Understanding the Wider Elbe-Weser Region the Territories Which Held
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CHAPTER ONE UNDERSTANDING THE WIDER Elbe-Weser REGION The territories which held possessions along the Lower Elbe and Lower Weser and their tributaries were characterised by political diversity rather than unity. They comprised not only the cities of Hamburg and Bremen as well as the duchies of Bremen and Verden (Stifte until 1648), but also consisted of the various territories of the county of Holstein, the duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the county of Oldenburg as well as other territo- ries with peripheral interests in the region, such as Sachsen-Lauenburg. The territories neither covered an individual political entity nor were they identical with the Lower Saxon Circle (Niedersächsischer Reichskreis), a political subdivision of the Holy Roman Empire.1 Although all of the above cities and principalities officially adhered to the Protestant faith, Bremen followed the reformed, Calvinist doctrine, forming a confessional island within the adjacent Lutheran territories. Furthermore, all territo- ries offered varying degrees of religious toleration. In addition, the social and legal conditions in the bigger cities of Bremen and Hamburg (or even the smaller ones of Lüneburg, Altona and Stade) differed significantly to those in rural areas.2 Despite their differences a multitude of links existed which connected the political entities to a geo-political area which we can justifiably call a region. The Lower Elbe, Lower Weser and their tributaries provided the most important of these regional links offering points of contact and enhancing cross-border foreign and local migration. Trade and travel routes followed the course of the rivers which were linked to a system of roads, interconnecting the region itself and providing contacts with 1 The Lower Saxon Circle consisted of the Guelph territories, the archbishoprics of Magdeburg and Bremen, the bishoprics of Halberstadt and Hildesheim as well as the bishoprics of Lübeck, Ratzeburg, Schwerin and Schleswig. The Hanseatic cities of Hamburg and Lübeck and the cities of Nordhausen and Mühlhausen were also included, the latter two as enclaves within the Upper Saxon Circle. The bishopric of Verden did not belong to the Lower Saxon Circle. Winfried Dotzauer, Die deutschen Reichskreise (Stuttgart, 1998), 334. 2 Ortwin Pelc, ‘Vor den Toren: Die Grenze zwischen Stadt und Land in Schleswig- Holstein vom 12. bis 19. Jahrhundert’, in Rheinheimer (ed.), Grenzen in der Geschichte, 185–209. 16 chapter one the outside world. The rivers effectively extended the North Sea and as such facilitated an intake of foreign merchants and entrepreneurs, whose length of stay ranged from a few days to several years or a lifetime. In addition, major routes between the North Sea and the Baltic region and into the Holy Roman Empire merged in the region, converting it into one of Europe’s most significant transit zones. Importantly, these connections existed not only in times of peace but also during conflict, as such activity brought migrants to the region in their capacities as diplomats, military officers or common soldiers. Understanding the factors which provoked tensions, rivalry and conflict between the different entities is therefore as important as understanding their economic and political coherence when analysing trade, settlement and network-building by Scots and other ethnic groups in the area. The Lower Elbe Region The ruling elites of the territories in question were bound together in as much as they all valued the significance of the Lower Elbe and Lower Weser as vital trade routes and arteries of strategic importance. Lorenzen- Schmidt revealed the significance of the Lower Elbe and its tributaries in linking the adjacent towns and territories to one coherent commer- cial area.3 This region featured towns which had developed on the tribu- taries of the Elbe between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. On the northern side of the river these were Krempe at the Kremperau, Itzehoe at the Stör and Wilster at the Wilsterau. On the southern banks the town of Buxtehude developed at the river Este, Stade at the Schwinge and Freiburg and Otterndorf directly at the Elbe.4 Furthermore, the river Oste connected Bremervörde, situated further inland within the territory of Bremen, with the larger waterway.5 The towns and rural areas on both sides of the Elbe were not only connected by shipping traffic but also by a ford at Wedel where herds of oxen could be driven across the stream.6 3 Klaus-Joachim Lorenzen-Schmidt‚ ‘Verbindendes und Trennendes: Einige Gedanken zur historischen Funktion der Unterelbe als Grenze’, in Rheinheimer (ed.), Grenzen in der Geschichte, 295–306. 4 Ibid., 299. 5 Elfriede Bachmann, ‘Bremervörde und die Oste’, in August Heinrich von Brook and Gisela Tiedemann (eds.), Die Oste: Lebensader zwischen Elbe und Weser (Bremerhaven, 2003), 47. 6 Lorenzen-Schmidt, ‘Verbindendes und Trennendes’, 305. Another ford was located further east at Zollenspieker..