72 Sarnowsky
The Prussian towns were the first to ask for common measures against
Denmark and Norway and tried to win over the Wendish towns which had
gathered in Rostock in December 1366.31 But the mission failed. The Wendish
towns that were obviously still under the influence of their defeat by Waldemar
rather decided to send the secretary of the Stralsund town council, Alardus, to
Prussia with a letter to the grand master of the Teutonic Knights and the towns
refusing any help. Nevertheless, the Prussians soon found support by Dutch
cities, namely by Kampen and the towns at the Zuiderzee (today IJsselmeer).32
In June 1367, when the Wendish and Pomeranian towns gathered at Stralsund,
the Prussian towns Kulm, Thorn, and Elbing and Ludeke van Essen, com-
mander of the Teutonic Knights at Danzig, already reported that they wanted
to react against the threat by King Waldemar and to form an alliance with
Kampen and the towns at the Zuiderzee.33 The Wendish towns still hesitated,
especially because Danish envoys had invited them to an earlier meeting in
Denmark. Thus only the Prussian towns and those at the Zuiderzee united
against Denmark and Norway at an assembly in Elbing in July 1367,34 also sup-
ported by English and Flemish merchants who later declared that would also
keep out of Denmark and Norway, not sending any weapons, victuals, and
other goods.35
Only then, the Wendish towns decided in favour of a co-operation with
the other towns. In November 1367, the town councils’ representatives met in
Cologne, which was the only Hansetag there, notably without the official par-
ticipation of Cologne at the most important decisions. These included the for-
mation of the ‘Confederation of Cologne’ by the Wendish and Prussian towns
together with those from Holland and Zeeland and at the Zuiderzee, repre-
sented by Lübeck, Rostock, Stralsund, Wismar, Kulm, Thorn, Elbing, Kampen,
Harderwijk, Elborg, Amsterdam, and Briel.36 Though the alliances concluded
with the North German princes and Sweden played an important role,37
the ‘Confederation’ also meant a new quality in the relation between the
towns. The firm alliance was not only intended for the time of the war but
31 hr i, 1, 388 § 13.
32 Cf. Job Westrate, “Abgrenzung durch Aufnahme. Zur Eingliederung der süderseeischen
Städte in die Hanse, ca. 1360–1450,” Hansische Geschichtsblätter 121 (2003), 13–40, at 17.
33 hr i 1, 402 § 1.
34 hr i 1, 403.
35 hr i 1, 421 § 16.
36 hr i 1, 413; cf. Erich Daenell, Die Kölner Konföderation vom Jahre 1367 und die schonischen
Pfandschaften, Leipziger Studien aus dem Gebiet der Geschichte, vol. 1 (Leipzig, 1894), 1.
37 Götze, “Greifswald,” 109.