Who Was When

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Hanseatic LeagueHanse

EuropeHeartland today: Germany

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A network of north German towns and merchant communities abroad that protected shared trade across the Baltic and North Seas. Lübeck led it, and its trading posts at Bruges, Bergen, London and Novgorod handled goods from fur to grain.

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Key events

  1. Lübeck and Hamburg form a formal alliance against robbers and pirates, one of the league's earliest agreements

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  2. – Treaty privileges for German merchants in Flanders open the way for the Hanseatic trading post at Bruges

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  3. The Cologne and Lübeck–Hamburg merchants in London join in one German Hanse, the post later known as the Steelyard

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  4. Hanseatic merchants win special trade privileges at Bergen, the last of the main trading posts to be organisedDisputed

    The 1911 Britannica gives 1343 for the Hanseatic merchants' special privileges at Bergen. Wikipedia says German merchants held trading rights in Norway from 1294 and puts the formal Kontor around 1350; other accounts say 1366.

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  5. After defeating Denmark's King Valdemar IV, the Hanseatic towns sign the Peace of Stralsund, gaining trade privileges and four castles on the Sound for a time

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  6. The last general assembly meets; Lübeck, Bremen and Hamburg keep the Hanseatic name alone

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