The ‘Golden Age’ of the Hanseatic League 65
1474), its privileges were not automatically renewed, and the merchants from
England and elsewhere demanded equal rights in the Baltic. Several times,
the town councils’ position was threatened by internal upheavals, while the
princes of the Empire tried to increase their power by attempting to reduce
the self-government of the towns. The towns reacted by forming closer con-
federations, the tohopesaten, in the middle of the fifteenth century, but were
only partly successful. Thus the ‘Golden Age’ of the Hanseatic League soon
developed into a period of dangers and partial decline, but the towns were at
least able to continue their independent policies and their internal develop-
ment. The institution of the Hansetage was strengthened by several regula-
tions, the towns agreed on measures against rebels, the closer association of
the ‘Confederation of Cologne’ (ended in 1385) was finally partly revived by the
tohopesaten, and the trade was adapted to the new situation. Thus, a period
of crisis only started after 1474 when the Hanseatic trading posts, kontore, in
Novgorod, Bruges, and elsewhere faced increasing problems and many towns
either decided to or were forced to end their co-operation within the League.
Thus the ‘Golden Age’ of the Hanseatic League, starting in the 1350s and finally
ending in 1474, was succeeded by decades of decline and efforts for renewal in
the Early Modern Period.
The Conflict in Flanders: Strengthening Ties between the
Hanseatic Towns
The later thirteenth and earlier fourteenth centuries were the formative period
of what became the Hanseatic League.6 By 1350, the trading posts, the kontore,
had developed their internal organization, which is shown by the regulations
for the Bruges Kontor of October 1347. The assemblies of the towns’ represen-
tatives, the Hansetage, had not as far as we know begun to become regular,
but there were at least assemblies with certain representatives from more than
one region even before 1300. One example is an assembly at Lübeck in about
1299 that included messengers from Riga,7 which is known from the report of
Hinrich Kale from Dortmund who played only a secondary role. As secretary
of the Dortmund town council Kale probably had no mandate to participate
in decisions, and Riga was only represented because the town had been in
conflict with the Teutonic Knights (since 1297) and was asking for the media-
tion of the Wendish towns. But at least the mechanisms for invitations had
6 Cf. Rolf Hammel-Kiesow, Die Hanse (Munich: Beck, 2000), 51–67.
7 hr i 1, 80.