of the Elbe, Weser, and the Oder, and
so eventually a toll on the Elbe was raised in Stade. Even at the Westphalian
Peace Congress, the Hanseatic cities were present and were received into the
Peace of Westphalia.29
The Hanseatic Cities were also included in the treaty between the Spanish
and the Dutch and could thus restore their 1607 trade pact with Spain. Above
28 K. Friedland, “Der Plan des Dr. Heinrich Suderman zur Wiederherstellung der Hanse,”
Jahrbuch des Kölnischen Geschichtsvereins 31/32 (1956/57), 184–244.
29 Rainer Postel, “Hamburg zur Zeit des Westfälischen Friedens,” in Klaus Bußmann and
Heinz Schilling, eds., 1648: Krieg und Frieden in Europa (Münster, 1999), 337–343; Rainer
Postel, “Zur ‘erhaltung dern commercien und darüber habende privilegia:’ Hansische
Politik auf dem Westfälischen Friedenskongreß,” in Heinz Duchhardt, ed., Der Westfälische
Friede. Diplomatie, politische Zäsur, kulturelles Umfeld, Rezeptionsgeschichte (Munich,
1998), 522–539.