The Lubeck Uprising of 1408 and the Decline of the Hanseatic League Author(s): Rhiman A. Rotz Reviewed work(s): Source: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 121, No. 1 (Feb. 15, 1977), pp. 1-45 Published by: American Philosophical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/986565 . Accessed: 02/03/2012 23:46

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

American Philosophical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society.

http://www.jstor.org THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 AND THE DECLINE OF THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE*

RHIMAN A. ROTZ Associate Professorof History, Indiana University Northwest

THE URBAN uprisings of the fourteenth and at or near the height of her wealth and power fifteenth centuries in Western Europe remain a around 1400. She was also no stranger to urban vexing interpretive problem despite a wealth of unrest, having felt minor disturbances, apparently individual studies and occasional efforts to syn- stemming almost wholly from lesser artisans such thesize them. Debate still turns on even the most as butchers and bakers, in 1376, 1380, and 1384.3 basic questions, such as the nature of the groups The events of 1408, however, far outstripped this which took part in them, their causes, and whether previous experience: some two-thirds of the town or not they are part of the "crisis" which, increas- council went into exile, and the citizens established ingly, is seen to pervade many aspects of four- a wholly new constitution providing for artisan teenth- and fifteenth-century life. The most re- representation on the council and citizen com- cent work suggests that perhaps the flaw lies not mittees to advise and check the council. The new so much with the research or the evidence but regime survived for eight years, during which with the assumptions historians have made-par- time ripples from this event spread into the Baltic ticularly the assumption that all uprisings of the and the Empire, with on the one hand sympathetic period share common features and belong to a citizen committees appearing in Rostock, Wismar, common category. It now seems more likely that and Hamburg, on the other the "Queen" excluded there are several types of uprisings, with some from "her" Hanseatic diet and under the ban of sparked by artisans, but also some by wealthy the empire as well. The splits in both the Hansea- merchants; some tied to individual economic or tic League and her chief city were quickly ex- social distress, but also some which were for the ploited by their enemies. In the long run the up- most part exactly what their participants said they rising, though settled peacefully, helped thwart were, protests against high taxes and the people some of Lubeck's territorial ambitions; more im- and policies which required the taxes.l portantly, the uprising revealed many of the The Lubeck uprising of 1408 offers an excellent Hansa's internal and external weaknesses which opportunity for a case study to test these conflict- would lead to its gradual loss of both economic ing interpretations and assumptions. Lubeck, the and political power in the northern seas. famed "Queen" of the Hanseatic League and a In spite of its obvious significance for both major commercial metropolis in spite of her rela- urban political and social history as well as in the tively small population of 22,000 to 24,000,2 was tale of the decline of the Hansa, no satisfactory * My research was made possible in part by grants-in- detailed study of this major uprising exists.4 What aid from the Penrose Fund of the American Philosophi- follows is an effort to fill this gap through the use cal Society and from the Division of Research and Ad- of research method which vanced Studies of Indiana University. I would like to prosopography-the thank John B. Freed of Illinois State University for his seeks to evaluate a defined group by the collection extensive and helpful criticism of a previous draft of this article. 3 von Brandt, 1959; Hoffman, 1889: pp. 140-142. There 1 For a review of the recent literature on uprisings are severe problems in dating these earlier uprisings; for with particular relevance for this investigation, see Rhi- example, Ehbrecht, 1974a, believes that there were only man A. Rotz, "Investigating Urban Uprisings" (1976). two of them, in 1374 and 1384 (pp. 278-282). The extant synthetic work is Michel Mollat and Philippe 4 The uprising has in fact been examined in detail only Wolff, The Popular Revolutions of the Late Middle Ages once since the initial effort to reconstruct a narrative by (London, 1973). For German and especially Hanseatic Carl Wehrmann a century ago, and that work, too, is towns, a recent useful survey is Wilfried Ehbrecht,"Biirg- based primarily on literary sources. See Wehrmann, ertum und Obrigkeit in den hansischen Stidten" (1974a). "Der Aufstand in Liibeck" (1878) and Edmund Cieslak, (Full references for all works cited in the footnotes may "Rewolta w Lubece" (1954). Some helpful suggestions be found in the bibliography.) toward an interpretationappear in R6rig, 1926: pp. 46- 2von Brandt, 1966: p. 219. Reincke, 1951b. 47 and Czok, 1963: pp. 103-110.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, VOL. 121, NO. 1, FEERUARY 1977 1 2 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. of biographical evidence, particularly social and than in governing. Towns and leagues of towns, economic data, on each of its members.6 Most the Hansa towns chief among them, had partially often used for occupational or elite studies, the filled this vacuum by absorbing many of the politi- method can be applied to groups which have de- cal and military ruling functions of northern Ger- fined themselves politically-in this case the many and the Baltic to accompany their economic known proponents and known opponents of the dominance, apparently with considerable success. uprising-and can be used to analyze the socio- The Hansa was, of course, victor of the Peace of economic composition of certain institutions-in Stralsund (1370),7 and each of its member towns this case, the Lubeck council before and after the controlled castles and broad expanses of rural ter- uprising. ritory far beyond its walls.8 This paper will consider the uprising's place in But on closer inspection, historians with the the history of Lubeck and of the Hanseatic League advantage of hindsight can see that the place of the as well as in the context of other uprisings. Evi- Hansa towns on their "peak" was far from secure. dence from prosopography will be used to deter- The decline of the Hanseatic League remains to mine the social and economic composition of the some extent an unsolved historical problem, but movement which established a new constitution in most modern authors at least agree that it must be 1408, the behavior of the town's elite during the seen as a gradual process with roots stretching uprising years, and the effects of the uprising on back some 250 to 300 years before the last Hansea- Lubeck's governing institutions. From this ex- tic diet of 1669. Fritz R6rig believed that signs amination and analysis will emerge not only a of deterioration were already evident in the 1370's, clearer picture of this uprising, but new insights i.e. precisely in the era of the great Hansa victory into the problem of the decline of the Hansa and a in the Danish wars, and Ahasver von Brandt better understanding of the relationship between basically accepts R6rig's conclusions.9 Philippe citizens and their government in a fifteenth-century Dollinger considers the time from about 1400 to town. 1475 a period of "gathering dangers" for the its characterized AT THE TURN Hansa, perhaps "crisis," by grad- 1. THE HANSEATICLEAGUE decline.10 Kon- OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY ual and at first barely perceptible rad Fritze regards roughly 1400 to 1440 as the The Lubeck of 1408 was played out uprising "turning point" of Hanseatic history, the time against a backdrop of complex power relationships when the Hansa failed to build on its earlier vic- in northern and the Baltic. Germany, Scandinavia, tories and failed to adjust to new economic and 1400 is often chosen as the The year marking ap- conditions, thus making its decline in- of the Hanseatic and its political proximate peak League evitable.11 In spite of differences on precise dates member towns-towns which functioned to a great and terminology among these historians, then, extent as influence through- "city-states," exerting clearly the Hansa towns were in difficulty, if not out this area and perhaps aspiring to rule it, either 7 On the Peace of Stral- or collectively.6 Legally, most Hansa Dollinger, 1970: pp. 67-72. individually see the issue of the Hansische Geschichts- towns within the Roman Empire; Lu- sund special lay Holy bliitter88 (1970), with articles by Jochen Gotze, Ahasver beck was a free imperial city. But imperial govern- von Brandt, and Philippe Dollinger, pp. 83-162; also ment tended to be ineffective at best, particularly Bjork, 1932, and Fritze, 1971. s 148-153. in the North, leaving its towns, free or not, with Fritze, 1967b. Von Brandt, 1954: pp. 9 Rorig, 1971, especially the essay "Aussenpolitische the burden of their own defense and foreign in der Hanse nach dem made und innerpolitischeWandlungen policy. The deposition of Wenceslas in 1400 Stralsunder Frieden," pp. 147-166 (originally published imperial rule even more hollow, as the claimants 1925). A useful summary of some of R6rig's views in to the throne to be far more in- English is his 1932 article on the Hanseatic League for disputed proved the Social Sciences. terested in funds-for their struggle volume 7 of the Encyclopedia of support-and Von Brandt, Geist und Politik in der liibeckischen Ge- 5 On the general applicationof this methodto pre- schichte (1954), pp. 26-29; "Recent Trends in Research modernproblems, see Strayer, 1971; for its particular on Hanseatic History" (1956), pp. 33-34. M. M. Postan, usefulness in the study of uprisings, see Rotz, 1976. Ex- writing in the Cambridge Economic History of Europe the of de- amples of studies of unrest in Hanseatic towns which use 2 (1952): pp. 223-230, would place beginning are Ahasver von Brandt, "Die Liibecker cline even earlier. prosopography 281. Knochenhaueraufstande"(1959) and Rotz, 1973a and lo Dollinger, The GermanHansa (1970), esp. p. 1973b. 11Fritze, Am Wendepunktder Hanse (1967a), esp. pp. also and Dollinger, 1970: pp. xxi, 62-82. Von Brandt, 1954: 7-16, 47-50, 178-185, 245-252. See Fritze, 1963, pp. 147-164. Schildhauer,1963. Schildhauer, 1963. VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 3 in the early stages of decline, by 1400. There is and to help judge the significance of, the Lubeck also a remarkable degree of consensus among these uprising. four authorities on Hanseatic history as to the The Hansa had owed its initial rise to wealth major factors which were causing Hansa weak- and power in large measure to its domination of nesses, so that in spite of some variation in tone the key route between the Baltic and North Seas- and emphasis their interpretations may be col- the portage at the Holstein isthmus through Lu- lectively summarized. By about 1400 the Hansa beck and Hamburg-in an age when seamen were merchants faced stiff competition from English and reluctant to brave the treacherous Straits of Den- especially Dutch traders; stronger princes and mark. Its merchants also came to prominence be- monarchs with new economic and territorial poli- cause many of the regions which they visited had cies placed severe pressures on the Hansa; the little or no commercial organization of their own. Hanseatic towns were unable to remain united in In the fourteenth century the Hansa began to lose the face of different economic and political inter- both of these virtual monopolies. Significant num- ests; and the basically conservative responses to bers of Englishmen and Dutchmen began to enter these and other problems by the leadership of the long-distance trade, and were soon sailing around Hansa produced no effective solutions. Further, the Skaw to visit Scania, the rich herring fishery all but von Brandt find that the uprisings in Hansa under the Danish crown which had until then de- towns accelerated the development of one or more pended almost totally on German merchants for its of these factors, and thus directly contributed to export. By about mid-century they had taken the the League's decline.12 No comprehensive review next logical step, using the Sound in a direct all- of all the literature on the decline of the Hansa can water passage from the North Sea to the Baltic, be attempted here but some brief discussion of at and were appearing in the Wendish and Prussian least these fundamental issues and their interrela- Hansa towns; by 1388 there was an organized tionships can be useful to provide background for, English merchant settlement in Danzig. The new route Danish waters was both 12 through cheaper Agreement among these four historians is of course and and also far more for The factors as here faster, practical bulky not total. principal given correspond and most closely to those of Dollinger, 1970; see also the and heavy items since it avoided unloading 1964 review of an earlier edition of that work by William reloading. Gradually even some Hansa merchants, L. Winter in Speculum 39: pp. 700-702. R6rig, 1971: pp. notably those from Prussian and Livonian towns, 148-154 added to this list of factors the plague-induced to use it. Lubeck and both from began Hamburg, naturally, end of the German "colonization movement," continued to the overland as Westphalia to Lubeck and from Lubeck to the Baltic promote portage towns; he further saw the disintegration of Hanseatic safer, but as seamen gained more experience in unity primarily in this context, i.e., competition replacing sailing the Skagerrak, Kattegat, and Sound, the cooperation among Hansa towns because the "colonies" chances of wreck were lessened. By 1400 English had lost their direct ties to their "mother"towns. Von and Dutch merchants no hesitated to take Brandt, 1956 and 1962, continuing the trend away from longer a basically political interpretationof the Hansa begun by textiles or other valuable cargoes on this route. Rorig, sees the League as almost totally an economic On the whole, the Hansa merchants defended phenomenon; thus he tends to de-emphasize the internal themselves successfully against the English; after Hanseatic political factors such as changes in the town the initial inroads had been the councils and which considered made, English uprisings R6rig important share of commerce increased if at in the in the development of a "conservative"Hansa, and his little, all, 1959 study of the Lubeck "Butchers' Rising" does not fifteenth century. It was English cloth, rather treat it in a context of League decline. Fritz, 1964 and than English merchants, which had the greatest 1967a, though aware of the general nature of the problem long-term effects. The Hansa's chief commodities of rising princes and monarchs, particularly emphasizes were Flemish Scania and the resurgence of Denmark and the development of a cloth, herring, Luneburg Danish-Dutch alliance; since his work focuses on the salt, carried for the most part in German ships, Wendish towns, this emphasis seems entirely appropriate, for exchange with the grain, forest products, and and a similar emphasis has been adopted here. Fritze, as metals of the northeastern European lands. In a Marxist, also places Danish-Hansa relations to some the later fourteenth its extent in a context of Scandinavianresistance to German century England developed "imperialism"with which von Brandt, 1962, would vigor- own textile industry, and soon this cloth began to ously disagree. The differing content which each gives find an export market in Hanseatic territory. The to the concept of "conservativeHanseatic leadership"will from Holland was even more be dealt with below. More complete reviews of the litera- challenge thorough ture which have appearedrecently are von Brandt, 1956; and thus more serious. By 1400 a large Dutch Fritze, 1967a: pp. 7-16; Harrison, 1971. merchant marine was carrying Dutch cloth, North 4 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.

Sea herring, and Bourgneuf salt to the Baltic-all sessions, e.g., Antwerp or, when Burgundian rule products admittedly of inferior quality to the tradi- expanded, Holland and Zeeland, and therefore tional ones, but also cheaper-and offering lower pursued policies which favored other locales at the freight charges for the return trip. In summary, expense of Bruges. It was the Danish ruler, how- now there were clear alternatives to the one-time ever, who probably had the greatest immediate Hanseatic monopolies: an all-water transit route impact on the Hansa, and certainly on Lubeck. A which avoided the great Hansa ports of Lubeck powerful king of Denmark could, if he so chose, and Hamburg altogether; new merchants, new strike at the strategic heart of the Hansa: the ships, and new products, underselling the Hansa Sound and the Scania fisheries, with their great ones in both West and East.l3 importance for both the Hansa and its competition, The Hansa's strength had also depended in were under Danish rule, and Holstein, even Lu- large measure on the weakness of, or cooperation beck herself, lay easily within reach. When in of, central governments in the areas the German 1360 Waldemar demanded higher payments for merchants visited. The League's geographic and renewal of the privileges at Scania and then con- economic position had been buttressed by privi- quered Gotland, sacking Wisby, the League con- leges which gave Hansa merchants distinct ad- sidered itself at war. Whether such rulers were vantages over natives and other traders. But in consciously following "national" or "mercantilist" the latter half of the fourteenth century the politi- policies is a matter of some debate, but this ques- cal situation began to change. Waldemar Atter- tion need not be resolved here. If they were only dag slowly rebuilt the power of the Danish mon- exploring new alternatives in order to see which archy from the ravaged state in which it had been policies would provide them with the greatest left by the counts of Holstein. The dukes of Bur- power and income, irrespective of "nationality," gundy from 1384 gradually began to assemble, the effect on the Hansa was still the same. Walde- from the many lordships of the Low Countries, mar's Danish expansion endangered the Hanseatic something approximating a centralized state. command of the Baltic; the English and Burgun- Hansa's Many German princes attempted to expand their dian policies encouraged the growth of the of its authority. A tendency toward stronger territorial chief competitors while diluting the value rulers was not in itself necessarily a threat to privileges.14 Hansa activities, but these rulers also tended to The Hansa was ill equipped to face such opposi- behind pursue new policies and to have the power to put tion, having no effective monarch or prince the im- them into effect. In England, for example, Edward it, in fact often viewed as an enemy by German III, otherwise a defender of Hansa privileges, by perial government and the various North to the eco- encouraging Flemings with skills in textile manu- princely houses. Thus, in response cen- facture to settle helped to create the new English nomic and political changes of the fourteenth but fate- cloth industry which began to undercut the posi- tury, the Hansa took a perhaps necessary tion of Flemish textiles and thus of Hanseatic ful step. It decided to fill the gap itself by The merchants. Later, when English merchants be- attempting to become the missing power. is best described came increasingly angered at the contrast between Hansa of the thirteenth century of German merchants. the privileged Hansa position at home and the as an informal community which cannot hostile reception Englishmen received in Hansea- Gradually, however, in a transition discernible after tic towns, his heir Richard II was persuaded to be pinpointed but which is clearly a al- act the League in order to win greater the diets of 1356-1358, it became formal, against of Ger- for them. Philip the Bold and his suc- though still loosely structured, association reciprocity "factories" in cessors, with more territory than any one ruler man towns. The great merchant and lost their had previously assembled in the Low Countries, Bruges, London, Bergen, Novgorod felt that the Hansa's staple-market at Bruges hin- 281-285, 373. dered the economic development of their other pos- 14Dollinger, 1970: pp. 67-75, 112-115, R6rig, 1971: pp. 154-157, and 1932: p. 266. Von Brandt, 373-374. 1954: p. 28. Fritze, 1967a: p. 50. On the Low Countries, 13 Dollinger, 1970: pp. 191-199, 285, 298-310, Also see and 1932: 265. Von see Bjork, 1938; on England, Palais, 1959. Rorig, 1971: pp. 154-157, pp. 263, the whole not 1962: 17-18. Fritze, 1967a: Winter, 1957, a highly speculative and on Brandt, 1954: p. 29, and pp. nevertheless to and 1964. See also Postan, 1952: pp. very persuasive article, but one which pp. 47-50, 67-82, the difficulties for the functioning 244-256; Vollbehr, 1930: pp. 4-28. On the eco- some extent illustrates 223-230, created the development of strong na- nomic and political importance of the Sound see Hill, of the Hansa by 1926. tional states. VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 5 independence; decision-making passed to town cies, the price of that friendship proved high. For governments, through their representatives at example, the terms of the peace treaty had given Hanseatic diets. The change gave the Hansa the towns control of the Danish fortresses on the more authority, not least because the towns could Sound for fifteen years-placing the Hansa in a summon up military forces, and was the under- commanding position against their commercial pinning for the great victories which followed: the competition. But this advantage slipped away defeat of Denmark in the wars of 1367-1370, suc- when Margaret, regent of Denmark, demanded the cessful embargoes of England and Flanders in return of the fortresses on the appropriate date in 1388, renewal of all Hansa privileges in those 1385, and the towns peacefully, though grudgingly, lands. In the flush of triumph, few noticed the complied. The League also made no objection in long-term effects of these political changes. The 1397 when Norway and Sweden were absorbed Hansa, while not a "state," had acquired most of into the Danish crown with the Union of Calmar. the powers of one. To some extent it ruled ter- Whether the Hansa realized it or not, Denmark ritory, indirectly through its member towns, and was again on the rise, as became immediately ap- on occasion even directly (for example, the fort- parent in the struggle for Schleswig beginning in resses on the Sound, held collectively for a time 1404. Ever since Margaret's reluctant grant of by the members of the Confederation of Cologne that duchy to Gerard VI, Count of Holstein, in under the terms of the Peace of Stralsund). Cer- 1386, the royal house of Denmark (which was not tainly it had its "sphere of influence" which it only overlord of Schleswig, but which also had would need to defend, like other great powers of probably the best hereditary claim to it) had the day (and since). In other words, now it had waited for an opportunity to get it back. The not only economic, but also political ambitions death of Gerard in battle, leaving minor sons, set which could come in conflict with the policies of his widow against his brother for control of the major rulers. But when such conflict came, the duchy, an opening which Margaret used to place League's ability to act was ultimately dependent the sons-and thus not only Schleswig, but also on the willingness of its member towns to unite. Holstein-under the guardianship of her heir, and The emergence of the Hanseatic League as a nominal king, Eric of Pomerania-Stolpe. If this political power thus in no way solved its problems; expansion succeeded, both strategic points for at best the towns had bought time for themselves, trade in the northern seas, the Sound passage and while multiplying the potential for difficulties in the Holstein portage, could pass to Danish hands. the future.15 Such an outcome would not necessarily be anti- The Hansa's successes in the West, for example, thetical to Hansa interests if the alliance held; a stopped neither the further development of the strong Denmark which chose to be champion of English monarchy nor more Burgundian acquisi- the towns could have dealt a grave blow to their tions in the Low Countries, and gave only momen- English and Dutch competition. The indications, tary setbacks to English and Dutch commercial however, were that such a policy was not likely, expansion, while leaving a legacy of mutual hos- since Margaret in 1405 took steps to protect the tility for coming generations.16 The apparent halt non-Hanseatic merchants visiting Scania. We do to Danish growth proved to be similarly transi- not know whether the potential for an alliance be- tory. After Stralsund, the League seems to have tween Denmark and the Dutch and English traders reversed itself, deciding on a policy of friendship against the Hansa-an alliance which could allow with Denmark. Perhaps the Hansa leaders were the Danish expansion which the League had op- convinced that Denmark had been permanently posed while still insuring a commercial outlet for weakened, but whatever the reasons for their poli- Danish goods-had already occurred to Margaret, as it did to her successors. But in any case, it is 15 See especially Dollinger, 1970: pp. 62-72, 106-112. fair to say that by the early fifteenth century, most The distinction between the "Hansa of the merchants" of the advantages which the Hansa had won over in and the "Hansa of the towns" is a commonplace the Denmark in 1370 had melted away.17 historiography of the League (although its negative as- pects are much less frequently noted), e.g., R6rig, 1932: 17 Dollinger, 1970: pp. 78-82 and 284, considers the re- pp. 262-263; von Brandt, 1956: p. 32; Fritze, 1967a: p. turn of the fortresses and acceptance of the Union of 7; Daenell, 1905: 1: pp. 50-56; Stein, 1911; Schildhauer, Calmar wise policies, noting that Margaret and the 1963. Hansa were at the time allied against Albert of Mecklen- 16 Dollinger, 1970: pp. 73-77; Rorig, 1971: pp. 157-159; burg and the pirates he encouraged; on p. 373 he specu- Fritze, 1963; Bjork, 1938; Winter, 1948; Palais, 1959. lates on the benefits a permanent Hansa-Denmark as- 6 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.

The League's problems with England, the Low burg under its sway. The town acquired the Countries, and Denmark were only the most ob- castles and bailiwicks of both Molln, a key point vious of its difficulties with stronger rulers in the on the Lubeck-Luneburg route, and Bergedorf on later fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. The the Elbe River. In the same period, Lubeck citi- same ineffective imperial rule which had led to zens gradually displaced the lesser nobility on the development of the towns as powers also made many of the landed estates in those bailiwicks. possible a resurgence of the various German Then in the 1390's Lubeck and Eric III, duke of princes in precisely the same period, and to any Saxony-Lauenburg (line of Bergedorf-Molln), one town this nearby threat probably loomed at jointly began a canal between the Stecknitz and least as large as that from distant monarchs. Virtu- Delvenau rivers, a major development which ally all the Hansa towns owed at least nominal would greatly speed the exchange of Luneburg allegiance to a noble or bishop, and when these salt for Scania herring, and would even draw a overlords attempted to assert their authority grave small amount of Baltic-North Sea trade through problems could result: an economic policy for M6lln by providing an all-water route, though a the town which ran at cross-purposes to Hanseatic shallow and circuitous one, to the Elbe and Ham- needs; pressure to make the town an ally of, or at burg. Such an extension of Lubeck's influence, least neutral toward, a declared Hanseatic however, made enemies for the town among power- enemy.l8 But whether feudal suzerain or not, a ful nobles. The dukes of Brunswick-Luneburg prince seeking to enlarge his power naturally tried to stop construction of the canal in 1396, re- would cast his eyes on a nearby town, and par- treating only in the face of a major campaign by ticularly on its rural lands and castles. The in- Lubeck. In 1401 Eric III died without direct dividual towns soon discovered that their terri- heirs and Lauenburg was reunited under his dis- torial acquisitions in the countryside could be as tant cousin Eric IV of the Ratzeburg-Lauenburg much of a liability as an asset, involving them in line. In the inheritance dispute which followed, frequent, and often hugely expensive, feuds with Lubeck abandoned Bergedorf to Eric IV in order the landed nobility. Even Lubeck, which as a to keep its hold on Molln and the canal. But the free imperial city had no neighboring overlord to peace bought by this maneuver was only tempor- fight, could not avoid territorial conflicts, and Lu- ary, as Eric IV remained hostile to the town, and beck's experience is an instructive example of the by at least 1407 the expenses for defending M6lln problem which is also directly relevant to its up- outstripped the income from it. Also in 1401 rising. Initially territorial expansion, especially Duke Albert of Mecklenburg had protested that when along trade routes, had seemed a wise policy the canal would divert salt trade away from his and apparently held the support of the citizenry, lands. His kinsman Balthazar, Prince of Werle, particularly merchants and others who were look- later supported by Duke Barnim VI of Pomerania- which ing for low-risk investment opportunities in landed Wolgast, began a series of raids on Lubeck estates. Thus in the second half of the fourteenth by 1404 escalated into a major feud.9 As we century Lubeck embarked on an extremely ambi- tious the trade routes to Luneburg 19For a good survey of the territorial policies and policy along Hanseatic see and which 1400 had roughly problems generally common to towns, Hamburg by brought and also 1967a: 82-114. On the specific of Fritze, 1967b, pp. one-third of the entire duchy Saxony-Lauen- policies and problems of Lubeck, see especially Diiker, 1932, and Schulze, 1957: other helpful works are Hoff- sociation could have had. Von Brandt, 1962: p. 26, man, 1889: pp. 142-145: Wehrmann,1895: Hartwig. 1908; 1953. Works agrees to the extent that siding with Margaret was pre- Bertheau, 1913; Hefenbrock, 1927, and Fink, ferable to the of a union of Denmark, Sweden, which touch on these issues from the points of view of prospects and and Mecklenburg under Albert. Fritze, 1963, 1964, and Lubeck's neighbors Hamburg, Brunswick, Luneburg, 1967a: pp. 178-185 considers Hanseatic-Scandinavianhos- the Mecklenburg towns include Reincke, 1939; Fryde, tility as a natural product of their economic relationships, 1964; Kliinder, Lobsch, and Schultz, 1973. and so considers these policies evidence of Hansa weak- It should be noted here that the details of the events ness; in any case, as he also points out, since the League relating to Lubeck's territorial policy were in fact more was at war with Denmark again by 1426, the attempt to complicated than as outlined above. For example, preserve friendship did not work in the long run. See Balthazar of Werle had apparently been an ally of Lu- also Dollinger, 1970: pp. 295-297; Hill, 1926: pp. 8-10; beck in the 1396 feud against the Guelphs, but felt that Niitemaa, 1960: pp. 96-110. he had been insufficientlyrewarded for his services; thus s Dollinger, 1970: pp. 112-115; Rorig, 1971: pp. 157- he continuedhis feud with Lubeck even after Duke Albert 159; von Brandt, 1962: pp. 12-13, and 1954: p. 28; Fritze, was granted a share in the income from the Stecknitz- 1967a: pp. 82-114. Delvenau canal. We cannot be sure of either the starting VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 7 shall see, these conflicts greatly contributed to Lu- much profit for them in dealing directly with beck's difficult financial position which was the Dutchmen and Englishmen, or in sailing the proximate cause of the uprising of 1408. It is also Sound themselves, as in channeling their com- worth noting here, with Dollinger, R6rig, and merce through Lubeck and Hamburg. This di- Fritze, that a town which was weakened by an vergence of economic interests among Hansa towns uprising offered an excellent opportunity to a found its reflection in their political posture as prince seeking to fatten his holdings at its expense. well. Lubeck could benefit economically from a It was no coincidence that Eric IV chose 1409 to war with Denmark that closed the Straits, since it make a major assault on the castle of M6lln.20 would divert more commerce her way; Prussian These economic and political pressures helped and Livonian towns tended to be more interested to dissolve what unity the Hansa had possessed. in keeping the Sound open and thus much more The term "League," as traditionally applied to the hesitant to join in a Danish conflict. The Hansa Hansa, deserves qualification. Both Dollinger and towns of the Rhineland, whose trade rarely crossed von Brandt prefer the word "community," as a either route, often held themselves aloof from both means of expressing the loose structure and lack sides of this question. To such difference of in- of precise organization which characterized the terests must be added the reluctance of all towns Hansa. Von Brandt further describes it as little to spend money. The decision of the Hansa to more than a latent community of interests, subject become a political power could only add more at any time to realignment when a town's other burdens to town treasuries already thinned by the needs superseded for the moment the common feuds to defend their territories and expeditions to economic bond.21 The difficulties of the later four- clear the waters of pirates which also occurred teenth and early fifteenth centuries could only with greater frequency beginning in the later four- sharpen these centrifugal tendencies. For example, teenth century. For its military forces the Hansa the opening of the route around the Skaw, and depended on semi-voluntary contributions of ships, the Dutch and English presence in the Baltic, men, and funds from its member towns. It could forced a cleavage of particular significance for Lu- expel towns which refused to submit levies agreed beck's role in the Hansa. Lubeck (and Hamburg upon by its diet, but first the diet had to agree. as well) had an obvious vested interest in preserv- Thus normally Hanseatic military campaigns were ing the role of the Holstein portage as the princi- officially undertaken not by the League itself, but pal transit point, so its policies tended to be actively by a confederation developed specifically for that hostile to any efforts to promote traffic through the purpose. Even in the later fourteenth century Straits, whether English, Dutch, or Hanseatic. some towns had already become reluctant to join Other League members, notably Prussian and such confederations solely because of their unwill- Livonian towns, had no such commitment to the ingness to shoulder the expenses. Another dif- traditional route; in the fourteenth century their ficulty, already mentioned, was a town's need to merchants discovered that there was at least as consider the policy of its overlord before going to war. Thus the great "Hanseatic" struggle against Denmark in 1367-1370, for example, was in fact or completion dates of the canal: the chronicler Detmar describes it as completed by 1398, but other sources indi- actively supported by only about a dozen Hansa cate that it was still partially unfinished in 1410. How- towns, mostly Wendish and Prussian (in alliance ever, the central point-that all these feuds related to with the of the Duke of Mecklen- Lubeck's territorial ambitions in Lauenburg, especially King Sweden, the canal-is not affected by these complications. The burg, the Counts of Holstein, some Danish nobles, relevantsources are in Karl Koppmann's(1899-1902) and even a few of the Dutch towns who were the edition of Lubeck narrative documents,published as Hansa's The blockade of Flanders volumes 26 and 28 of the Chronikender deutschen Stidte competitors). (hereinafterabbreviated C 26 and C 28), and in Wil- in 1388 was achieved only by agreeing to spare helm Mantels, Carl Wehrmannet al., Liibeckisches the Teutonic Order and the Prussian towns from Urkundenbuch(1843-1905) (hereinafter abbreviated obedience to some of its terms. Yet these are the LUB). See especiallyC 26: pp. 131-134,C 28: pp. 19- 24, 33; LUB 3: nos. 323 and 707, LUB 5: nos. 184 and times in which the League is generally considered 294. to have been most united. Clearly the "Hansa of 20 Dollinger,1970: p. 139. R6rig, 1932:p. 266. Fritze, the towns" which had in the later four- 1967a: 252. emerged p. a 21 Dollinger,1970: p. xx. Von Brandt,1962: pp. 7-12. teenth century was fragile structure, and by 1400 For a dissentingview, see Schildhauer,1963 and 1974. any efforts at collective action faced a struggle to 8 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. surmount divergent town interests and depleted 1408: Rostock, Wismar, and Hamburg all came town coffers.22 to ally with the new Lubeck regime in spite of the And, although only Dollinger and Fritze make League's threat of action against it, in effect virtu- the point, it is worth noting that urban unrest in ally removing themselves from participation in the a member town also tended to divide the League. Hansa and, as we shall see, increasing the League's When the Hansa became an association of town vulnerability to princes and monarchs.23 councils, Hanseatic diets also naturally became Finally, our authorities all describe Hanseatic points of appeal for dislodged town councillors, leadership and decision-making as "conservative," in spite of the usual position of the forces which although there is some difference in the further had dislodged them that a town's internal affairs content given that phrase. The greatest agree- were its own and perhaps its prince's business, not ment among them is on the subject of Hansa eco- the League's. The Hansa began attempting to nomic policy. Once the German merchants had affect the politics of its members as early as 1366, led the North in new commercial techniques and in the disorders in Bremen. The League re- business practices, but by the fifteenth century ap- sponded to the Brunswick uprising of 1374 with parently no ideas occurred to the leaders of the its heaviest sentence of the fourteenth century: "Hansa of the towns" beyond trying to shore up Brunswick was expelled from the Hansa, and its the same weakening foundation. The classic ex- merchants denied the Hanseatic privileges and any ample is the defense of the Bruges staple in spite trade with Hansa towns, until a settlement was of the gradual silting up of the harbor there and reached in 1380. Just the threat of League action the shift of most commercial activity to Antwerp. was enough to dissolve unrest in Stralsund in Less well known are the sporadic League attacks 1391. Clearly Hansa intervention was a powerful on credit finance beginning in 1401. Hansa actions weapon which the extant town councillors could were not always such obvious attempts to recap- employ against their enemies. But, just as clearly, ture the past, but certainly its answer to competi- such efforts to determine the political directions of tion was overwhelmingly to meet it not with lower individual towns could create yet another set of prices and better practices in the marketplace, but divergent interests which could lead to further rather with "protectionist" measures intended to Hanseatic fragmentation. Obviously citizens of force all northern commerce through the Hansa on such towns might come to resent the Hansa, par- its own terms. The diets resolved not only to re- ticularly those merchants who had taken no part serve Hansa privileges for citizens of Hansa towns, in in the uprising but who nevertheless had received but to forbid Hanseatic merchants to invest any severe economic punishment. Towns whose com- non-Hanseatic enterprises, including any partner- merce was closely tied to an excluded town would ships with Dutch or English merchants. Needless have suffered along with it, and might join with to say, such measures did not destroy the competi- the offenders in thinking that the Hansa had over- tion, and in fact often worked to put Hanseatic in- their ef- stepped its authority. For example, there are merchants at a disadvantage; principal dications in the evidence that Cologne, Hanover, fect, where they were successfully enforced, was to ex- and Hildesheim had opposed the afore-mentioned deny the Hansa any share in the commercial expulsion of Brunswick; further, during it some pansion of Holland and England.24 and towns defied the Hansa's ban, notably Bremen 23 1970: 137-140, 286-291; Fritze, 1967a: Bruns- Dollinger, pp. Magdeburg, which continued to trade with pp. 245-252. On Brunswick, see Rotz, 1973a and 1973b, wick merchants and to deal in Brunswick products especially 1973a: p. 216. The evidence for the posture in Karl until at least 1378. Such tensions were to appear of other Hansa towns toward Brunswick appears Die Recesse und andere Akten der more in the Lubeck uprising of Koppmann, ed., even distinctly Hansetage (1870-1897) (hereinafter abbreviatedHR) 2: 3: no. and in Karl Kunze, ed., 22 1970: pp. 67-77, 85-97, 106-129, 285, 372- nos. 71 and 156; 316; Dollinger, Urkundenbuch 4: no. 184. See also Czok, 373. R6rig, 1971: pp. 148-154, and 1932: p. 265. Von Hansisches 1956 and Ehbrecht, 1974c; Daenell, 1905-1906: 1: Brandt, 1954: p. 153, and 1962: pp. 7-11, 18-22. Fritze, 1957; 250-252. See also Postan,1952: pp. 223-230, pp. 162-168; 2: pp. 500-518. 1967a:pp. 24 1970: 374; von Brandt, 1954: and Bode, 1919. On piracy, see Bjork, 1943. Dollinger, pp. 199-206, 244-256, both of whom essentially confine their use of the Even Hamburg, whose interests were clearly affected, p. 26, term to economic decisions. Rorig, 1971: pp. 160-166, was reluctant to join the Confederationof Cologne against 47- its funds were low from a series of and 1932: pp. 265-266; Fritze, 1967a: especially pp. Denmark because For the further comments of R6rig see the comments by Hans Nirrnheim in his 50, 178-186, 245-252. feuds; see below. Note also Postan, 1952: pp. 244- introduction to the Hamburg poundage book of 1369 and Fritze, 256 and on Bruges, van Houtte, 1966. (1910), pp. xi-xiv. VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 9

Both R6rig and Fritze have also applied the so, increasingly, newly successful merchants were term "conservative" to the actions of Hanseatic shut out from town councils and thus from deci- leaders outside the realm of economics. R6rig sion-making. To R6rig it followed that men whose considered Hansa foreign policy after 1370, par- personal financial goals were "conservative" would ticularly toward Denmark, simply an attempt to have developed equally "conservative" economic keep what had already been gained, in part because and political policies for the town and the League. of a conscious decision, especially in Lubeck, that Uprisings, according to R6rig, accentuated this the League was "saturated," that it had reached or tendency. The artisans which he believed had led surpassed the limits of what it could easily main- them were, as guildsmen, naturally "protectionist" tain, that further expansion could only bring in economics, and also resisted any higher taxation further difficulties.25 Fritze, writing from an East that might have underwritten an expansionist mili- German and a Marxist-Leninist perspective, also tary campaign. Thus the councillors were further describes Hanseatic policy toward Denmark as a impelled, both by uprisings and by the desire to defense of the status quo, but from quite different pacify the men who might create them, to adopt motives. He agrees that it was led by Lubeck, but "conservative" economic measures and foreign feels that it stemmed less from a vision of "satura- policies.27 Fritze, on the other hand, describes tion" than from a self-interested attempt to pre- another relationship of internal politics to the de- serve Lubeck's position of dominance on the Bal- cline of the Hansa. He agrees that Hanseatic tic and in the Hansa, and to maintain Hanseatic towns were ruled by a narrow circle of families "imperialism" by nipping Scandinavia's economic who had in part diversified their investments with development in the bud. Lubeck's goals, accord- property. When they governed in accordance ing to Fritze, were to keep Denmark out of Hol- with these economic interests, however, their poli- stein, to restrict the use of the Sound, and to cies brought them into conflict with the interests block the penetration of English and Dutch com- of other elements of the population, and eventually petition into northeastern Europe. Whether such citizen unrest broke out. Fritze, indeed a Marxist, goals served the interests of the entire Hansa can but one who has carefully read the evidence, finds be debated-certainly they offered little benefit to no "class struggle" in these uprisings, but rather its Prussian and Livonian members-but Fritze a mixed force of "plebs," artisans, and even some sees that they would have restored Lubeck's role merchants in support of them-anyone whose eco- as the essential transit point between the Baltic nomic needs ran at cross-purposes to those of and the North Sea, thus still indisputably "Queen the councillors. In his opinion such town council- of the Hansa," and would have kept Scandinavia lors, and the Hansa when it supported them, in thrall to the German towns.26 showed their "decidedly reactionary" character in In spite of their divergent points of view, both their response to unrest, since they would go to Rorig and Fritze additionally believe that the any lengths, from excluding the town from the "conservative" pattern holds for internal town poli- League to alliance with the town's princely tics as well. Those who sat on the town councils enemies, to restore the old regime. In short, defended the status quo-their possession of politi- Fritze sees not just "conservatism" but reaction- cal power-against other citizens, and the League ary self-interest in the decisions of the Hansa as a whole, with its policies of intervention against leadership, both in its Lubeck-centered foreign uprisings, backed them up. Their opinions of the policy and in its elitist posture toward its own causes and effects of this process, however, are citizens. In both respects, the Hansa was con- virtually opposite. R6rig saw a more or less natural ducting a rear-guard action against progressive development over successive generations, in which forces which was eventually doomed to fail.28 the descendants of the great Hanseatic merchants To summarize: the Hanseatic League by the retreated from the risk-taking which had made turn of the fifteenth century faced vigorous com- their family fortunes and turned instead to simply petition from Englishmen and Dutchmen who were preserving their wealth in low-risk investments almost literally sailing around its monopoly, and such as land and houses. There was, however, no hostility from stronger rulers who believed that corresponding retreat from the political power which their fathers and grandfathers had held, and 27 R6rig, 1971: pp. 159-166, 216-246, 658-680. In his 1932 summary, p. 266, R6rig confines himself to saying 25 Rorig, 1971: pp. 160-161, and 1932: p. 265. only that uprisings "paralyzed"a town's "politicalvigor." 26Fritze, 1967a: especially pp. 178-186, 250-251. 28Fritze, 1967a: especially pp. 251-252, and 1967b. 10 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.

Hansa power was throttling their own expansion. venient and a logical meeting place. Founded in It met these challenges with its unity badly split the mid-twelfth century, it rapidly became the like- by divergent town economic and political needs, liest home for German, especially Westphalian, and with only conservative responses. Under merchants seeking profit from the Baltic, and the these general headings, urban unrest in Hansa principal embarkation point for German coloniza- towns may figure as a subsidiary issue. Dollinger tion of Eastern Europe. As such, it led the strug- and R6rig both see it as weakening the Hanseatic gle for German economic control of the northern towns' stance against rulers. Dollinger also finds seas. Although by the turn of the fifteenth century uprisings placing further strains on the towns' it was no longer the indispensable transit port for fragile unity; R6rig describes them as a force Baltic commerce, nor the center of a migration which accelerated the tendency toward defensive which had by then largely ceased, still its mer- "protectionist" policies. For both of these, then, chants traveled not only to every point from Lon- uprisings helped to cause the Hansa's decline. don to Novgorod but to Atlantic ports and to Italy, Fritze, however, views these disturbances more as returning with profits that had not visibly di- a symptom of the Hanseatic regression, particu- minished. Its power, as we have seen, expressed larly as vivid illustrations of the bankruptcy of itself not only through the Hansa but through Hansa leadership. They presented opportunities council and citizen possessions in the countryside for princes and led to further tensions within the around the town, with land and castles in Holstein League because the "reactionary" leadership was and Mecklenburg, and a partnership in a canal in willing to risk those dangers in order to preserve Lauenburg. In short, Lubeck was not just a their monopoly of power. One thing is clear: for town; it was quite possibly the most ambitious, a full evaluation of the significance of the events and certainly one of the most successful, of the in Lubeck in and after 1408, they need to be in- North German "city-states." 29 vestigated not only in the context of other upris- By the early 1400's, however, this decision to ings but also with an eye for possible ties to the rule outside the walls on both land and sea was difficulties the entire Hansa was experiencing at clearly straining town resources beyond the limits the same time. Needless to say, one case study of of citizen willingness to pay. The proximate cause one uprising will not "solve" the problem of the of the uprising of 1408 was a town financial crisis, decline of the Hanseatic League; it may, however, a refusal of citizens to accept higher taxes needed better illuminate some of the aspects of that prob- to offset town indebtedness. It was the pursuit of lem. power on a regional and international level, both individually and as a principal architect of Hansea- 2. LUBECK,THE HANSA, AND THE LUBECK tic policy, which had led to wars and feuds, and UPRISING OF 1408 these largely brought Lubeck to that financial as we shall the also Lubeck was the "Queen of the Hansa." Though crisis.30 And, see, uprising had a on the town's ability to not the largest town of the League in population, significant impact it was second to and generally func- exercise power thereafter. only Cologne, had as as the leader of the towns. Signs of discontent in Lubeck appeared tioned recognized excise Lubeck issued the invitations to Hanseatic early as 1403, when the council requested Usually to reduce its indebted- diets and its councillors presided over the diets. taxes on various staples help and citizen all official League correspondence was ness, but guild protests, especially Virtually caused them to retreat to a special sent and received by the Lubeck chancellery; in from brewers, marks from "all those able to afford the absence of a diet, the Lubeck council handled tax levy of six 31 the council was aware most routine Hansa business and could claim with it." Further evidence that little challenge to speak for the League. Lubeck 29See for exampleDollinger, 1970: pp. 19-23, 117; made the contributions to Hanseatic Rorig, 1932: p. 264; von Brandt,1954: pp. 147-164. usually largest of Wilhelm in naval actions, which 30 On this point,see especiallythe comments military forces, especially 1919: 212. commanded a Lubeck burgomaster. Bode, p. often were by 31The followingnarrative is based on the chronicles Lubeck's central role in the Hansa stemmed from and othermaterials in C 26: pp. 383-434,and C 28: pp. and 6 its location, its history, and its prosperity. It stood 43-86, 358-367,and on the documentsin LUB 5 and 6. Some useful secondarynarratives of not at the Baltic end of the Holstein portage, and HR 5 only the uprisingare Wehrmann,1878; Daenell,1905: 1: pp. but also roughly halfway between the Prussian 162-197; Pitz, 1959: pp. 292-297; Dollinger,1970: pp. and the Rhenish towns, and so was both a con- 286-291. VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 11 of its relatively weak position is its care to secure The stunned council returned with equally ex- citizen assent to a retaliatory campaign in the tensive responses, naturally justifying their policies aforementioned feud against Balthazar of Werle and stewardship, and claiming that their "ances- and Duke Barnim (known in Lubeck as the tors" (i.e., previous councils) had incurred the "Wendish wars") before approving the policy. major portion of the debt. Clearly communica- By 1405 a solution to the debt problem could no tion was not being served by the town policy of longer be postponed, and the council raised fees at keeping financial affairs in total secrecy, and thus, the town mill and again proposed excise taxes, be- not surprisingly, the next demand of the Sixty was ginning with a levy on beer. It tried to anticipate for the council to open the books. The council citizen objections by suggesting that the citizens agreed to allow citizen representatives to examine select certain persons to discuss the situation with some of the records. Furthermore, when at the council. roughly the same time the council filled its vacan- The townspeople seized on that suggestion with cies, one of the most vocal Sixty members was a vengeance, and developed the Committee of among the four men chosen for councillor.33 But Sixty, an independent group with the power to the citizens were not satisfied, although after their call citizen assemblies, which immediately delivered inspection of finances some complaints were extensive and specific articles of complaint to the dropped. The representatives had found that council. Their basic position was that the town's 71,080 marks of the annuity debt came from sales debt was the council's, not the citizens', fault, and of the last twelve years. This was an enormous therefore it was up to the councillors to find their sum, perhaps equal to four or five years' income own solution without overtaxing the citizenry. To for the town, an amount which later would have justify this position, they specified instances of sufficed to support Lubeck's participation in the mismanagement and unsuccessful policies, such as Hansa wars with Denmark for six years. Fritz the recent bankruptcy of the town mint; low rates R6rig has estimated its modern purchasing power of income from various municipal properties like at around one million pounds sterling.34 Combined meadows and wine cellars; failure to keep shipping with recent excessive military expenditures-the lanes clear of debris and silt, pirates, and the ships "Wendish wars," for example, had cost roughly feuds with of other towns, and the numerous six times the original estimate-this meant that the nobles. The collective implication was that the bulk of the town's burden stemmed not from council had been its best efforts on busi- spending "ancestors" but rather from these very ness of the Hanseatic to the of profligate League neglect councillors. The to some new taxa- local affairs. It also seems that the Sixty was Sixty agreed but on the condition of more citizen par- groping toward opposition to further territorial tion, only in continued expansion. It not only criticized the council's ticipation government, specifically and the installation of policy in the usual way-too much expense for too existence of their committee few victories-but also demanded that citizens two citizen assistants for each of the four major should not be allowed to own lands beyond the administrative officers. The council grudgingly town's defense perimeter, because such possessions involved the town in feuds. Enforce- frequently in alone. Note also that territorial ment of such a rule would have meant the abandon- villages Lauenburg policy was clearly an issue between the citizens and ment of, among others, all the private holdings in council of Rostock at about the same time; see below, Lauenburg.32 section 6, and Fritze, 1967b: p. 57. 33 Johan Schotte, C 26: pp. 388-392. It seems possible 82 There were apparentlynearly 100 specificarticles of that all four were chosen with an eye to citizen reaction; complaint according to C 26: p. 390. The complaints, at any rate, when events came to a head in 1408, only however,must be reconstructedfrom the council'sanswers one of these, Hermen Westval, became an exile, and he to themin C 26: pp. 393-406and from the complaintsof only late in 1408 after aiding the transfer of authority to 1407 (recorded after 1408), LUB 5: no. 188, in which the new council. He also returned well before the other many items were repeated. The defense perimeter exiles, in 1413 or 1414; see note 85 below. (Landzwehr)to which the complaint referred was a moat 34C 26: pp. 406-408; LUB 5: nos. 157 and 184. In planted with shrubbery (using rivers and creeks where the latter document, the treasurer's account for a one- possible) which had been established between 1303 and year period shows an income of 14,740 marks, but con- 1316; see Fink, 1953: pp. 255-258 and maps, and Hart- siders this figure incomplete. Fritze, 1961b: p. 84 notes wig, 1908: pp. 209-218. According to the map in Schulze, that Lubeck spent 78,792 marks on the war with Den- 1957, and to Diiker, 1932: pp. 21ff., private holdings out- mark over a seven-year period (1426-1433). R6rig's esti- side this line must have involved at least sixteen entire mate is in 1967: p. 163. 12 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMIER. PHIL. SOC. agreed, at Easter, 1406, and the crisis seemed to constitution, with the Sixty having a voice in the have passed.35 selection of councillors.36 At the Easter meeting a year later, however, The council resisted this proposal on the the council suddenly announced that the town's grounds of its oath to the emperor and other financial situation had improved so spectacularly princes to maintain the existing constitution. Town under the new arrangement that the Sixty and tensions returned to the level of 1405, and then the citizen administrative overseers could be dis- over the next year grew, as the Sixty plus a new missed, although the council would in the future body known as the Citizens' Plenipotentiaries en- consult with the aldermen of the guilds and mer- gaged in increasingly more bitter negotiations for chant societies before going to war or taking on a constitutional changes. Rumors began to fly: that major debt. The dubious committee responded the council was planning reprisals, in alliance with that in fact many problems still remained, and certain Holstein nobles; that armaments in the compiled some eighteen points on which they were city's towers were pointed not outside the walls still not satisfied. This document, to the modern but inward. Finally in January, 1408, a large and reader, seems to be calling for a change in priori- angry crowd threatened to attack the council's an- ties. If summarized, the specific charges seem to nual procession. It held back when the Sixty claim that the council had neglected and mis- formed an escort, but then gathered again to be- managed internal affairs, and in foreign policy had siege both council and Sixty in the town hall. been more concerned with acquiring territory than According to the chronicles, eventually a terrified promoting commerce. The Sixty asserted that the burgomaster said to a committee spokesman "tell council had failed to preserve all of the privileges them what you will and what you can answer for, and freedoms of the town; had failed to protect but for God's sake quiet them down"; the spokes- citizens from piracy in the Baltic and North Seas; man then shouted out a window to the crowd, had overextended itself by allowing citizens and "You will choose the council!" The ensuing even councilmen to hold landed estates outside celebration gave the parties opportunity to escape, the defense perimeter. At least seven military ac- and a number of councillors removed themselves to tions had been ill-conceived, ill-executed, and/or the distance and safety of Molln castle. When by far too costly. Poor planning in the treasury had the following May negotiations with the remnant led to the sale of far too many annuities, and no of the council had broken down, the citizens' bodies more should be sold without citizen consent until decided to develop a wholly new council and a new later the debt was resolved. The council had mis- constitution.37 The departed councillors, joined by another colleague, making their numbers managed the town mint, the wine cellar, and the fifteen out of the twenty-three-man council, dis- and chapel for which it was steward. It hospital persed to cities where they had relatives or busi- had made loans to other towns casually major ness partners, notably Luneburg, Hamburg, and a for the future tax burdens this without thought Bruges. would cause. Thus government solely by council Information on Lubeck internal affairs becomes had been misdirected, expensive, and ineffective, rather fragmentary at this point. We do not, for more than sufficient grounds for a change in that example, know the exact structure of the new al- government. The success of citizen participation Lubeck constitution of April or May, 1408, one of the was, they concluded, a reason to make the assist- though probably it resembled Sixty- of 1407.38 a ants and the Sixty a permanent feature of the town Plenipotentiary proposals Certainly 36LUB 5: no. 188. LUB 35 C 26: pp. 406-414. Citizen overseers were installed 37 C 26: pp. 389-392, 414-432; C 28: pp. 43-46; for the offices of treasury, taxation, master of the wine 5: no. 190. The burgomaster was Marquart van Dame, cellar, and combined market master-administrator of the Sixty spokesmanthe armorer Eler Stange. 38 fact Koppmannthinks that the eight over- The proposals (assumed by some writers to in municipalproperty. are LUB seers collectively formed the "Citizen's Plenipotentiaries" have been the new constitutional arrangement) referred to below, a body about which otherwise no infor- 5: nos. 191, 652. The initial council of May, 1408, was, mation has survived (see C 26: p. 409 note). The title however, established through a formal and notarized of seals, Plenipotentiaries (C 26: p. 413, "etlicke borger, vol- transfer of power, including documents privilege, mechtich van der menheit wegen") implies that they had etc., in which, with the advice and consent of the bishop councillors the nine still in been given full power to perform some function by the of Lubeck, seven existing (of and in its name, so that Koppmann'sguess is Lubeck at that time) selected an "Electoral Committee" community chose not an unreasonableone. of twelve citizens. This electoral committee then VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 13 new council was established, and apparently any Both sides were quick to take advantage of the citizen was eligible to serve on it, a break with confused and fragmented political situation. Sur- the traditions and laws which had always barred prisingly, the initial, if transitory, success went artisans. Citizen input into the choice of council- to the new council. On offering to pay imperial lors was provided for, although the precise mecha- duties to Rupert, elector Palatine, "King of the nism for it is uncertain.39 Citizen committees such Romans" (uncrowned emperor) since the deposi- as the Sixty were preserved, and a new sixteen- tion of Wenceslas, the new regime was officially person special Financial Committee was instituted. recognized by Rupert in August of 1408. The For the most part, this new council was, as exiles, however, quickly lined up the support of nearly as can be determined, both moderate and major Hanseatic towns and then made their own relatively successful. It took power with no vio- offer to Rupert, who retracted his recognition by lence, no trials or executions; eight of the old coun- October and then began a series of hearings.42 cil members remained in the city with person and The new council then turned to efforts to win property unscathed. In their efforts to deal with friends for itself among seaport towns. It sent aid the still-unsolved financial crisis, the new council- to Hamburg and the Wendish towns in an expedi- lors eventually (1411) declared the exiles' prop- tion against pirates, and in 1409 dispatched em- erty forfeit to the town and then sold it, probably bassies to Rostock and Wismar to plead for their at auction; they also renegotiated terms for a num- support.44Whatever the effect of these embassies- ber of annuities.40 A small amount of citizen dis- after 1416 the men in them were judged by the satisfaction appeared.41 But on the whole, con- Hansa to be "outside agitators" who exported the sidering that it had to assume all of the old coun- uprising to those towns-by November, 1409, cil's problems with little of its experience, the new Wismar and Rostock had developed Citizens' citizen-based government acquitted itself well, in Committees (of 100 in Wismar, sixty in Rostock) internal affairs at least. It was foreign policy that and supported the new Lubeck regime. Hamburg brought them down eight years later, specifically followed suit with a Committee of Sixty and some their inability to outmaneuver the exiles at the support by May, 1410.45 All these gains were courts of kings.42 counterbalanced by the success of the exiles with Rupert, who in January, 1410, completely reversed twelve councillors; the twelve new councillors, finally, himself and declared the new Lubeck council and chose to themselves twelve additional councillors (from all Lubeck citizens who supported it imperial out- which membersof the electoralcommittee were not ex- laws.46 See C 26: 429-432. The reason for this cluded). pp. im- complicatedarrangement, in addition to providing citizen For various reasons the full effect of the input on the choice of councillors, seems to have been perial ban was not felt in Lubeck until some time that, while both the citizens and the seven councillors afterward. The early 1400's were of course a agreed that some orderly and legal transfer of power time of as well as claimants should take so that Lubeck would not "law- multiple popes multiple place, appear and the Lubeck council took less" and its enemies claim that its rights were invalid, to the emperorship, the seven existing councillors were unwilling to declare advantage of this, obtaining a decree that the im- their colleagues' seats vacant and themselves choose perial ban was null and void from the Pisa pope councillors directly. XXIII.47 Then thereafter 39 John shortly Rupert Note the recognition of citizen selection of council- and as of of lors in the imperial privilege (later retracted; see below), died, Sigismund Hungary, Jobst LUB 5: no. 215. The electoral committee, the device Brandenburg and Moravia, and the persistent used in May, 1408 (note 38 above), may have continued Wenceslas all jockeyed for position, Lubeck was to exist for this purpose, although there is no evidence able to reach a kind of peaceful coexistence with for that. Certainly, however, the Sixty continued to of its immediate But the exist and function the many neighbors. during throughout 1408-1416period (LUB the Hanseatic 5: nos. 260, 582-588, 667 etc.), and it presumably still same period, exile leaders visited had the power to call citizen assemblies. A Committeeof Sixteen, apparently identical with the Financial Com- 43LUB 5: nos. 203, 215, 217-220, 222, 228, 233, 240- mittee, also existed through those years (LUB 5: no. 242, 659, 660. C 28: pp. 54-56. The old councilhad 530). There was no lack of institutions which could have never recognized Rupert and had withheld the duties. been used for citizen input into the selection of council- 44HR 5: nos. 527, 530; 6: no. 397. C 28: pp. 48-51. lors. 45LUB 5: nos. 317-318. HR 5: nos. 626, 720. Com- 40 LUB 5: nos. 349, 352, 355, 396, 673, 674. pare Czok, 1963: pp. 103-106. 41LUB 5: nos. 491, 495. 46 LUB 5: nos. 274, 278, 298-299, 308. 42 See the works cited in note 4 above and Pitz, 1959: 47LUB 5: nos. 328-329. Rupert adhered to Gregory pp. 292-297. XII. 14 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. factory at Bruges and demanded that it and the of Norway and Sweden, and sole ruler of those Duke of Burgundy appropriate over 250,000 guil- three kingdoms since the death of Margaret in ders' worth of property from Lubeck citizens, to 1412. The grounds for enlisting Eric's judgment be given to the exiles in compensation for the were thin; certainly he had no legal authority damages and confiscations they had suffered from over the dispute as the German king or even con- the "outlaws." In the event no goods actually ceivably the Hansa did. The exiles were ap- changed hands, but the threat was enough to make parently willing to risk the danger he could pose to the Bruges factory a bitter opponent of the new Lubeck and the entire Hansa in order to regain Lubeck council.48 Once Sigismund was in control their rule over the town. The exiles asserted to of the throne he initially showed every sign of him that the new council, when meeting with enforcing Rupert's ban, so that by April, 1412, the Sigismund, had, along with their persuasive sup- Hanseatic diet felt obliged to shut the new regime ply of guilders, bolstered their case by emphasiz- of its chief city out of its meetings and to con- ing Eric's designs on Holstein, representing him sider expelling Lubeck from the League if the ban as a land-hungry monarch eager to tear Lubeck was not lifted.49 Nevertheless, Sigismund's main away from the empire. At length the exiles concern, like that of his predecessor, was with managed to convince Eric not only that he had his possible contributions to the royal purse. Through- been defamed, but that Lubeck was allied with out the 1412-1415 period the official hearings kept enemy the young Henry III of Holstein in the coun- being postponed, while Lubeck cemented its alli- struggle for Schleswig. Although the new ance with the seaport towns. Our first clue to a cil denied the charges, the greatly angered Eric to thwart change of heart is when we find the exiles shunted launched a series of moves designed off for their dealings to Sigismund's queen, Lubeck's commerce, culminating in imprisonment Barbara.50 It seems that Sigismund had decided of Lubeck merchants at Scania just as the herring same time he endeavored to simply to sell recognition to the highest bidder. began to run. At the In July, 1415, Sigismund issued secret decrees ally himself with Sigismund (who eventually over in lifting the ban on Lubeck and restoring Lubeck's recognized Eric's rights Schleswig 1424) the funds he needed to re- imperial privileges to the new council. These let- and to supply him with ters were then pawned to the Lubeck council for deem the letters of privilege at Bruges.52 on the Rhenish guilders. Lubeck, in turn, agreed The Hanseatic League was at this point 25,000 to to the decrees secret until the spring of 1416, verge of falling into ruin. Two towns critical keep the at which time Sigismund could redeem them in its trade routes, Lubeck and Hamburg, plus Rostock and stood Bruges by repaying the money; if he failed to pay, major Wendish towns Wismar, Danes were Lubeck they could be made public.51 Presumably this un- outside the League; arresting commercial usual arrangement gave any other interested merchants at its principal fishing to threat to all Baltic commerce; parties time to raise and deliver a larger sum ground, an implied which he could then use to reclaim a hostile alliance was in the making which could Sigismund, Danish the decrees. trap the Hansa towns in a vise, with the and the German The exiles, when they learned of this transac- monarch on one side of them king the turned for aid to a potentially far more dan- on the other. Realizing their position, remaining tion, to take of monarch, Eric of Pomerania, king of the Hansa towns now moved quickly charge gerous the Lubeck council Hansa's "traditional enemy," Denmark, as well as the situation. For its part, fully appreciated the desperate nature of its plight was now 48LUB 5: no. 357; 6: no 796. HR 5: nos. 720,729; 6: following the Danish intervention, and as nos. 35, 50. willing to cooperate. Several towns served HR 6: no. 68. 49LUB 5: nos. 398-401,410, 413, 420. arbitrators, and hammered out a compromise set- Actualexpulsion seems never to have occurred. the hostile Lubeck which 50 525. tlement between groups LUB 5: nos. 317-318,493, (about 51LUB 5: nos. 531-536,541, 575, 601. C 28: pp. 64- included an award of 60,000 guilders 68. It seems that Lubeckmade only an initial 8,000to 55,000 marks) in damages to the exiles. There 9,000guilder installment on theirbribe; in any case,even claimedthat 52LUB 5: nos. 550, 565, 568-570, 592, 601. HR 6: after the returnof the old council,Sigismund 96- him Eventually,as part of nos. 246, 252. C 28: pp. 72-74. Niitemaa, 1960: pp. Lubeckowed 16,000guilders. the relations between the settlement,a deal was struckwhereby Sigismund for- 200 provides an extensive analysis of to be the German and Danish monarchies in this period and gave the "debt"but Lubeckwas judged 13,000 action of in arrearsin its duties. LUB 5: nos. concludes (pp. 120-133) that it was the united guilders imperial forced the settlement of 1416. 618-620,623; 6: no. 1. Sigismund and Eric which VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 15 were a few dissenters, but finally in 1416 a cere- ponents and the strongest supporters of the upris- mony marked the restoration of peace in Lubeck.58 ing were roughly in balance. This balance was Hansa delegates then turned to suppress the citi- clearly intended in the settlement: of the thirteen zens' committees in Rostock and Hamburg, while men which it added to the pre-1408 councillors, the Duke of Mecklenburg did the same in Wis- eight were proponents of the uprising whereas mar. Once this was accomplished, the Hansa only one was an exile. It is also worth noting that then with considerable difficulty managed to pacify of the remaining four men added in 1416, only both Sigismund and Eric. By 1418 a Hanseatic one came from a former council family, while one diet at Lubeck considered that normal conditions was the nephew of a Committee of Sixty member. had been restored, although it was careful to adopt Further, exile strength shrank from then on. a statute condemning revolt in any of its member No additional councillors were selected until 1426, towns. Henceforth agitation for an uprising in a although ten died in the interim; this presumably Hansa town would be punished by death, and any reflects inability of the factions to agree.56 Then town which altered or restricted its council would in each of the next two selections of councillors be expelled from the League.54 (1426 and 1428)-as if by plan-a former exile, a However, although both the town and the former proponent, three probable "neutrals," and League wished to create the impression that the two men who were probably sympathetic to the up- crisis had been survived without effect and the rising (based on their actions during the period or status quo ante had returned, such was not the their family relationships) were chosen.57 With case. In Lubeck, although the citizen committees these additions plus a differential death rate, by were gone, and all the still-living members of the 1428 former proponents of the uprising outnum- old council regained their seats, politics had bered exiles on the council, and the six remaining changed. The settlement was not a restoration, exiles were dwarfed by the total of twenty-three but rather a compromise. The official document councillors who had never gone into exile. from it offers clues to this, as it refers to new coun- Looking at council rolls another way, of the cillors as well as old with such titles as "honorable thirty-nine men who were newly chosen for coun- lords," and at one point specifically mentions that cillor between 1416 and 1450, only four were the arbitrators refused to judge which of the coun- exiles; another two were sons of exiles, for a cils was better than the other. The extent of the total of six, or just over 15 per cent, from this compromise is clearly defined by council member- one-time majority of the council. During the ship rolls: overall, the post-1416 council of twenty- same period eleven proponents (28 per cent) seven men contained ten persons who had been in joined the council, as well as three sons of pro- exile, but also nine who had actively supported ponents and three others probably sympathetic to the new council, as well as eight men who were the uprising; thus perhaps as many as 44 per cent presumably "neutral," i.e., had neither left Lu- of the councillors added in the period had given beck nor joined a council or committee of the new some degree of support to the new regime. Of regime.55 Numerically, at least, the bitterest op- council or a citizen committee. See also notes 58 and 85 53 below. See note 79 below. 56 The numberof councillors in Lubeck often 54 fluctuated, LUB 5: nos. 562, 574, 577, 580-588, 592, 601-602, but never to this degree; seventeen men (as was the case 618-620, 623. HR 6: nos. 262, 285-290. C 28: pp. 79- in late 1425) is the smallest council in the entire 1360-1450 86, 363-367. Niitemaa, 1960: pp. 133-140. period, and this was almost immediately followed by the 55 See LUB 5: no. 583. As the documents in C 26: largest council of that entire period, twenty-nine men (in pp. 433-434, list only five men specifically as coming to 1428). It is probablymore than just coincidence that no the restored council from the new council, historians have new councillors were chosen until after the death of the failed to note the full extent of this compromise,and have burgomasterand principalexile leader Jordan Pleskow in generally considered the settlement virtually a complete October, 1425. victory for the exiles, e.g., Wehrmann, 1878: p. 147, fol- 57Both Jacob Bramstede (1426-1455) and Kersten van lowed by almost all since, including Dollinger, 1970: pp. Rentelen (1426-1431) had carried money and goods to 288-289. However, these five (Lodwich Crull, Johan van Rostock for the new council in 1415; NiederstadtbuchIII, Hervorde, Bertelt Rolant, Tideman Steen, Detmer van in the Archiv der Hansestadt Liibeck, p. 660 (hereinafter Tunen) distinguished in documents were in all likelihood abbreviated Nsb). Van Rentelen was also the son of a only those who were actually sitting on the new council possibly "pro-citizen"burgomaster; see note 102 below. in 1416. In any case, four others (Johan Bere, Cort Johan Colman (1428-1454, burgomaster from 1443) and Brekewolt, Johan van Hamelen, Johan Schonenberch) Johan Luneborch (1428-1461, burgomaster from 1449) had at one time or another appeared on either the new were sons of the proponentsof the same names. 16 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. the remainder, the sixteen apparent "neutrals," at Or, to borrow Fritze's phrase, Lubeck's power on least four had marriage ties to councillors of the the land had reached its "turning point." uprising years.58 One may conclude that after Such wording recalls the discussion of the prob- 1416 supporters of the uprising came to have con- lems of the Hanseatic League. Given the key siderable political influence, while the exiles, those place which Lubeck held in the League, certainly who had once dominated the council, found their any weakness there would have had a broader power greatly diminished. effect. In fact, if one is inclined to look for a Outside the walls, too, there were changes. In single event that might mark the "turning point" 1409 Eric IV of Saxony-Lauenburg had attacked in the fortunes of the Hansa, then, while certainly Mlln, and although the new council had defended there are other candidates, one could do worse it, they eventually had found it necessary to grant than cite the Lubeck uprising of 1408. It takes Eric more than half the tolls from the canal, plus just a bit of imagination to see the uprising as the the full responsibility to "protect" commerce, to first in a long chain of events stretching to mid- win peace. The post-settlement council repudiated century in which the Hansa slowly lost power to this treaty, but waited to act until it had secured Denmark and the Dutch. Eric's attack on Lu- an alliance with Hamburg. The campaign of the beck was the first openly hostile act by Denmark two towns against the new duke Eric V in 1420 against a Hansa town since the Peace of Stralsund, regained most of the lands and rights lost since but it was far from the last. It may be that Lu- 1400, but the castle and bailiwick of Bergedorf beck's rapid collapse had given him just the en- was now a joint holding of both Lubeck and Ham- couragement he needed to pursue a more aggres- burg. All this implies that Lubeck had decided sive policy. After 1416 he was in the enviable that it could not afford to defend so much territory position of knowing that the chief councillors of by itself, an impression which seems confirmed by Lubeck-the functioning heads of the Hansa- further joint campaigns with Hamburg in the area owed their position to Danish intervention. In in following years. In any case, from this point any case, Eric in 1417 began to apply the same on Lubeck made no significant new territorial tactics against all the Hanseatic towns which he gains, and was often on the defensive in holding had used successfully against Lubeck, interfering its existing lands and rights. Further, there were with their commerce at Scania, Malmo, Oslo, and toll virtually no new acquisitions of estates by in- other points. By 1422 he had increased the dividual citizens after 1416. Lubeck's territorial charges at Scania and even declared his right to same expansion was, most observers agree, at an end.59 take tolls on the Sound as well. In the period he began to promote native Danish merchant 58The only exiles who became councillors (as opposed and Dutch councillor before 1408) were Diderik activity and to encourage the English to those already the Danes Morkerke, Johan Klingenberch, Bruno Warendorp, and to visit Bergen and Scania. By 1426 Wilhelm van Calve. Jordan Pleskow the younger and and the Hansa were at war again. The Hansa Johan Westval were sons of exiles. In the same period towns could still assemble strong military forces, the one-time proponents Johan Bere, Lodwich Crull, the first of the war ended van van Hervorde, Bertelt Rolant, and so, although phase Johan Hamelen, Johan Hansa defeat in 1435 the Johan Schonenberch,Tideman Steen, Detmer van Tunen, in a crushing 1427, by Hinrik Schenkinch, Johan Hoveman, and Kersten Ekhof towns had forced Eric out of Schleswig and to the all joined the council. Reckoned here as probablysympa- peace table. Nevertheless the victory was transi- thetic are, in addition to those cited in note 57 above, Jo- had Hinrik tory at best. The war publicly displayed han Gerwer (1416-1460; nephew of Sixty member it the Prussian and Bertolt Witick burgomaster League disunity, as during Gerwer) and (1439-1474, in the from 1457, son of Sixty and new council member Hans Livonian towns had refused to join fighting, Witick). Those tied by marriage include Albert Arp and even the participation of some Wendish towns councillor (1416-1436), who married the sister of new had been doubtful practically to the last minute. Clawes Robele the Johan van der Heide; (1428-1433) The Danish tolls at the Sound were not removed, widow of Hermen van Alen: Tideman Soling (1428- Gert van 1436) the daughter of Hinrik Honerjiiger; rests from 1454) the daughter issue with Diiker. This conclusion, however, pri- Minden (1433-1462, burgomaster founded cloister van Tunen. marily on the assumption that the newly of Detmer in terms of land acquisition, 59 LUB 5: nos. 294-297. C 26: pp. 437-440; C 28: pp. in Marienwohldefunctioned, 22- as an arm of the town and citizens of Lubeck, a defensible 50, 139-144, 371-372. See Diiker, 1932: especially pp. new 1889: 151-152. Schulze, 1957: pp. but by no means certain interpretation. Otherwise 46, and Hoffman, pp. were and (as even feels that Lubeck's territorial policy, at least in acquisitions by the town council few, 98-153 citizens virtually nonexistent, after Lauenburg, continued to be aggressive, expansionist, and Schulze admits) by 1420. the other works cited in note 19 above. largely successful until at least the 1470's; thus he takes Compare VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 17 and in fact would remain in force for over 400 rights in question, the Dutch were quick to take years; theoretically the Hansa towns had won advantage; it seems to have been just at this time exemption from paying them, but as time went on that significant numbers of merchants from Hol- this seems to have been honored as much in the land first appeared in Livonia, and certainly they breach as in the observance. Nor did the victory were able to expand their share of Baltic trade in ensure even the future of the Holstein portage for Lubeck's partial absence.62 The political com- more than a generation, since both Schleswig and plications of the uprising clearly revealed how Holstein passed to the Danish crown as the in- vulnerable the Hansa was to territorial rulers: its heritance of Christian of Oldenburg in 1460.60 own sovereign took little interest in its problems Moreover, if the real purpose of the 1426-1435 except as a source of money for him, while the conflict had been to keep the Baltic a Hanseatic King of Denmark managed with a few imprison- lake, then the Hansa, while winning a "battle," ments to accomplish what the towns had been un- had begun to lose the true "war." With the able to do for eight years, namely spurring the German towns his enemies, Eric turned ever parties to come to terms. When Wismar, Rostock, closer to the Dutch, and during the war they sup- and Hamburg followed Lubeck's lead, in spite of plied Scandinavia with provisions, gaining not only imperial outlawry and League disapproval, it the profits which might have gone to Hanseatic demonstrated once again the difficulty of maintain- merchants, but also even better knowledge of Dan- ing Hanseatic solidarity. Finally, while one can ish waters as they ran the League's blockade of debate whether the exiled Lubeck councillors truly the Sound. The defeat of Denmark only cemented deserve Fritze's appellation of "reactionary" or this tacit Danish-Dutch alliance, and encourage- even to be called "conservative," certainly they ment of the Hollanders became the cornerstone of exhibited something less than self-sacrificial states- Danish economic policy for the rest of the century. manship in their willingness to involve strong Open war between the Hansa and the Dutch be- Hansa enemies like the Duke of Burgundy and tween 1438 and 1441 resulted only in equal rights especially the King of Denmark in their own local for both in Denmark and a treaty of reciprocity struggle. between Dutch and Wendish merchants. From In short, the uprising of 1408 both reversed a that point on, Holland's share of the northern pattern of the expansion of Lubeck's influence and trade continuously increased while the Hansa's pointed out major weaknesses in the Hansa as a sank.61 If the Lubeck uprising had indeed opened whole. Thus it at least illustrates, if it did not the door for the Danish wars, then that was a door also help to define, the limits which existed for which led to both political and economic regres- northern towns seeking "city-state" power, either sion for the League. individually or collectively. It therefore seems But, whether or not one finds such reasoning important not only for social history, but for the convincing, no such complicated linkage is neces- history of both urban development and the Han- sary to show a relationship between the Lubeck seatic League, to determine what forces were ex- uprising of 1408 and the decline of the Hansa. pressed in the uprising, to what extent the issues The events of the uprising can in fact be easily were economic failures, social tensions, or political tied to each of the four major factors in that de- problems. cline which were outlined above. During the 3. SOCIOECONOMIC COMPOSITION OF THE 1408-1416 period when the League was, in effect, "headless" and Lubeck's merchants found their MOVEMENT A Carl Wehrmann concluded that 60 most to century ago The account here and below owes Fritze, the Lubeck of like its 1967a: pp. 180-246, 250-251. See also Dollinger, 1970: uprising 1408, predecessors pp. 295-297, and more specifically, on the Schleswig ques- of 1376-1384, was essentially "democratic" or tion Niitemaa, 1960: especially pp. 121-200; on the Sound, "popular": an artisan protest against patrician Hill, 1926: especially pp. 3-31. Eric's interference with monopoly of the town council. More recent work Hanseatic commerce in 1417 may be seen in HR 6: nos. Fritz Edmund and others has 386, 387, 433; the most important sources for his later by R6rig, Cieslak, acts are HR 7: nos. 538 and 550; 8: nos. 35 and 760. The altered some of the details in Wehrmann's portrait exact date when tolls at the Sound were first collected is of the uprising, but has not significantly questioned unknown. his social analysis. If this was an artisan rising, 61 1967a: 1970: 295- Fritze, pp. 247-250; Dollinger, pp. then it could be placed in company with 297; Vollbehr, 1930: pp. 36 ff. In this context note also many Winter, 1948, and Spading, 1970. 62Vollbehr, 1930: pp. 28-29; Dollinger, 1970: p. 295. 18 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. examples of urban unrest in the same time period among groups and persons supporting the upris- throughout Europe. In most towns craftsmen ing.64 There is the further problem of whether a were required to pay taxes, but barred from politi- regime based primarily on artisans, after eight cal participation. In addition, some authors have years of survival, would have collapsed so quickly suggested that in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- in the face of Danish intervention-a blow pri- turies certain trades-those requiring little initial marily to commerce and thus to merchant, not capital, such as those of the butchers or textile artisan, incomes. Obviously the men who re- workers-were under severe competition from mained on the council after 1416 were not artisans. former peasants driven into town by the agricul- On the other hand, if councillors were "patricians," tural crisis. Lubeck's "Butchers' Rising" of 1384, then it would appear that the movement was not extensively studied by Ahasver von Brandt, was a thoroughly anti-patrician. As we have seen, the conspiracy centered in the butchers' guild, with uprising was not directed against the entire town some support from others, and many of the con- council; while about two-thirds of the council spirators seem to have fallen on hard economic went into exile, a remainder stayed in Lubeck and times. Most students of the 1408 uprising pre- joined none of the exiles' protests. In fact, re- sume that it was a somewhat more broadly based cent work has challenged whether a true patriciate example of a similar phenomenon. Such revolts even existed in Lubeck or other Hanseatic sea- sometimes found support among the lesser mer- port towns.65 Clearly one can question both parts chants, whose wealth and income approximated that of the upper artisans, and Cieslak, for ex- 64 Note for example that in C 26 the discontented considers it that in 1408 such small citizens of summer 1405 are "menheid"(p. 386), "borger ample, probable menen in numbers than mit den amten thosamende" (p. 386), "de borger merchants appeared greater pre- When the Sixty appeared, the has been little und amte" (p. 387). viously. Nevertheless there dispute chronicle reports that "de gantze menheit, borger und of the evaluation that the inspiration for, and amte, hedden se 60 dar tho voget" (p. 388); an assembly menheit leadership of, the uprising came from craftsmen, as in support of the Sixty is describedas "de gantze rule of the a van Lubek, beyde junge lude und olde, de kopman und a challenge to the patrician town, When the for the alle amte, grot und luttich" (p. 388). Sixty challenge to government by and great initial it according to the of delivered their complaints, was, merchants and property owners. The presence chronicle, with the full support of all corporations and artisans on the 1408-1416 councils in defiance of merchant associations as well as guilds: "alle nacien van and the difficulties between the jungen luden, van rentenern, van alien copluden und van law and tradition, Such merchant Hansa, are con- allen amten en bevolen hadden" (p. 390). phrases new regime and the It is virtually impossible that a Thus, appear in several spots. sidered supportive of this interpretation.63 literary source of this period would have given proponents while most authors would not describe the upris- of an uprising higher status than that to which they were as a "class struggle," this approach entitled; usually such sources underrated them. See ing precisely and 1973b: pp. 70-73. it something of the character of a social Menke, 1958-1960; Rotz, 1976, gives 65 A major portion of the problem with "patricians"is movement: high taxes triggered the expression a few towns (e.g., Nuremberg) out- semantics. Only very of long-smoldering resentments felt by those actually codified a legal principle that restricted public side the levels of society and excluded office to certain families, and yet that is the only defini- topmost For most from tion of "patrician"which is generally accepted. government. towns scholars can describe exactly the same levels of A number of problems with this approach, how- and admission of new families into ex- wealth, intermarriage, ever, emerge on closer investigation. For government,but while one will concludethat this identifies all sources describe the proponents of the the patriciate another will use precisely the same evidence ample, existence of one. For example, Dollinger, as not just artisans but "citizens" or "the to deny the uprising 1970, bases his description of the patriciate in Hanseatic community," terms which normally were used only see also 169-179) largely included. seaport towns (pp. 132-136; pp. when persons above artisan status were on the work of Ahasver von Brandt and Heinrich Reincke, One chronicle identifies both merchants both of whom reject use of the term "patrician"in their specifically are in and holders of annuities, as well as craftsmen, towns. Their strongest "anti-patrician"sentiments von Brandt, 1966 and Reincke, 1956. The same confusion and Laube, 63 1878 admits of reigns among Marxists. Berthold, Engel, See for example Wehrmann, (who use of 1954; 1973, have triggered a heated debate about the almost no merchant participation), and Cieslak, in which the 286-291; Rorig, such terms as Klasse, Schicht, and Stand, Dollinger, 1970: pp. 132-134, 160-161, see on the general problem patrician concept figures prominently; Zeitschrift fur 1971: pp. 160, 672-673. However, 443-444; artisan responsibilityfor uprisings Geschichtswissenschaft21 (1973): pp. 196-217, of actually establishing 605-615. In this context see see Rotz, 1976. (The excellent study of 1384 by von 22 (1974): pp. 331-337, the Ehbrecht, 1974b. The specific problems Brandt, 1959, however, certainly does; see note 5 above.) also essay by VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 19 of the traditional interpretation, i.e., whether the Citizens first expressed themselves institution- uprising was basically an artisan movement, and ally with the Committee of Sixty, and a list of whether it was directed at the "patriciate." members of that committee survives, unfortunately It is precisely with such problems that prosopog- undated, but probably from 1407 or early 1408.68 raphy as a method can be helpful. For this in- Of the persons on that list whose profession can vestigation biographical profiles were sought for be identified, sixteen were artisans: three brewers 259 citizens of Lubeck, including both supporters (one of whom was also an innkeeper), two gold- and opponents of the uprising, as well as Lubeck smiths, two butchers, two cobblers, and one each councillors over a ninety-year time span. Useful from the trades of amber-worker, armorer, baker, social, economic, and/or genealogical information hatter, pursemaker, smith, and tanner. However, was found for 257 of them.66 The following in- these artisans were outnumbered by better than formation and analysis are based on these profiles. two to one by those for whom either proof of mer- First let us consider the question of whether chant activity or of membership in a commercial the forces in Lubeck which established citizen association could be found. The Committee of committees and a new council were primarily arti- Sixty included at least thirty-four merchants, san. Several documents make it possible to ob- among them thirteen textile merchants, ten en- tain the names of 105 persons who at one time or gaged in trade with Flanders, three drapers, and another supported the uprising, including lists of ten members of merchants' associations like the members of citizens' committees and most, if not Travelers to Scania (Schonenfahrer) and Trave- all, of the new councillors of 1408-1416.67 lers to Bergen (Bergenfahrer).69 Of the ten per- sons for whom no profession could be definitely relating to the Lubeck patriciate, or lack of one, will be five were merchants. Thus dealt with below in section 4. established, probably 66The realm of persons for whom information was sought includes 105 supportersof the uprising and thirty- mented here by entries from Nsb. Some other documents seven men in exile during the uprising, plus, for com- issued by committees or groups yield names of a few of parative and analytical purposes, a sample of forty-five their members, e.g., LUB 5: nos. 260, 541, 667, and of men apparently in the elite who did not go into exile course there are those mentionedin the chronicle accounts (future councillors and Circle Society members; see sec- cited in note 31 above. tion 4 and note 87 below) and the 127 known Lubeck 68 Koppmann dated it by assumption to October 27, councillors who served between 1360 and 1408 or between 1405, the date when the Sixty was first formed. This 1416 and 1450. Duplications of persons within this realm early a date, however, is unlikely, since the list does not included two supporter-exiles (notes 74 and 76 below), include the name of Johan Schotte, who according to the nineteen exile-councillors, thirteen supporter-councillors, chronicle (C 26: pp. 388-392) was a Sixty member then and twenty-one non-exile-councillors, leaving a total of and until at least early April, 1406; he was chosen for the 259 persons. Only two persons could not be satisfactorily council sometime thereafter in 1406. On the other hand, identified (note 77 below). the list does include Hinrik upme Orde and Siverd Vock- The complete profiles, with full documentary citations inghusen,who, as will be discussed below, notes 74 and 76, for each individual, are in Rhiman A. Rotz, "Profiles of left Lubeck in late 1409 or 1410 (LUB 5: nos. 263, 491; Selected Lubeck Citizens 1360-1450" (1975), a typewrit- HR 5: no. 680). Thus this list must date from some ten manuscriptdeposited with the Archiv der Hansestadt point between the spring of 1406 and 1410. The most Libeck. The source base for these investigations may be logical point in that period was May, 1408, when notaries found in section I of the Bibliography for the present recorded every step of the transfer of power. The list work. It includes such copies from town books and of electors (C 26: p. 432) certainly dates from then, citizen wills as remain in that archive, notably the re- and considering their similar form as publishedby Kopp- markable Personenkartei (see von Brandt, 1960, for an mann (the originals are lost) the lists of both the Sixty evaluation of these sources), as well as published collec- (p. 393) and the Sixteen (pp. 422-423) may also. Note: tions of chronicles and documents. Evidence of merchant one name on this list was illegible to Koppmanand could activity was extracted from these and from the poundage not be traced; Schotte, however, is included in the follow- books of Hamburg, Lubeck, and Reval, as well as from ing analysis. secondary works containing excerpts from or based on 69On the important Lubeck merchant societies/com- documents now lost. Note: in all cases where the extent panies of the Schonenfahrer (probably better translated of property holdings changed during the individual's life- "sailors" to Scania, but here "Travelers" to avoid con- time, the maximum holdings at any one time in each of fusion with ship captains or boatmen) and the Bergen- the major categories, rural and urban, were used for the fahrer (Travelers to Bergen), see especially Dollinger, computationswhich follow. 1970: pp. 162-163; Baasch, 1922; Bruns, 1900. Note that 67 Principal sources of names are, for the Sixty, C 26: membershipin one society did not exclude membershipin p. 393; for the negotiators and electors of January-May, another, and also that some individuals can be established 1408, C 26: pp. 429-433, and LUB 5: no. 190; for the as, for example, both textile merchants and merchants to Sixteen, C 26: pp. 422-423 (1408), and LUB 5: no. 530 Flanders. Hence the specifics above yield more than (1415). Most councillors are in Fehling, 1925, supple- thirty-four merchants if added. 20 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. it seems likely that the Sixty was about two- As an approach to those in, near, or upwardly thirds merchant and at most about one-third arti- mobile into the elite, group I includes those who san. Among its members were important and re- satisfy one or more of the following qualifications: spected men, such as three aldermen of the a councillor before 1408 or after 1416; a member Travelers to Scania and two of the Travelers to of the Circle Society; one related by blood or Bergen. One even finds several persons who were marriage to such a councillor or member of the probably part of Lubeck's elite: seven members Circle Society; or, evidence of a major personal of the highly prestigious Circle Society, or Society fortune (in the event, a 3,000-mark gift by one of the Holy Trinity, to which, for example, over individual, landholdings exceeding a village and three-quarters of the councillors of 1408 belonged; three manors for two others).71 Where genealogi- three sons of former councillors, and an addi- cal data are available, persons were further divided tional four sons-in-law of councillors.70 into subgroups: Ia, for those descended from a Profession, of course, is not the only, nor neces- councillor or Circle member; Ib, for those not sarily the best, indicator of status. There was, for descended, but themselves a councillor (pre-1408 example, a considerable economic and social gap or post-1416) or Circle member, brother of such between a great merchant in Flemish cloth and a a person, or married into a council or Circle merchant who handled a few barrels of Scania family; Ic, for those who were ancestors of a herring each year. Fortunately, enough informa- councillor or Circle member, or of a daughter who tion is available on most individuals to establish married one. some categories for analysis which consider status To distinguish those probably outside the elite and wealth as well as profession. These categories but still high in wealth and status, group II in- are not intended necessarily to correspond to or cludes those not qualified for group I but who imply any individual's membership in any coherent meet one or more of the following qualifications: social class; they are designed simply to facilitate evidence of merchant activity or membership in a rural analysis of the data in somewhat more meaningful merchants' association; some investment in social, economic, and political terms, based not land; ownership of more than four houses; or, often on ideal classifications but rather using distinc- practice of an artisan trade which in Lubeck and whose members' wealth tions which can be made from the available evi- engaged in commerce tended to be to that of a lesser merchant, dence. In the aggregate they should provide an equal namely brewers, goldsmiths, or amber-workers.72 approximation of the socioeconomic composition of the committees and councils. 71 To these and the following standards,note that Ahas- ver von Brandt, 1966: pp. 226-230, finds that a net worth of about 800 marks was sufficient to put one in the top and that 70 The role of the Circle Society (Zirkel, after the 19 per cent of Lubeck's taxable population, 1350- circular emblem which members wore as a symbol of the Reincke in the essay "Hamburgische Verm6gen estate of later also Jungherren or Junker) in Lubeck's 1530" (1951a: pp. 201ff.) finds that an 5,000 Trinity; elite in a comparable social and political history is a matter of considerablede- marks placed one in the Hamburg, bate and will be discussed further in section 4 below. seaport town. Evidence assembled for the present study of the status of certain indicates that the average rural holdings for all council- However, for the purpose judging less of the it is sufficient to note here lors who served between 1360 and 1408 were slightly proponents uprising, and 0.94 re- that all students of the problemagree that membersof the than one-half village and one manor (0.47 same Circle were men of very high status, and some use the spectively); urban holdings for the sample averaged in Lubeck exclusively for Circle mem- 4.95 houses per councillor, plus other property. term "patrician" under 1888; Wegemann, 1941; Rorig, The three persons among the proponentsadmitted bers. See Wehrmann, I are: Wer- 1971: 243-244 and note 36; von Brandt, the financial-propertyqualification to group especially pp. each of his three sons 1966: 231-235. Circle members on the Sixty were ner Hop, who gave 1,000 marks to pp. and had an Lodwich Crull, Hans Luneborch, Evert Moyelke, Hinrik on the occasion of his remarriage, probably in excess of marks; Otto Lenzeke, who upme Orde, Johan Perzeval, Johan Schotte, and Siverd estate well 5,000 For the other individual examples used held three villages and three manors; Lutke Nyestadt, Vockinghusen. See 1975. here: Johan Lange, Luneborch, and Perzeval were sons with a village and three manors. Rotz, of former councillors. John Crowel, Simon Oldeslo, and 72 "Amber-workers" in Lubeck (Paternostermacher) had married daughters of former council- made rosaries fom Baltic amber which were highly prized Vockinghusen follow their trade into lors, and Borcherd van Hildessem was the son-in-law of in other Hansa towns; they might Arnd as well as an either import or export. Lubeck beer and Lubeck jewelry the sitting councillor Sparenberch of of the Travelers to Scania. Other merchant also had significant export markets. On the placement alderman with merchants, alderman were Marquart Schutte and Hermen Vinck amber-workers,brewers, and goldsmiths 1959 and 1966, shows that Johan Grove and Johan van Hamelen (Ber- among others von Brandt, (Scania), at these artisans equalled or sur- gen). economically, least, VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 21

As evidence permitted, these were placed into TABLE 1 subgroups IIa, known merchants, and IIb, known CLASSIFICATION OF PROPONENTS OF THE UPRISING commercial artisans. For non-commercial artisans and others, group The Lists of Sixty 1408-1416 Total III includes all remaining persons for whom some evidence is available, with the subgroup IIla for By Group those who at least owned more than one house, I 20 (33%) 33 (44%) 41 (39%) IIIb one or less. II 29 (48%) 27 (36%) 44 (42%) house III 11 (18%) 13 (17%) 18 (17%) Table 1 shows the results using these classifica- Unclassifiable 0 2 (3%) 2 (2%) tions. Fully one-third of the Sixty meet the By Subgroup standards for group I, persons who, while not Ia 3 (5%) 3 (4%) 5 (5%) that term can even be lb 10 (17%) 20 (27%) 23 (22%) necessarily "patrician" (if Ic 4 (7%) 6 (8%) 8 (8%) applied to Lubeck), were probably in or near the I-other 3 (5%) 4 (5%) 5 (5%) town's elite. Group II includes twenty-nine per- another half of the Less than IIa 17 (28%) 14 (19%) 23 (22%) sons, nearly Sixty. IIb 6 (10%) 8 (11%) 12 (11%) 20 per cent of the Sixty were at the level of non- II-other 6 (10%) 5 (7%) 9 (9%) commercial artisans, and those were largely solid Ila 9 (15%) 11(15%) 14 (13%) property owners. Put another way, the Sixty IIIb 2 (3%) 2 (3%) 4 (4%) was probably over 60 per cent merchant or above Combinations (I plus IIa), less than 30 per cent artisan or be- I + IIa (elite, merchants) 37 (62%) 47 (63%) 64 (61%) low (IIb plus III), with 97 per cent of its persons IIb + III (artisans, others) 17 (28%) 21 (28%) 30 (29%) more than minimal and I + II ("commercial") 49 (82%) 60 (80%) 85 (81%) owning property (I, II, I + II + liIa (investments) 58 (97%) 71 (94%) 99 (94%) IIIa). Ahasver von Brandt's work indicates that those with some interests in commerce, or with comparable incomes from property, tended to have merchants who supported the efforts for lower a taxable worth of 600 marks or more and com- taxes to have shrunk from the step of establishing prised the top 20 to 25 per cent of the taxable their own council and allowing artisans to sit on population of Lubeck; this would include the elite, it, or to have turned away from the regime when virtually all merchants, most brewers, and leading it fell under the imperial ban. In fact, there are goldsmiths and amber-workers.73 While the evi- two documented cases of the latter, both outstand- dence for this study does not permit precise de- ing merchants and Circle Society members. Both termination of net worth in all cases, groups I had served on the Sixty, and one of them on the and II together include persons practicing these Finance Committee as well; nevertheless they left professions and others of comparable wealth and Lubeck in late 1409 or 1410 and secured letters status, and these groups account for over 80 per of pardon from the king.74 Was this a sign of a cent of the Sixty. Any way it is analyzed, the general retreat by wealthy merchants and men of Sixty was dominated by commercial groups, not higher status after 1408? by artisans; by persons from the upper wealth and To deal with this possibility the same analyses income levels, not the lower. were made on the group of persons found on the The Sixty, of course, was only the first institu- new council or on a committee between 1408 and tion, and the date of the membership list is un- 1416. What is immediately apparent is that certain. It would still have been possible for those many of the same individuals from the Sixty re- appear in these later lists: eighteen of the mer- passed many of the lesser merchants. There are several chants, nine of the artisans, three others for a examples of this among persons investigatedfor this work, total of half of the both a brewer and a thirty, exactly original Sixty. e.g. Johan van der Heide, who was the new were member of the Travelers to Bergen, and whose sister Of forty-five names, twenty-four married a councillor; Cort Bloyebom, probablyboth gold- merchants (including nine definite textile mer- smith and merchant, able to loan 1,000 marks or more on chants, two drapers, six Travelers to Bergen, and three different occasions; the amber-workerJohan Plote, who personally loaned up to 550 marks. For the prop- 74Hinrik upme Orde and Siverd Vockinghusen, LUB erty standardsused, see note 71 above. 5: nos. 263, 491; HR 5: nos. 680, 682. See also Stieda, 73Von Brandt, "Die gesellschaftliche Struktur des 1921; in his introductionto the commercialcorrespondence spatmittelalterlichenLiibeck" (1966), pp. 226-230. Classi- of the Vockinghusen brothers, Stieda particularly has fication of each individual in the proponentsappears with suggested the probable turning away of major merchants his profile in Rotz, 1975. from the uprising as it became more "radical." 22 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. two Travelers to Scania), while only fourteen fled by the evidence. Of these 105 persons, evi- were artisans (four goldsmiths, three bakers, two dence sufficient to identify and classify them is brewers, and one more each from the amber- lacking for only two.77 Among the proponents workers, butchers, leather-workers, smiths, and were fifty-eight merchants and only thirty men weavers). Among them were another son of a identified as artisans. Using the same classifica- councillor, a brother of one, two additional sons- tion scheme (table 1), we find 39 per cent of them in-law of councillors, and seven more Circle in group I, 42 per cent in group II, only 17 per Society members.75 Considering the total group cent in group III (with 2 per cent unclassifiable). of seventy-five persons who served the new regime, The probable merchant or above (I plus IIa) one finds, interestingly enough, that if anything figure is almost 61 per cent, probable artisan or the overall status of the group has increased (table below (IIb plus III) less than 29 per cent. With 1). Thirty-three persons, or over 44 per cent of 81 per cent of these individuals either in group I the total, meet the standards for group I; twenty- or group II, and 94 per cent of them apparently seven, or 36 per cent, fit group II, with only having the wealth to own more than one house thirteen, or 17 per cent, in group III. Those (IIIa and above), this was clearly a movement of probably merchant or above (I plus IIa) com- solid citizens numerically dominated by those with prise nearly 63 per cent of the total, artisan or commercial, not craft, interests. Collectively these below (IIb plus III) 28 per cent, and again 80 105 persons owned twenty-four commercial build- per cent probably had commercial interests (I plus ings, twenty-three mansions and sixty apart- II). Thus while there were a few individual de- ments,78 and 312 houses-an average of nearly fections, most probably for individual reasons,76 three houses per person (2.971)-as well as six on the whole there was no "retreat" of mer- villages and fourteen and one-half manors in the chants or wealthy men from the new council; the countryside. same socioeconomic forces supported both the The use of such numbers and percentages, of than Sixty and the new council. course, tends to imply rather more precision Analysis of the proponents as a single unit-all 77 Hinrik Bloyebom was identified as a cousin of the who in documents as serving on or re- persons appear prosperous Cort Bloyebom (note 72), but no evidence actively supporting the citizen committees or the lated to Hinrik's own wealth or property was found. The new council at any time-is therefore clearly justi- other difficulty came from the name "Witte Johan" in LUB 5: nos. 530, 541. No individual with the surname of 75 Thomas Perzeval was son of the burgomaster Johan Johan could be traced; if one considers the possibility the still is not solved, as the (and brother to the Johan cited in note 70). Hinrik transposition then problem either to the Witte or Cropelin was the brother of councillor Claus. Marquart entry could refer glazier Johan Traveler to See Rotz, 1975. vamme Kyle and Tideman Steen married daughters of Johan Witte the Bergen. 78 features of Lubeck were (and in councillors. Johan Bere, Cort Brekewolt, vamme Kyle, Among the unusual lots unbroken by Bertelt Rolant, Steen, and Detmer van Tunen many cases still are) extremely deep Perzeval, street to were all members of the Circle. alleys. A single house built through from one called a "cross house" and prob- 76 The primary motives for Orde and Vockinghusen another was (Querhaus), contained the floor of three to four average (note 74) were almost certainly economic. They were ably space houses. Another of dwelling, on a corner plus the partners in a commercial firm with activities in Flanders, type a "corner house" prob- the Rhineland, and Italy as well as the entire Baltic, par- depth of its lots, was (Eckhaus), the of two to three average houses. These ticularly strong in trade between Lubeck and Venice, and ably equivalent homes were residences of thus were hit hard by imperial outlawry. Note for ex- large single-family normally below been in a that Siverd settled for his exile in Cologne, not the wealthy and have here and placed ample translated as "mansions." Other or Luneburg or one of the other towns where single category, loosely Hamburg on it, main of exiles went; in fact, there is no evi- uses of this lot space were to develop outbuildings the body both of these dence that he associated himself with the principal exiles or to construct multiple-unit dwellings; were described in documents as Bude, and so in any way. Siverd also returned to Lubeck not in 1416 generally in a move best explained by the king's they have been taken in a single category here, very but only 1420, The of trade with Venice in that year. Both loosely translated as "apartments." pedestrian pass- prohibition units often under or Orde and Vockinghusen severely criticized the ageways to these dwelling passed upme on the street. The new Lubeck council after 1410, but almost always be- through the houses which fronted of these and their dwellings cause of the effect it was having on their business, or surviving examples passages interior court are one of the most for some other economic problem such as confiscation of in effect around an features of modern Lubeck; they were not, their annuities (see, in spite of Stieda's conclusions, the attractive "desirable" residences around 1400, documents in Stieda, 1921: e.g., nos. 25 and 33). Thus however, considered the of ownership of them in this sample both the timing of their exile and their own words indi- and all examples as can be determined, investment prop- cate that their absence from Lubeck was for economic were, as nearly for rental income. reasons, not to escape a "radical" regime. erty VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 23 is justified by the nature of pre-modern data. All Generalization about the entire roll of propo- these figures should be taken as guidelines to nents, however, is perhaps not the best way to ap- understanding the movement rather than as an proach the problem. The movement was an alli- exact definition of it. Nevertheless it is reason- ance of persons from many social and economic able to assert that this was a movement with sub- levels. Of the artisans, it is worth noting that stantial representation from persons of high substantial representation came from the prosper- wealth and status, in which probably at least three- ous and commercially oriented trades: five brew- quarters of the persons supporting the uprising ers, five to seven goldsmiths, two amber-workers, came from the top one-quarter of the town's tax- and a very wealthy armorer. These professions re- able population.79 quired major outlays of capital for the necessary tools or raw materials, and suffered little or no 79One must, of course, consider the possibility that the competition from peasant immigrants. Thus any status of those who served on institutions like the council artisan economic discontent of the time and the and in possible Sixty, thus who appear documents, may was not a factor in this have been somewhat higher than that of the movement as probably significant up- a whole. Certainly such a pattern can be seen again and rising. In any case these fifteen individuals seem again in later events, from popularmovements to electoral successful enough: collectively they held a grain as be politics, groups yielded to the desire to represented warehouse, a mansion and two apartments, a by those of the highest status among them. Unfortun- a butcher a retail an inn ately, obviously one cannot trace in documents those who brewery, shop, store, do not appear in documents; one can, however, say with approximately the size of three houses, two stalls confidence that at the very least, in this movement the at the town market, thirty-seven houses, two gar- presence of merchants and others with commercial in- dens, and outside the wall two fields and a wood. terests was more than token. There is substantially also The other artisans-four bakers, three butchers, one piece of evidence which might be helpful in evaluat- two ing the nature of the movement's support beyond that cobblers, a hatter-pawnbroker, a leather- which can be determinedfrom institutional records. When worker, a purse-maker, two smiths, a tanner and the settlement of 1416 was reached, there was a small pro- a weaver-while less prosperous were by no test against it. Eighteen persons were arrested, all but one means with two men whose identifiableas artisans: HR 6: no. LUB 5: no. 581. propertyless. Together 262; are unknown the eight- At most, five of those arrested had appeared on institu- professions they comprise tions supportingthe movement: a harness-maker (Ludeke van dem Holme, Sixteen in 1415), a butcher (Johan van cases of Poling and Sobbe, remaineddissatisfied with that Lense, Sixty), two goldsmiths (Hermen Poling, Con- settlement. But if that is true, then it only tends to stitutional Committee 1408, burgomaster 1413; Heyno confirm the interpretationthat the movement at all stages Sobbe, Sixteen in 1408 and again in 1415, elector 1408, was dominatedby merchants and men of higher rank. councillor 1409-1414), and perhaps a baker (a Clawes A minor note to the problem of the protest may be Rubow or Rukow, baker, arrested; a "Hans Rubow the added. According to chronicles two persons, a baker baker" was an elector in 1408). See Rotz, 1975. The variously named Hermen or Clawes Rubow, and the afore- other identifiable persons, most of whose professions ap- mentionedgoldsmith Heyno Sobbe, were executed follow- pear in HR 6: no. 262 itself (four of these can be con- ing their protest in 1416 (C 28: pp. 80, 363). But no firmed from other evidence), included two aldermen of documentary evidence for the executions survives, while the pursemakers (see also LUB 5: no. 355, p. 396, no. several references show that a baker Clawes Rubow, 581; Nsb, p. 632), two amber-workers (see also LUB 4: which is definitely the name of the person arrested, lived no. 657; 6: no. 586, 7: no. 521), a goldsmith, a harness- on in Lubeck until about 1425, although seriously in debt. maker, a weaver, a tinker, a candlemaker, a locksmith, No arrest record nor any other evidence exists for a a preparerof small animal pelts (especially squirrel), and Hermen Rubow. See Rotz, 1975. The only documentary a street peddler, probablyof dry goods. Of this evidence clue to possible executions, that Rubow and Sobbe were two things may be said. On the one hand, it seems further arrested with the others but do not reappear later swear- proof that there was no significant involvement of non- ing peace with them, applies equally well to an otherwise citizens or the propertyless in this movement, since (with untraceableKlokholt, whom no one has ever claimed was the possible exception of the one unidentifiedindividual) executed: HR 6: no. 262, compare p. 210 with pp. 214- they do not even appear in arrest records. While of 215. The remaining fifteen protestors were officially course the peltmaker and the peddler were probably on exiled from Lubeck: LUB 5: no. 581, but at least one, the lower levels of the citizenry, even they would have the amber-worker Hartwich Reder, either never left or owned at least either hides and tools or a cart, and the was later allowed to return to his town and his craft: list is dominated by men of substantial crafts, including LUB 6: no. 586: 7: no. 521, while another, the purse- five commercial guildsmen (three goldsmiths and two maker Hans Ronner, according to entries in the Person- amber-workers) and two guild aldermen. On the other enkartei owned a house on Braunstrasse continuously hand, certainly the fact of the artisan protest implies that from 1414 to 1423. Thus one is forced to question whether the terms of the settlement were dictated by the merchant either of the punishments, execution or exile, were in element in the movement, and that a segment of the fact fully carried out. Only Poling can be definitely artisans which had supported it, quite faithfully in the establishedas in exile; see below. 24 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. een persons of group III, who accounted for three chant to Reval, was the son of a major textile mansions and three apartments, five bakeries, two merchant and grandson (through his mother) of a smithies, seven market stalls, thirty-one houses, a councillor; his sister was married to a councillor garden, and a vacant lot. Individual holdings in exile. John Lange's lineage is even more im- within the known artisans ranged, for example, pressive: he was the son of a councillor, his mother from the warehouse, mansion, five houses, and was the daughter of a councillor, and Johan him- two apartments of the armorer to a butcher with self married the daughter of a burgomaster. Lange a single dwelling.80 held both rural and urban properties, including a A range of wealth also characterizes the mer- village, two and one-half manors, eight houses, a chants and others of higher levels. The forty-one bakery, four market stalls, and a warehouse. citizens of group I had invested in three ware- Another burgomaster for the new regime was houses, nine mansions and twenty-three apart- Simon Oldeslo; probably a merchant, he had ments, five bakeries, a brewery, a bathhouse, a represented the holders of annuities during the pharmacy, a mill, a garden, six market stalls, and transfer of power in 1408. Married to the daugh- 155 houses, plus, outside the walls, five villages, ter of a councillor, his sister married to a coun- thirteen and one-half manors, a wood, and salt cillor in exile, Oldeslo owned a bakery and six mines at Oldesloe. The twenty-nine non-artisan houses, and left over 100 marks to churches and members of group II add another ten mansions charities in his will. Tideman Steen, a merchant Circle and thirty-two apartments, eighty-nine houses, a to all points from Flanders to Russia, man garden, a village, a manor, an orchard, and a one- Society member, and an extremely wealthy third share of a meadow. Individual holdings who owned two mansions and six other houses, but also became here range from an individual, quite possibly a served not only the new council after the rentier, with three villages, three manors, ten a burgomaster of the regular council fleet houses, and 157 marks in annuities to several settlement. He commanded the Hanseatic re- small merchants with a single house, for example against Denmark in 1427 (and was forced to the one whose widow found it necessary to take sign when he was resoundingly defeated). his executors to court over two frying pans and a All four of the above were classified in group came kettle. Origins are just as diverse: a son I in our analysis. From group II, however, copper alder- of a Lubeck burgomaster appeared on the Com- three other burgomasters. Johan Grove, of a mittee of Sixty alongside a fugitive serf.81 man of the Travelers to Bergen, disposed five houses and The same variety in wealth and status appears, more modest fortune, totaling as as can be determined, in the leadership about 400 marks in capital, in his estate. Hermen nearly monstrance used of the movement, as a glance at the seven persons Poling, a goldsmith, maker of the the Lubeck who served as burgomaster between 1408 and in the parish church which adjoined was one of 1416 will indicate. Hermen van Alen, a mer- town hall, owned only two houses; he the few who rejected the settlement of 1416 and was exiled for leading a protest against it. He 80 here are the wealthy Eler Stange, The examples very remainder of his life under the protec- who moved in elite circles, comparedto the butcher spent the clearly of We have Johan van Lense. The holding of mansions by artisans tion of the Margrave Brandenburg. was rare, but some unquestionablyhad sufficient wealth already noted the extensive holdings of an armorer, and 72 In the totals given his name for it (see notes 71 above). ranging from a mansion to a warehouse; here, at least one of the four mansions, that of the tanner as from was Eler Stange, and he too served burgo- Hinrik Bekeman, had been purchased after 1411 one. exile Stange's mansion came to him, master, in fact a remarkably outspoken Stange confiscated property. While there along with his grain warehouse, through the dowry of his had married the niece of a councillor. wife, a maternal niece of the councillor Arnd Sparen- is no definite evidence that any non-commercial berch. The others belonged to Hinrik Landman, ap- of such ser- the artisans were burgomasters-records parently a very successful butcher and alderman of new council-cer- whose could vice are fragmentary for the guild, and to Ludeke Vlensborch, profession the not be established (and was in fact probably not an tainly persons in group III also were among a artisan; he was unavoidably placed in group III for leaders of the new regime and held positions of lack of sufficient information). For example, the purse- 81 The examples here are, respectively, Otto Lenzeke major responsibility. contrasted with Bertolt van Northem; Johan Perzeval maker Gerhard van Mars was a town assessor, to (son of the Johan who was burgomaster from 1363 and Lubeck in the Hanseatic Diets of (born a serf of represented 1396) contrasted with Johan Kogelndal which were considering its expulsion; the count of Limburg, see LUB 7: no. 833). 1411-1412 VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 25 the hatter and pawnbroker Hinrik Melborch In investigating this possibility in Lubeck, we served as a judge, and was an ambassador to Den- are handicapped by the lack of a consensus on the mark at the time of Eric's intervention. definition of a patrician in a seaport town, or even, The socioeconomic forces which established the as noted, whether a true patriciate existed in Lu- new council of 1408 cannot be described by a beck. Nevertheless, this debate on the patriciate single word or phrase, and that diversity must be suggests a possible socioeconomic division in the emphasized. Clearly this was no artisan move- Lubeck elite which might have helped to precipi- ment, as merchants and other men of some wealth tate an uprising. Lubeck historians have generally outnumbered artisans by roughly two to one. On assumed that only a segment of the elite dominated the other hand, calling it a merchants' movement town politics. In the nineteenth and early twentieth would also not fit the evidence, as there was sub- centuries, it was a commonplace in Lubeck his- stantial artisan participation extending to leader- toriography that the membership of the Circle ship levels. Even describing it as a "citizens' Society had constituted the Lubeck patriciate, even movement" would not be wholly accurate, since we though the council was at no point composed en- find here not a cross-section of the citizen popula- tirely of Circle members. Then Fritz R6rig, en- tion but, overwhelmingly, persons from roughly larging upon a suggestion by Carl Wehrmann, the top quarter of the citizenry. Perhaps the best developed a socioeconomic approach to explain short description, considering the context of the and define this distinction. He decided, in line uprising, is that this was a taxpayers' revolt. The with his opinions described above (section 1), that higher a man's taxes, it would seem, the more the foundation of the Circle in 1379 was only a likely he was to join it. symbol and symptom of the larger transition in In any case, analysis of the proponents of the which, gradually over the second half of the four- uprising is sufficient to establish that this party did teenth century, the children and grandchildren of not form along any discernible economic, social the great merchants shifted their principal in- or class lines. It follows, then, that "class hatred" vestments from commercial activity to landed of artisans for patricians was not a primary cause estates, annuities, and urban property. According of the uprising. to R6rig, this change created a class of rentiers which nevertheless retained, with the of as- 4. FACTIONSIN THE ELITE help sociations like the Circle, control of the govern- In the search for a new interpretation of the ment of this commercial metropolis, shifting its events in Lubeck in 1408, the extensive participa- policies from free trade to protectionism. This tion of members of the elite in the uprising demon- approach fits with work on other towns that has strated above naturally attracts our attention. noted a tendency of the patriciate to "close up" in Studies in the social history of other towns have the same time period, making mobility into the suggested that some uprisings may have reflected elite and the government more difficult; a patrician social tensions within the elite. If the existing society or corporation was one way to accomplish government was dominated by only a segment of this. Karl Czok, among others, has seen that the elite-whether that segment is labeled a "pa- R6rig's suggestion has a possible application to triciate" or not-then other men of similar wealth uprisings. A vigorous and wealthy merchant might have resented this domination. For ex- might have had both personal and professional ample, in any commercial town we would expect reasons for opposing a closed, rentier patriciate: a to find men with great wealth but without the desire not only for recognition of his own upward proper connections, either self-made men or men mobility but to force changes in policy, making of good birth in another town who had migrated government more favorable to commerce. Ahasver in the expectation of at least keeping, if not raising, von Brandt, however, disagrees wth these argu- their status. These "new men," if they did not ments. He finds no significant tendency of the receive the political power or social reception they Lubeck council to "close," i.e., to limit its choice considered commensurate with their worth, could of councillors to men from a smaller circle of fami- have joined with each other to force their way into lies, nor for rentiers to appear on the council in a higher position.82 any larger proportion or to affect policy to any than in Von 82 See the review in Rotz, 1976. A noteworthy study greater degree previous generations. of the problemof "new men" in Florence is Marvin Beck- Brandt concludes that neither the term "patrician" er's "The Novi Cives in Florentine Politics" (1962). nor the concept of a merchant versus rentier strug- 26 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. gle are very useful in explaining Lubeck's develop- the walls totaled nine and one-half commercial ment.83 properties (warehouses, bakeries, breweries, etc.), The existence of such a debate requires that the fourteen mansions and forty-one apartments, 121 term "patrician" be used in Lubeck only with houses, seventeen market stalls, and five gardens. caution, if at all; nevertheless it also suggests Twenty of them had also invested outside the issues which can be used to analyze the uprising. walls, in eighteen and one-half villages, sixty-three The evidence-divisions in the old council, men of and one-half manors, four and one-half hides, a high status and wealth in the new-obviously in- mill, a lake, a meadow, and two salt pans. There dicates that a split in the elite accompanied the is evidence that seven of these rural investors, plus uprising. Was the movement of 1408 directed eleven others in the group, engaged in merchant against a particular segment of the elite which activity. controlled government on the basis of particular Clearly these were wealthy men of good lineage social and/or economic ties? More specifically, and high status, but the exiles were by any mea- was the split in the elite a division between those sure only a portion of Lubeck's most prestigious inside the Circle Society and those outside it? citizens. We have, for example, already identi- Between "old families" and "new men"? Between fied and described forty-one men in group I of the men living as rentiers and men who were still proponents of the uprising, men in or near the active merchants? Answers to questions such as elite. In addition, there were others of very high these, although they will not solve the problem of status who apparently did not wish to support the the Lubeck "patriciate,"will at least help us under- uprising actively, but who also felt no need to stand the nature of the uprising. leave Lubeck, for example the eight councillors It is possible to approach such questions be- who remained in 1408.85 One cannot assume, of cause the course of events in 1408 to a consider- course, that such persons formed a political able extent allowed the factions in the elite to de- "party"; a variety of reasons might contribute to a fine themselves in documents. We can reasonably decision to remain, for example ill health or a assume that the body of exiles consisted primarily need for proximity to business enterprises. How- of those persons who considered themselves threat- ever, since all Lubeck citizens had freedom of ened and/or dislodged by the uprising. In other movement during the uprising years unless they words, we should be able to determine the class or were outspoken in their criticism of the regime, level, if any, against which the uprising was di- the decision to remain in a town with a new con- rected by examining who was in exile and who stitution, under an imperial ban, was for most was not. Documents provide us with the names persons something of a political act, and was recog- of thirty-seven exiles, including the fifteen de- councillors of four who would join an index. In addition, of course, marriage to a daughter parted 1408, for after and members of of an old line was a classic means of upward mobility the council 1416, thirty-six not have been fully ac- of them were re- a "new man" whose son might the Circle Society. Twenty-six cepted into the elite. lated in the male line to previous councillors, of 85 The split in the council is in fact rather more com- Lubeck or other towns.84 Their holdings within plicated than this. One of the "remained" councillors, Cort Brekewolt, apparently served briefly on the new 83Wehrmann's "Das liubeckische Patriziat" of 1872 is council in 1410 (Nsb, p. 423) and hence in this study them but in I of the apparently the first work to suggest that the Circle marked has been placed not among group is the the definition of the patriciate both as a class and as a proponents. On the other hand there vacillating the effective founder of group of rentiers; the ideas of Rorig appear in their most conduct of Hermen Westval, three councillors fully developed form in pp. 216-246 and 658-680 of his the Westval "dynasty" which produced fifteenth West- collected works (1971). Von Brandt outlines the extent and two bishops of Lubeck in the century. in Lubeck but par- of his disagreement, 1959: pp. 137-147, and 1966: pp. val not only initially remained actively new council in 231-235. See also Wehrmann, 1888; Fink, 1938; Wege- ticipated in the transfer of power to the both Bernd Pleskow and mann, 1941. On the problem of patrician "closing," May, 1408 (which, for example, from He then property, and their possible connections in Arnold Sparenberch refrained doing). corporations, the exiles in late other towns see especially Czok, 1963: pp. 101-103; Dol- seems to have turned about and joined 1409. he returned to Lubeck well be- linger, 1950 and 1953; Irsigler, 1974. 1408 or However, 84 Use of the male line to reckon descent here and fore the settlement, probably by 1414 (his brother Conrad, only returned elsewhere in this is not to imply that descent in the who had joined him in exile, had definitely by study recorded as one of the exiled female line was insignificant. However, the survival of 1413). Nevertheless he was of 1416. In evidence for the latter is much more erratic, and since councillors in documents of the settlement reckoned for in both the these data are used primarily for comparative purposes it this study he has been analysis seemed wiser to employ the more reliable male descent as exiles and the remained councillors. VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 27 nized as such in, for example, the documents of TABLE 2 the settlement, where councillors who had re- SOCIOECONOMIC COMPARISONS OF POLITICAL mained were listed separately.8 More importantly, GROUPS IN THE ELITE to evaluate the split in the elite it is also properly, Other important to look at those persons in it who were Proponents Council and I Circle Exiles apparently not threatened by the uprising. Group By the standards of all Lubeck historians, % Circle 34 84 97 whether use the term or they "patrician" not, % with male-line councillors (before 1408 or after 1416) and Circle councillor relative 10 47 70 members were men of Society high status; from % merchant 90 67 49 these rolls a sample of members of the elite not in exile can be drawn. As nearly as can be deter- Urban mined, at least forty-five such men-men who Average commercial either were or became councillors mem- properties 0.29 0.23 0.26 and/or mansions 0.21 bers of the Circle-were and of Average 0.33 0.37 living age during Average houses 3.78 4.31 3.27 the uprising years, and are found neither in exile Rural nor actively supporting the new regime.87 Among them are seven past and fourteen future council- % with land 22 36 54 lors, Circle members, and Average villages 0.12 0.24 0.50 thirty-eight Society Average manors 0.33 0.59 1.72 twenty-one men related to councillors in the male line. In town they held ten and one-half com- mercial properties, fifteen mansions and thirty-two The of "neutrals" in the elite is apartments, 194 houses, seven market stalls, and sample apparent 84 cent of Circle even 34 six gardens; on the land, sixteen of them held per composed members; cent of I to the Circle. eleven villages and twenty-six and one-half man- per group belonged Thus, while there is a small of correlation between ors, plus a mill, a wood, and a meadow. Thirty degree and it is im- are documented merchants, and one was a banker. society membership political position, to that the movement of 1408 was Obviously the exiles comprised only a segment possible say directed the Circle or its members of Lubeck's elite; the question is to what extent against Society as a The correlation between ties that segment can be defined by social and/or eco- group. family and behavior is nomic factors. A comparison of these three groups political considerably sharper: 10 cent of I were male-line rela- -exiles, apparent "neutrals" of the elite, and only per group tives of 47 cent of the group I of the proponents-should provide the councillors, against per "neutrals" and 70 cent of the exiles. answer. Since the three groups are not precisely per Among the the movement of 1408 drew its the same size, an accurate comparison requires the elite, strongest from "new men." This is further illus- use of percentages and averages, and these may be support found in table 2. trated in table 1, where it is noted that only five men in First let us consider the traditional definition of group I were established as second-gen- a Lubeck in the Circle eration elite or more (subgroup Ia). The bulk "patrician," membership of this While all but one of the exiles were group, twenty-three men, were those whose Society. ties to the elite came in Circle members the reverse is not only their generation (Ib), (97 per cent), while more were in I true: the entire Circle Society was not in exile. eight (Ic) placed group primarily on the achievements of their descendants. is not the same as that the 86 This, however, saying C 26: p. 423. movement was directed those with 87 The list was confined to those who either joined the against family Circle or the council before 1429; that is the date when connections. There were, indeed, twenty-six such the Circle membership roll was prepared, and was used men in exile, but also twenty-one among the "neu- for the council also in order to have a consistent base for trals." In if we combine those known to have both. Close relatives of known exiles were not included fact, unless there was definite proof that they remained, in supported the uprising and those who chose to re- spite of the fact that between letters, confiscations, and main in the city during it, then there were as many settlements the identity of the exiles is as well established or more male-line relatives of councillors (and as anything about this uprising. In the event, one can find documentation to fix 29 of these men inside the walls and substantially more Circle Society members) inside another four were brothers of such documented cases. Lubeck between 1408 and 1416 than there were 28 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. among the exiles.88 Neither Circle membership Scania.89 Analysis of property holdings makes the nor descent from previous council families fully distinctions even less clear. One cannot even say explains the political divisions within the elite. with confidence that the exiles had more income The economic evidence is more difficult to inter- from property than the men of the other groups. A pret. Such material must in any case be used man of group I had, on the average, about as cautiously. One can establish from documents much property inside Lubeck as did an exile, in that an individual engaged in merchant activity; fact rather more if one discounts mansions. The one cannot presume the opposite, that silence in "neutral" segment had even more extensive urban these documents necessarily means a man was not holdings, averaging more than one house per man a merchant. Neither can one definitively establish larger than those of the exiles. Thus, just as the existence of a rentier but rather only estimate, there were a substantial number of active mer- from size of property holdings, how likely it was chants among the exiles, it seems likely that there that such items provided a man with the bulk of were many rentiers at least in the "neutrals" if not his income. Nevertheless, if there is uncertainty also in group I. with individuals, the comparison of what can be If there was a significant difference in possession found for various groups in a defined documentary of property between the groups, then table 2 indi- base can be at least be useful. cates that it was not so much the total amount of location of whether That comparison (table 2) indicates that it was property as the it-specifically, it was urban or rural A far likely that there were more active merchants property. greater of the exiles had invested outside town among supporters of the uprising and more proportion in far more massive The rentiers among the exiles; yet the lines are not walls, and quantities. and the data for the "neutrals" exiles' landed estates average about five times sharply drawn, three make it even more difficult to establish a "merchant those of group I, and from two to nearly factor cor- vs. rentier" conflict. Evidence of merchant acti- times those of the "neutrals." This with the than a "mer- was found for 90 per cent of the men in group relates far better groups vity Yet even this I and for two-thirds of the neutrals, but for only chant vs. rentier" division. sharp distinction does not the division in 49 per cent of the exiles. One can conclude from fully explain half the exiles cent) this that the uprising drew its strongest support the elite. Nearly (46 per manors or neither from active men, but on the other apparently held no villages; commercially was directed hand the exiles cannot be described as a can one say that the uprising against certainly some of that had abandoned commerce. Nearly half all rural landowners, since twenty-five group "neutrals" and nine in I) of the exiles were merchants, and some were out- them (sixteen group Traveler remained. standing ones, for example two drapers, a to Such results are most useful in de- to Bergen, and an alderman of the Travelers perhaps scribing what the uprising was not. Just as the class proponents of it did not stem from a single 88 By my count there were at least twenty-seven direct four or economic group, so the uprising was not di- male-line relatives of councillors who remained: of a in the Circle-councillor sample, rected against all or even most members proponents, twenty-one the and a few sons of councillors not in the Circle, e.g., Johan single social or economic category: not Schepenstede, Emil Luchow. At least fifty men (in- in the not the old families, not be- "squires" Circle, cluding twelve proponents) who remained were or rentiers-and thus not the "patriciate" by any Two of families always the came Circle members. examples used historians who speak of considered "patrician"by those who use the term may of the standards by the evidence confirms that help to illustrate the point. The principal leader of a Lubeck patriciate. This exiles, descended from a long line of councillors and the traditional of this uprising as a first interpretation burgomasters, was Jordan Pleskow; however, his social movement of an artisan class against a cousin Bernd Pleskow, with an equally illustrious lineage, abandoned. as did their patrician class must be was one of the councillors who remained, to some distant cousin and future councillor Godeke Pleskow. Nevertheless it does seem likely that Gerhard and Hermen Darsow had been not only out- extent the alignment of forces did reflect some standing councillors but founders of the Circle Society; socioeconomic tensions, at least within the elite. they were deceased by 1408, but their younger brother Johan, later to become a councillor (1416-1434), never other Darsow. Those 89In addition to upme Orde and Vockinghusen (notes left Lubeck,nor, apparently,did any Ludeke Osen- history may wish to also 74 and 76 above), Tideman Brekelveld, familiar with Lubeck family and Hinrik Westhof are note that neither the Kerkrings of the time nor the last brugghe, Hinrik Rapesulver, Mornewech went into exile. examples. VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 29

Table 2 shows an interesting degree of correla- six had been councillors for only six years or less. tion between socioeconomic factors and position on Unfortunately it is not possible to determine the Lubeck's "political spectrum" in 1408. It seems actual age of these councillors with any assurance likely that there were in fact men from old families of accuracy, but the evidence definitely implies at who were reducing their merchant activity and in- least a political, if not also a chronological, "gen- vesting in property-especially in landed estates eration gap" on the council. Turning to the en- (or of course, who had inherited such property). tire body of exiles, it appears that with a few ex- To a considerable extent such men tended to re- ceptions, the decision to leave Lubeck depended to spond to the uprising by going into exile, or (to a great extent on a man's blood or marriage ties a lesser extent) by remaining "neutral"; few sup- to the exiled segment of the council. One exile ported it. Apparently there also existed a good was originally from a council family of another many "new" men in the elite who were very active Hanseatic town, and returned to it; his motive was commercially and had less of their capital in prop- probably just a desire to avoid the disturbances. erty; what property they had was almost com- Three more were partners in a major commercial pletely urban. These men tended to support the corporation who left only after the imperial ban uprising or to take a neutral stance; only a few was declared, undoubtedly because they needed to were in exile. evade it to continue their Rhenish and Venetian But one should be cautious about assuming that trade. If we discount these, then the fifteen these socioeconomic differences explain the split specific councillors plus their close relatives ac- within the elite, let alone that these possible ten- count for 94 per cent of the remaining exiles sions caused the uprising. In the first place there (thirty-one of thirty-three).90 are a disquieting number of exceptions: men of The soundest conclusion, considering all the old lines who were still commercial and urban, evidence, is probably that the uprising was directed "new" men with estates, in fact men of all con- not so much against a socioeconomic group within ceivable types, and showing up at virtually all the elite as against a particular faction of the Lu- conceivable points on the "spectrum." There are beck council. Members of that faction indeed also other factors, neither social nor economic, tended to have particular social and economic which seem to have played an equal or larger role characteristics, while their opponents tended to in the formation of parties within the elite. For have different social and economic characteristics. example, if one considers only the councillors of Nevertheless the correlations are not strong 1408, then the division among them, perplexingly, enough to indicate that the elite divided primarily correlates better with length of council service along socioeconomic lines. Conversely, clearly than with any socioeconomic factor. To illustrate: something else is at work: for the most part, just there were fifteen exiled councillors. Nine of the "eldest" councillors and their relatives left them (60 per cent) held rural land, but at least Lubeck because of the uprising. Such an align- four of these, plus four others, were demonstrably ment arouses a suspicion that politics was more active merchants (53.3 per cent). Eight of them important than economics in determining the align- were descended in the male line from councillors ment of forces. This is not to say that the social (53.3 per cent), but this also means that seven and economic factors within the elite were insig- apparently were not. If one compares results nificant and should be disregarded, but only that using these factors with those for the eight coun- 90Nicolaus Br6mse returnedto Luneburg;Tideman cillors who remained, there is indeed a contrast: Brekelveldand Hinrik upme Orde were partnerswith of the latter, five were active merchants (62.5 SiverdVockingbusen (see notes74 and 76 above).Other- and one had rural wise the exiles includethree brothers and a half-brother, per cent), only (12.5 per cent) seven two a brother-in-lawand his same one who had a councillor ancestor. sons, sons-in-law, son, land, the and a wife's nephew (closely tied economically)of the However, the contrast using years on the council fifteencouncillors. Intermarriageamong council families is much more striking, correlating with 80 per cent was of course frequent,and thus a degree of kinship or more of the decisions on both sides. The ten wouldbe expectedin such a group; not, however,in ex- cess of 90 per cent. For example,a similarsearch among "eldest" councillors-men who had been on the the sampleof councillorsand Circlemembers not in exile council the longest-all went into exile, and twelve yieldedonly thirtyof the forty-five,or 67 percent,of per- sons relatedto else in this much of the fifteen exiles had joined the traceably anyone larger (80 per cent) sample,and that figureincludes far moredistant relations, council before 1400. Conversely, of the eight who e.g., two distantcousins and two men who had married remained, none had taken his seat before 1393 and distantcousins of othersin the sample. 30 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. the traditional interpretation may have placed the 5. EFFECTAND CAUSE IN THE cart before the horse. In the latter, such things LUBECKUPRISING as town and town finance served as politics only Some of the fourteenth and fifteenth "excuses" for an which was caused uprisings uprising really occurred in an environ- social and What seems centuries, although they by economic problems. ment of stemmed not from eco- as on the above is that in "crisis," basically just likely, evidence, nomic distress or social tension but from struggles fact the political quarrels were the primary cause, over and in The social and economic tensions have personalities policies government. that while may were members of the been an undercurrent it was personalities elite, quarreling important principally over which faction would dominate the town; the a man's attitudes toward and specific persons spe- in most cases, those which had cost cific which him on one side or the policies were, policies put money, most frequently decisions for war or which other. No doubt some of the "new men" supported had led to war. When the ruling faction found it the in because resented the dom- uprising part they necessary to ask for higher taxes, then they gave inance of men from "old families" in government, their an issue on which an alliance of resented their own exclusion from the opposition and/or top- men from many social and economic levels could most levels of and No doubt some power prestige. be based, for obviously all citizens were concerned active merchants the because supported uprising with taxes. If the attempt to make changes within of the economic distance between themselves and the existing government failed, revolt could follow, certain less mercantile councillors who lived from at times going well beyond the bounds which the property and annuity income. But another pos- dissatisfied members of the elite would have set that the elite was sibility is worth consideration: for it. Even in extreme cases, in which the even- of issues for divided primarily by an issue or set tual of forces seems to reflect socioeco- tend to alignment which simple economic self-interest would nomic differences to a considerable extent, upris- more urban place men with more commercial and a in the elite remain pri- less ings sparked by split investments on one side, men with commercial, in cause and character. They were the other. marily political more rural investments on not social movements which expressed themselves The citizens' in and after 1405 focus complaints politically, but rather political movements with around such a set of issues. The Committee just certain social implications. The difference is more had of course cited not of Sixty specific problems, than a mere rearrangement of words; at stake is but in effect their general policies, in their protests, the motive for an uprising, and thus its too little principal message was that the council had given true in the broader context of urban and town walls: to place attention to government inside social and history.91 finance, administration of muncipal properties The evidence has eliminated other that in foregoing agencies, and so forth. It would also seem Obviously there was in the interpretive approaches. their opinion the council's activities outside Lubeck in 1408 no movement of the poor, since all misdirected: the citizens found too walls had been the known supporters of it were, as nearly as can much time and money spent on territorial acquisi- be citizens, and over 90 per cent of commerce. determined, tion, not enough on the protection of them can be documented as holders of investment In the had against the poli- for "democ- brief, Sixty protested property. Nor was it artisan desires cies of the presumably, of the caused past-the policies, racy" or artisan economic discontent which "eldest" councillors-and had asked government not the uprising: the proponents of it were pre- to be more commercial and more urban. instead dominantly artisan, and of the artisan minority The foregoing analysis indicates that "younger" most were from economically stable trades and councillors and those members of the elite whose will not ex- prosperous enough. "Class hatred" investments were commercial and urban tended was plain the evidence, since the new regime sup- toward some for the uprising, while and economic sympathy ported by men from many social with less "elder" councillors and men of the elite levels, and the uprising was not directed against walls merchant activity and more land outside the a class or a particular social group. Rather, the tended to oppose it. It seems entirely plausible, data indicate a movement of substantial taxpayers, to that in 1408 the elite was indeed then, suggest 91 1976. On the extent to which even an ap- issues, and further, that Rotz, split by primarily political parently lower-class rising can result from simple policy these were the same issues which had aroused the issues and splits in the elite, see especially the works of Florence and 1968). rest of the citizenry. Gene A. Brucker on (1962 VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 31

TABLE 3 COUNCILSAND INDEXESOF ECONOMICACTIVITY, 1360-1450

% % % 70% Commercial Circle Ancestry Rural Villages Manors Merchant Properties Houses

1360 0 32/36* 39 10 21? 50 6 138 1363 0 37/41* 44 14 26 63 9 141 1365 4 35/39* 50 20 27 69 11 145 1367 17 42 50 25 57 75 10? 143 1370 19 33 44 21 34 81 10 136 1375 23 27 50 22 40 84 10 137 1382 41 41 52 21 391 85 9 131 1385 48 44 52 22 44 85 72 123 1389 65 48 57 23 43 78 61 125 1393 73 46 54 23 414 73 9 125 1397 70 41 48 20 35 70 6 128 1406 77 38 42 13 ? 31 ? 65 6 138?

1416 70 26 33 10 ? 15 78 8 ? 154 1426 79 21 25 7 13 92 62 157 1428 76 28 28 7? 332 93 13 152 1433 78 37 33 8 391 85 132 1572 1438 82 36 32 6 23 86 14 165 1447 86 38/43* 29 2 ? 20? 86 15 171

* One councillor uncertain. largely those with commercial interests, against property investment, the total holdings of all not the entire council but only a portion of it. councillors were added and then, if necessary, ad- There was a split on the council and in the elite as justed mathematically to the level of a council of a whole. To what extent can the Lubeck uprising twenty-seven.92 be judged a basically political struggle growing The most obvious conclusion which can be out of factions in the elite? drawn from table 3 is that even before 1408 the To explore that possibility, we can look at the composition of the Lubeck council in terms of composition of the Lubeck council over time. The these factors fluctuated considerably over time. settlement of the uprising was a compromise, and For example, the council between 1360 and 1408 it had an impact on the membership of the council. varied from a low of 27 per cent to a high of 48 Thus councils after 1416, compared to the tradi- per cent of its membership being those with male- tions of council composition before the uprising, line councillor relatives; 39 to 57 per cent com- should reflect some of the changes which sup- posed of those with rural investments; 50 to 85 porters of the uprising wished to make. In order per cent documented merchant. The adjusted to judge this, evidence was gathered for all men property holdings of an entire council range from known to have served on the Lubeck council ten villages and twenty-one and one-half manors from 1360 to 1408 and from 1416 to 1450. Table to twenty-five villages and fifty-seven manors; 3 displays a summary of that evidence. Here from 123 houses to 145. Thus there were, ap- twelve councils from the pre-uprising period and parently, changes in the type of person who served six from after the uprising have been compared in as councillor and changes in the principal direc- terms of percentages of Circle Society members tions in which councillors used their capital. and of men with a male-line relative on a previous More difficult is finding patterns in those council, percentage of rural landlords and degree changes. For example, if these indexes are valid, of rural property investment, and percentage of they call into further question the particulars of documented merchants and degree of urban prop- the "rentier thesis." In this approach, old fami- erty investment. The years are those in which significant changes in membership occurred, and 92The figures should, of course, be taken as only ap- are chosen so that known councillor proximate indexes. For purposes of simplifying them, all every appears "mansions" note 78 were reckonedinto the at least once in the Since the (see above) calculations. num- figures for houses, as two houses. All computationshave ber of councillors varied, to compare degree of been roundedoff to the nearesthalf-unit. 32 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. lies were believed to have moved their capital of 86 per cent by 1447. This tends to confirm the from commerce to property while keeping control earlier evidence that the 1408 struggle was not of the council. One would therefore expect coun- members versus non-members of the Circle. Opin- cils high in members from "old families" to also ion on the role of the Circle Society in Lubeck's be high in property and low in merchant activity, social and political history may need to be revised, but this is not the case. In the 1360's both the but whatever the case, the evidence provides little percentage from "old families" and the property grounds for making the society a factor in the up- holdings of the council increased, but so did the rising. percentage of merchants. The council of 1375, Table 3 also confirms the earlier impression that, with one of the lowest percentages of men from while there may have been some reflection of ten- "old families," indeed was 84 per cent merchant sion between "old" and "new" families in the factor. but also had, comparatively speaking, very high uprising, this was probably not a major council property levels, equal or superior to those of the For example, the immediate pre-uprising of men from 1389 council (which was 48 per cent from "old had probably a smaller percentage families"). In general, there is no consistent cor- "old families" than any of the previous thirty immediate relation between a high percentage of merchants years. It is true that the councils of the on the and a high degree of "new men" on the council, post-uprising period, 1416-1428, were, than nor between a low percentage of merchants and a whole, composed of more "new men" most; out of line high degree of property investment. even these, however, were not totally from 21 It is nevertheless possible on this evidence to with Lubeck tradition, since they varied male-line councillor rela- speculate to some extent as to what may describe to 28 per cent men with the 27 cent of the changes in the council over time. In terms of tives, figures comparable with per "old" versus "new" families, the council had a 1375. After about 1430 councils returned to the which were also tendency to "close up" for a time and then "open" levels of 30 to 40 per cent typical We know for a time, following which the process was re- of most of the pre-uprising period. of the were admit- peated. From 1360 to 1367 the council tended to that some supporters uprising in the but close, to a peak of 42 per cent from "old families"; ted to power, and this shows up figures, did not include a then it "opened up" for eight years. Interestingly, apparently the settlement gen- be 1367 was a plague year. From 1382 to 1389 it eral principle that councils would permanently tended to close, reaching a peak of 48 per more "open" than before. again and more cent in 1389-which, together with 1388, was also Some changes are both more striking as the former exile coun- a year. This time, the "opening" process permanent. Obviously, plague active mer- was more gradual, and was apparently still going cillors died, they were replaced by 1450 was on at the time of the next plague outbreak in 1405. chants. Every council from 1426 to thus or It is at least plausible to suggest that the Lubeck 85 per cent merchant or more, equalling council tended to close until a plague diminished surpassing the highest figure for any pre-uprising to in is equally the supply of men from old families, forcing it council.93 Another change pattern without ancestral connections. In turn to those that fluctua- fluctuation which was traditional. 93 One must always consider the possibility any case, it was such as these stem from a sudden improve- a limited im- tions in figures The uprising, it seems, had only ment in surviving documentation,but that is not the case pact on the council in some areas. For example, here. For merchant activity the level of documentation there was little change in the relationship between is in fact far better for the pre-uprising period, especially The low per- for the late 1360's and the 1370's, from which poundage the council and the Circle Society. and Reval all survive. on the council before books of Lubeck, Hamburg, centages of Circle members Another set of Hamburg poundage books, from 1399 to was how- about 1390, of course, reflect that the society 1400, also exists. For merchant activity after 1400, founded in 1379; only a small percentage of ever, we have only the far slimmer Hamburg poundage only the chance survivals of the councillors lived long enough to have a book of 1418; beyond that, only early claims for robbery or other loss, etc. common to any In 1393 and after, with of chance at membership. period. Thus the extraordinarily high percentages well established, the figures level off documented merchants on the post-uprising councils are the society in- The Circle quite remarkable. Neither is the low level of rural at 70 to 77 per cent Circle members. to stem from lack the vestment of councillors after 1416 likely was just as strong as this, if not stronger, on of documentation. Surviving records for urban properties, are substantial. post-1416 councils, with the figure never falling and for noble holdings, in the same period and Schulze, 1957, confirm the general re- below 70 per cent and reaching an all-time peak Diiker, 1932, 33 VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 interesting. Up to the 1370's, both types of prop- governmental priorities along the lines demanded erty investment-urban and rural-had tended to by the citizens. rise or fall together. But beginning in the late As nearly as can be determined, the council's 1370's or early 1380's something of a reverse cor- policies after 1416 show that priorities were ad- relation between rural and urban property levels justed to some extent. We do not know whether appears which lasts for the next generation: consultation with citizens became a regular part roughly, as landed possessions increased, houses of the governmental process, but both foreign and warehouses decreased. The councils of ca. policy and finance show the impact of the uprising. 1385-1393, with over half of their members hold- Lubeck's posture toward her neighbors after 1416 ing landed estates, and in relatively high quanti- was anything but aggressive. The council success- ties, also show the lowest level of urban property fully regained the lands and rights in Lauenburg of any in the ninety-year period. Then, by the which had been lost since 1401, but, as noted later 1390's, the data indicate the beginning of a above, only by making a joint effort with Ham- gradual shift back from rural to urban investment. burg. Otherwise there was no attempt to expand In the years immediately following the uprising Lubeck's territorial holdings. Outside of this this trend suddenly and massively accelerated. campaign, Lubeck's only significant military After 1416 the level of rural investment shrank, activity for a decade after the uprising was an while urban holdings increased dramatically. The expedition against a nest of Frisian pirates. The highest percentage of men with landed estates on decision to go to war with Denmark came only in any post-uprising council was about one-third, 1426: only after Eric had proclaimed the Sound which is lower than the lowest pre-uprising figure. tolls, increased the Scania tolls, and taken mer- On the whole the rural holdings are also lower chants prisoner at Scania; only after Count Henry than anything before the uprising, with the brief of Holstein had gone to Lubeck and made a per- exception of the 1428-1433 period.94 Conversely, sonal appeal for aid against Eric. At that, Lu- the level of urban investment of councillors from beck's first response in 1426 was to arrange a the 1416 on is higher than anything in pre-uprising peace conference, and only after its failure did years. The change is clear and sharp, and it is town turn to war.95 Even more impressively, the hard to doubt that it was related to the uprising. council managed the conflict with Denmark with- while a To summarize: the principal long-term effect of out increasing the basic tax and keeping first seven the uprising of 1408 was that it made Lubeck's balanced budget-in fact, for six of the Half government more commercially oriented and more years of war the treasury showed a surplus. town-oriented. Thus the evidence of table 3 tends the cost of the war was supported with short-term other to confirm the suggestion that the uprising is best loans, largely from councillors and wealthy annuities explained as a conflict over town policies, specific- citizens. The council sold no perpetual these ally the policies criticized in the citizen complaints and only a few life annuities during years, 1436. In of 1405-1408. The Sixty and their supporters and even stopped selling the latter after expressed concern about high taxes and how those this way it avoided the long-term obligations the taxes were spent; citizens wanted town govern- which had plagued town finance before upris- of a council ment to adjust its priorities, to pay more atten- ing.96 The overall picture is one the needs of commerce. tion to internal affairs and 95 C 28: pp. 100-110, 170-172, 226-227, 238-244, 250- Table 3 indicates that eventually they probably got 254, 367-368, 376-377, 382-383. Hoffman, 1889: pp. 159- at least part of their wish. The councils after 164. and after were 96 Fritze, 1961b: pp. 84-89. From Fritze's Marxist 1416, especially 1426, composed council chose to an of men whose investments were point of view, the fact that the levy largely principal excise tax rather than to increase the basic property tax men were no doubt urban and mercantile. Such (Schoss), and to take loans from the wealthy which economically and politically inclined to adjust would have to be repaid, presumably at interest, from funds raised by taxes, shows only how the council placed the real burden of financing the war on the back of the treat of Lubeck citizens from landed investments at this ordinary citizen. True enough, but what Fritze's evi- time. dence also shows, in the context of the uprising, is the 94The 1428-1433period correspondsalmost exactly with spectacularcontrast between the 1426-1433council, which the service of Bruno Warendorp, who became a council- carried on an apparentlyunavoidable major war on land lor in 1428 and resigned in 1435. He held a village and and sea with good fiscal management and with minimal eighteen manors, and thus is almost solely responsiblefor long-term indebtedness,and the 1394-1405 council, which inflating the index in those years. had incurred a long-term debt of over 70,000 marks with 34 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. pursuing careful territorial and financial policies spent on harbors or expeditions against pirates- which, by the time decisions were made, probably or not spent at all. The exceptions to this could had the support of at least the commercial seg- simply have reflected honest differences of opinion: ment of the citizenry. One may, of course, de- Lubeck's territorial holdings, after all, did work bate whether it was sincere concern for citizen to protect some trade routes, notably the important wishes which motivated the council, or merely a "salt road" to Luneburg. One would also expect desire to evade another uprising, but the contrast to find a few men whose opinions did not stem with the pre-1408 council is striking. In any case, from economic interests: rural landlords who although in and after 1427 Wismar, Rostock, did not expect all the citizens to pay for the de- Stralsund, and Hamburg were shaken by internal fense of their personal property, as well as landless disturbances, Lubeck was not.97 merchants who were convinced that defense needs Approaching the uprising as a conflict over poli- or the glory of the town justified the wars. In cies thus fits the evidence for both the composition any case, even the split in the elite can be explained the coun- of parties in the uprising and the effects of the up- at least as well by attitudes to policies of rising. This applies even to the elite. Table 2 cil as it can by socioeconomic tensions. indicated that men with less commercial activity The high degree of participation by members of and more landed estates tended to oppose the up- the elite in the uprising, then, may have stemmed use of taxes rising, while men with more commercial activity simply from greater concern about the and fewer estates tended to support it, although by the men who paid the most taxes.98 It is also in the there were many exceptions. If the uprising was definitely possible that the uprising began and was carried a "taxpayers' revolt," many citizens would have elite, even on the council, by their level chosen sides primarily on the extent to which they members of the elite to others outside The felt their tax moneys were being spent in their in an effort to find allies for their position. interests. As noted above, the citizens were well evidence above shows that a faction had developed aware that a major cause of Lubeck's high taxa- on the council which was less commercially active, and was far tion was a foreign policy which led to wars for and had somewhat less urban investment, elite as in defense of territory. Citizens with landed more interested in landed estates than the estates in the area defended might have felt satis- a whole. This faction apparently dominated the out- fied with such expenditures, while more com- council and gave more attention to problems control of mercially oriented members of the elite without side town walls, for example territory, merchant needs. But rural land might have considered the funds better than to internal problems or merchants with primarily town properties also Of sat on the council, and might well have opposed its ambitious canal project and related struggles. formed the excise tax was probably not popular; it had such policies. These men, even though they course, felt with been the proposal for such a tax in 1403 which had trig- a minority on the council, could have the excise the gered the first citizen protests. Nevertheless considerable justification that they reflected the Danishwars was levied only tax whichaccompanied wishes of the majority of the town's leading citi- in 1428, i.e., after the war had run for two years and after If naval forces led Tide- zens, or even the majority of all citizens. they the major defeat in 1427 of the by direc- man Steen. It is thus entirely possible that by that time failed to persuade their colleagues to change neces- find these citizens had become convinced that such a tax was tion, then it would not be surprising to for the excise tax sary. In any case, even the evidence councillors taking their case to a citizenry angered can be interpreted to show the council's concern for its have been rate or what by high taxes. These taxpayers might citizens. We do not know the precisely action the were but less than one-fourth of the total prepared to take far stronger against items taxed, councillors war costs were financed with it. Further, apparently it dominant policy-makers than the was greatly reduced in alternate years, since the income wished. In other words, a split in the elite over 200 marks in its first 2,702 from it varied greatly: year, council can potentially explain the behavior in its second, 250 in its third, and so on. That councillors policies notes rather than the more of those outside the elite as well. willingly accepted short-term a First usual annuities is also noteworthy. Thus the overall What evidence is there for such split? of selec- impression, comparedto previous practice, is of a council of all, table 3 indicates that the process which was carefully considering the wishes of, and per- its citizens. Fritze himself haps compromising with, shows that in Lubeck in in a later work that the council's financial policy 98von Brandt, 1966: p. 226 admits of the taxable population pro- was 1967a: p. 230. 1460 the top 19 per cent "clever," of the funds raised by the basic tax 97C 28: pp. 288-298, 389-390. Fritze, 1967a: pp. 186- vided 58 per cent 245. Hoffman, 1889: pp. 159-164. (Schoss). VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 35 tion of new councillors had created the potential longer a man had been a councillor, the more likely for a division on the council. The movement of for him also to think of himself as governing not 1408 cannot be described as a revolt against a for, but rather above, the citizenry, and thus for council that was more land-oriented than previous him to fail to see a need for citizen participation in ones; since 1393 the council had gradually become government.10' The potential for a political "gen- less "landed" and more "urban" in all categories eration gap" on the Lubeck council of 1408, how- and if anything, the councillors of 1408 held less ever, was even greater than this. The dominant rural land than any council since the 1360's. The faction of the council, the faction which became figures in table 3 imply, and data for individual the exiles, consisted primarily of those "elder" councillors confirm, that for whatever reasons- councillors who in part were themselves estate- perhaps the plague's toll in the old families-the holders. In addition, they had served on the rela- Lubeck council had from the mid-1390's filled its tively "closed," heavily rural-oriented councils of vacancies with men more oriented to town than the 1380's and 1390's; those councils were com- countryside.99 Such a change in the composition mitted to policies of territorial expansion for Lu- of the council could have been precisely what was beck, and their surviving members would have necessary for the revolt to occur, because this had a strong tendency to continue to support condition favored the development of factions on these policies. By the same token, since these men the council.100 had been councillors in the years when the Peace This recalls the strong positive correlation of Stralsund was still little challenged, they would which we found between length of council service have tended to support the Hanseatic alliance sys- and exile: the ten "eldest" councillors all went tem vigorously, and through it international in- into exile, while none who remained had joined fluence for their town. For all of these reasons, the council before 1393. Various factors relevant then, such councillors would have tended to stand to length of council service might have helped for territorial expansion and against citizen consul- shape a man's attitude. The longer a man had tation. The councillors who remained in Lubeck in been a councillor, the more knowledge and experi- 1408, on the other hand, came from among the ence he had gained in Hanseatic affairs, in diplo- newer and more "urban" members. Perhaps they macy, in struggles with the nobility and so on; were more sensitive to the needs of the ordinary thus the more likely for him to take a point of citizen since they had recently been citizens them- view which looked beyond town walls politically selves, but more importantly they were not com- as well as commercially, seeing territorial acquisi- mitted to the expansionist policies of the past and tion and wars on behalf of other Hanseatic towns had seen, before joining the council, the increasing as in the true interests of Lubeck. Of course, the citizen discontent at the cost of Lubeck's pursuit of power on land and sea. Thus they well could 99For example, of the ten councillors taken in and after have come to believe that Lubeck should exercise 1402, only one, Nicolaus van Stiten, held any rural prop- erty, and that was less than a manor. Note also that only one of these ten, Nicolaus van Orden (who died in 101In many towns, councillors were exempt from all 1407), was related in the male line to a previous coun- but extraordinary taxation as a means of compensation cillor. He was the son of Conrad van Orden, councillor for their otherwise unpaid services. Thus their attitudes 1372-1382 (and stepson of his colleague on the council on the need for taxes could easily differ substantially Tideman Junghe, 1391-1421). from those of even quite wealthy citizens. Unfortunately, 100In many cases uprisings occurred during or shortly since the Lubeck tax rolls are largely lost, and in any after plague epidemics; attempts to explain this relation- case would provide little help since about the wealthiest ship have rested on presumed economic, social, or even 20 per cent of the citizens paid their taxes secretly, we do psychological effects of the Black Death and following not know whether this was the case in Lubeck: see von outbreaks. See Renouard, 1950; Baehrel, 1952; Kelter, Brandt, 1966: p. 218; Reincke, 1951b: pp. 26-27; Hart- 1953; Langer, 1958 and 1964. The present investigation, wig, 1903: pp. 168-170, 182. In Rostock, one of the few however, implies that in Lubeck the plague's relationship towns under Lubeck law for which usable tax rolls to the uprising, if any, was that by causing the deaths of survive, councillors probablywere normally exempt from councillors in 1388-1389 and 1405-1406 it forced changes taxation: Fritze, 1967a: pp. 119-120. The last scholar in the composition of the town council, and thus in the to make a thorough study of Lubeck taxation before the balance of power between factions in town politics. Note, rolls were lost, Julius Hartwig, believed that Lubeck however, the work of Peters, 1939, which after extensive councillors did tax themselves until the sixteenth century analysis has determined that the first and most devastat- (1903: p. 58), but the documentwhich he cites in support ing plague outbreak (1350), at least, made no significant of this, LUB 6: no. 783, apparently dates from shortly change in the economic or familial composition of the after the uprising and is phrased in a manner which could Lubeck council. refer to an exceptional circumstance. 36 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.

only such power as its taxpayers could comfort- Furthermore, this factionalization was probably ably afford. a necessary precondition for the uprising. The Finally, the narrative of events itself hints that movement of 1408 arose not against the most there was a minority faction on the council which "closed" council or the most landed council; what supported a different course from that of the ma- seems likely, then, is that it arose against the most jority. The principal demand of the citizens from divided council. The uprising, when it came, was 1405 was the need for greater citizen participation directed against only the council's dominant fac- in government, which they hoped would serve to tion-presumably the principal defenders of the correct the offensive financial policies and persuade territorial policy and the major opponents of gov- the council to alter its priorities. There is good ernment with citizen participation. All this reason to believe that there was support for this strongly suggests that the minority segment of the position on the council and within the elite even council, presumably more moderate on these before other citizens coalesced around these issues. issues, wittingly or unwittingly had encouraged The council's territorial policy from about 1400, others outside the council to organize and protest. for example, was inconsistent and has the ring of By 1408 some of these angry citizens had appar- compromise about it: accepting the loss of Berge- ently decided that, if persuasion could not change dorf while keeping M6lln, consulting with citizens the policies, replacement of councillors could. This, before embarking on the Wendish wars. Even it would seem, was farther than the minority coun- more indicative of a split is the council's vacillation cillors and many of their supporters in the elite in its attitudes toward citizens, which led eventu- wished to go, and they withdrew from active poli- ally to a complete turnabout in its position from tics. Still, such a faction must have remained 1406 to 1407. It is quite defensible to say that in somewhat sympathetic to the new government, the strictest sense it was the council which caused and in any case had no need to go into exile under the Lubeck uprising, and not only because it had a regime which was to some extent merely putting called for higher taxes. The Committee of Sixty its own policies into practice. had been formed in response to a suggestion of the Considering the uprising as essentially a policy thus accounts for all council; it and the citizen administrative over- split which began in the elite which we have better than other seers had been accepted by the council. Revolt the evidence any Socioeconomic data will not fully came only when the council reversed itself and interpretation. the of the parties, while the tried to disband the citizen institutions which it explain composition course of events the existence of a faction Such an of implies had once approved. abrupt change on the council and in the elite which wanted to heart a divided council, in which a less implies change council policies but drew back from an up- more expansionist, more commercial, "pro-citizen" rising as the means for that change. It also seems 1406.102 faction somehow lost influence in or after likely that as a result of the uprising this minority faction of the 1408 council became the dominant after 1416. The settle- 102 that the death of the young force in Lubeck politics One might speculate and such a fac- burgomaster Henning van Rentelen in Paris in 1406 re- ment of 1416 was a compromise, duced the influence of the "moderate" faction. This tion could have provided the "middle ground" on certainly was the kind of event that was likely to lead to which a could have been based. The Unfortun- compromise a shift in power relationships on the council. former exiles that this was in but rather only circum- fate of the implies ately there is no definite proof, As we have after 1416 stantial evidence, that van Rentelen had been a leader fact what happened. seen, of the "moderates." For what it may be worth, how- there were major changes in the composition of ever, it was van Rentelen who had conferredwith citizens the council. The power of the exiles and their on the expense of the "Wendish wars" in early 1405 (C once the dominant faction, was in sec- descendants, 26: p. 395). He also fits the pattern established Lubeck was in- men who tended to be supporters or severely limited, and government tion 4 above for who were not neutrals:a majormerchant in the Balticand to Flanders, stead placed in the hands of men He non- he held substantialurban-but no rural-property. only more commercially active, but whose was a Circle member, but also a "new man," with no was invested within ties to Lubeck council fami- merchant capital primarily known descent or marriage insult was added lies. In addition he was a "younger" councillor, chosen town walls. To this political only in 1396, burgomaster just since 1402. When the financial in 1427 the former exiles were was injury: uprising finally came, his son Kersten apparently forced to settle for two-thirds of the sum to it 660; see note 57 only somewhat sympathetic (Nsb, p. been awarded to them in above). which had originally VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 37 damages.103 These changes, made particularly in revolt which united men of various classes against and after 1426, certainly were not the work of the one faction of the council. This movement sought exiles themselves. Nor is it likely that they could initially to create institutions for citizen input into have been accomplished by the former proponents government; when these institutions were dis- of the uprising alone, for while such men came to solved, however, an uprising became the only al- the post-1416 council in significant numbers, at no ternative for persons who desired changes in time did they comprise even a majority of the policy. Thus in spite of the expulsion of coun- council.104 The best explanation for them is the cillors and an eight-year struggle with the Hansea- continued existence of a faction of "moderates" tic League and major rulers, the revolt must be which carried the greatest weight in the new bal- judged a relatively moderate one, directed pri- ance of power in Lubeck after 1416. In any case, marily toward altering governmental priorities. while the eventual results of the uprising did not If the episode itself was largely political in cause, produce a "victory" for its former supporters, however, that does not mean that it was purely they apparently amounted to a "defeat" for the local in significance. Since the efforts of these exiles. Lubeck citizens struck a responsive chord in Ro- One must conclude that the Lubeck uprising stock, Wismar, and Hamburg, issues raised by the was basically a part of the normal political process uprising must indicate some of the problems of of the town. It was made possible first of all by fifteenth-century Hanseatic town government and a gradual change in the composition of the town the attitudes of townsmen toward their govern- council, a change which brought a new generation ment. Of course, the immediate problem which of men with new policy ideas onto the council. In sparked the uprising was financial and thus uni- an effort to persuade the council to adopt these versal: taxes were too high. But along with such policies they took their ideas to the citizens. This complaints came a desire to make town govern- division in the elite eventually led to a taxpayers' ment better and to make councillors more respon- sive to citizens. Perhaps an appropriate symbol 103 See LUB 7: no. 75. One might speculate that the of the division between the dominant council fac- did resumption of the Danish wars in 1426, although it tion and other councillors and citizens would be not lead to an here it did in Hamburg, uprising (as the town. Government Rostock, and Wismar in 1427), nevertheless had a pro- the walls which encircled found impact on Lubeck politics, since the years 1426- had fallen into the hands of a group whose eco- 1428 also saw the choices of councillors which perma- nomic and political interests to a great extent lay 104 nently tipped the balance against the exiles (note outside those walls, in land and territory. Citizens below). demanded instead a and for men 104Numerically, the peak strength of supporters of the government by uprising came in 1416 itself, with nine of the twenty-seven like themselves: commercial men whose property councillors (33.3%) ; thereafter it shrank consistently, was inside the walls, who would give their greatest with 29.2 per cent in 1426, 24.1 per cent in 1428, 18.5 per attention to merchant needs and internal problems, cent in 1433, 18.2 per cent in 1438, 9.5 per cent in 1447. would consult with their fellow citizens be- of this reflects death its and To some extent, course, taking of Lu- toll of supporters. Nevertheless even if one adds those fore making policy decisions. The citizens "probablysympathetic to the uprising" to the above fig- beck were indeed defining the limits of power for ures, thus including descendants of supporters, the their town-and for their council. strength never exceeds 41.6 per cent (10 of 24 in 1426) between that and one-third. While and fluctuates figure THE PURSUIT OF of course no documentexists which would define a "mod- 6. CONCLUSION: erate" faction, the figures for our "neutrals" (neither URBAN POWER in exile nor in the new make an com- regime) interesting on parison, growing almost continuously from 25.9 per cent Much debate exists the proper terminology in 1416 (seven of twenty-seven) to a peak of 47.6 per to be used to describe these uprisings. As we have cent (ten of twenty-one) in 1447. Adding the "probably seen, some consider them "social movements," the "neutrals" a sympathetic"persons to produces group some "revolutionary," some "democratic," and so with even more spectaculargrowth, from 29.6 per cent in on.105 If a "social movement" one means a 1416 (eight of twenty-seven) to a majority of the council by by 1428 (sixteen of twenty-nine, or 55.2 per cent) and a movement which formed primarily along class peak of 71.4 per cent by 1447 (fifteen of twenty-one). lines, then clearly the case of Lubeck in 1408 can- Such numbers, of course, only broadly indicate the pos- sible range of the factions; nevertheless they tend to con- 105 See Rotz, 1973a: especially pp. 207-209, where the firm the general impression that while strong supporters definitions used below are established, and Rotz, 1976. A of the uprising never dominated the council, another particularly useful discussion of semantics relevant to the faction did, one which barred the exiles from power. problem is Czok, 1958. 38 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. not be judged a social movement. If by "revolu- political actions of a faction of the Lubeck council. tionary" one means that the movement intended to That faction had pursued power against its fellow displace a governing class, then this case was also citizens, against the surrounding nobility, and not revolutionary. If however by "revolution" (through the Hansa) against the neighboring ter- one means a fundamental change in the form of ritorial states. In the uprising, citizens expressed government, then the question becomes more dif- their opposition to each of these policies. ficult to answer. The citizens unquestionably We know regrettably little of the theories of wished to establish new institutions which would government employed in fourteenth- and fifteenth- increase participation in the making of important century towns. A recurrent theme in uprisings, decisions. "Democratic" presents similar prob- however, is that the citizens claim only to be re- lems. While certainly there was no hint here of storing their "old rights." One finds in their modern democratic principles such as egalitarian- words and deeds a strong sense that their actions ism-at no point, for example, did supporters of are legitimate-based, for example, on a belief that the uprising suggest that the privileges of citizen- councils had no right to tax without some measure ship be extended to all the town's inhabitants- of consent from the citizenry. Increasingly, his- such a broadening of the base of participation as torians such as Wilfried Ehbrecht are convinced they planned could perhaps be judged as making that such assertions were not merely propaganda town government more "popular" than it had developed for the occasion, but rather were derived been. from actual institutions and/or traditions which Yet invariably when attempts are made to ap- had fallen into disuse. The precise nature of ply twentieth-century concepts to fourteenth- or these probably varied from town to town. In fifteenth-century reality, the words will not quite Cologne, for example, there may have been an as- fit. There is no indication of an informing ideology sembly of citizens which had been the foundation behind the various and scattered complaints of the of the town constitution, superior to the council. one citizenry. With the possible exception of the In Hamburg, apparently the council had at the single point of seating a few artisans on the town time been limited by an advisory body called council, certainly the supporters of the movement Wittigsten ("the most important citizens"). In of 1408 did not think that they were "revolution- many towns, consultation with guild aldermen been the ary," that they were making any fundamental before major decisions were taken had citizens changes in government. They were careful to rule. For some towns, such a belief by of a preserve the counciliar form and to give their new might have been based on a remembrance the regime the appearance of legitimacy through a communal or corporative origin. Whatever formal transfer of power and approval by estab- particulars, it would seem that on the whole, in the lished authorities.06 There may have been among thirteenth century and earlier, citizens perceived between them- the supporters a general feeling that in Lubeck town government as a partnership there should be, in the more modern phrase, "no selves and the council. In the fourteenth and taxation without representation," and to the ex- fifteenth centuries councils gradually tried to trans- tent to which that idea may be "democratic" then form this relationship into one of subjection of so this movement might have been. But we are citizens to the council. The power to tax obviously of coun- on much firmer ground if we restrict ourselves to was critical in this process of enlargement terms which the citizens themselves would have cil authority. Many uprisings began precisely understood-and from their point of view it seems with a formal citizen challenge to the legal right taxes or establish new likely that they felt that it was the council which of the council to increase of the Lubeck was changing town government. taxes. Seen from this point view, an extended The foregoing investigation suggests that the uprising of 1408 was in one sense such A Lubeck uprising of 1408 resulted primarily not constitutional debate on just questions. from flaws in the urban economy or tensions in faction of the council was attempting to exercise council urban society but from problems of the pursuit powers which citizens did not believe the of urban power. In fact, all the major issues possessed, powers which would have placed urban which appear in the unrest come to a focus on the citizens in a relationship to their government more akin to that of peasants to their manor lord. Thus above. Artisans 106 C 26: pp. 429-432; see note 38 citizens resisted the of the council to im- for council service in some Hanseatic towns; attempt were eligible their and to see for example Brunswick, Rotz, 1973a: p. 217. pose a tax without consent, sought VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 39 institutionalize a process of government by part- men of long-established families: proud of their nership through their committees. In other words, lineage, they might have felt "born to rule," and the uprising appeared in part because citizens re- thus in practice have taken little notice of the fused to accept the role of subjects to their coun- wishes of their fellow citizens. Whether in fact cil.107 the dominant faction of the Lubeck council was The same desire-to limit the excessive exercise consciously imitating the nobility before 1408 is of of power by a faction of the council-appears in course debatable, but, if so, the case would not be the issues of foreign policy. There are several unique.109 The possibility at least illustrates how reasons why a town might have embarked on an ambitious policy of territorial expansion, and in 109Dollinger's comments are in his works on the upper the case of Lubeck in the second half of the four- Rhine, "Patriciat noble et patriciat bourgeois a Stras- teenth century they may all apply. There was the bourg" (1950) and "Le patriciat des villes du Rhin desire to control a zone of land for defense pur- superieur et ses dissensions internes" (1953). There is a to a more certain of very clear relationship between imitation of the nobility poses and/or provide supply and the Brunswick uprising of 1374, since that event was foodstuffs for its citizens; there was the desire triggered in part by the town's costly defeat in a rather to protect major commercial routes; there could pointless feud, and possession of rural land separated also have been simply the desire to control ter- the parties in the uprising to a considerable extent; see 1887: and 1973a and to increase and influence, such as Hanselmann, pp. 106-107, Rotz, ritory, power 1973b. Pointing out a possible connection between adop- any governing authority might have. And, of tion of a noble life style and urban unrest is not, of course, there was the desire to protect or to create course, to enter the debate as to why townsmen had ac- the opportunity for citizen investment in landed quired land in the first place. Some may have bought estates. Lubeck's policy in Lauenburg could have land in the search for a low-risk investment (Postan, satisfied all these desires at once. In 1952: pp. 216-218) or as a way of entering directly into addition, production for the export trade in grain (Engel and historians have often remarked in passing about Zientara, 1966). If one accepts the argument that urban the tendency of urban elites to emulate the nobility, elites developed originally from the small nobility and by investing in landed estates, engaging in jousts, ministerials, for which evidence is increasingly mounting of and a "chivalric and so (Hibbert, 1953; Schulz, 1968; see also the excellent re- reading admiring ideal," view of the entire ministerial from studies of problem by Freed, 1976), forth.108 What emerges uprisings then some may have always held land. No matter how by Philippe Dollinger and others is an indication or for what reason the estates were acquired,if the urban that such an attitude could have been of consider- estate holder had a desire to imitate the nobility, whether able political importance. Not surprisingly, such from ambition or birthright, and also controlled the gov- landed "town nobles" tended to ernment of a town, then he could have a profound and in self-styled pursue the long run highly expensive effect on town policies. policies of territorial expansion, of frequent feuds It should be mentioned here that Ahasver von Brandt, and wars, as further imitation of noble practices. who is generally regarded as the leading authority on the The tendency probably became more acute among history of Lubeck, vigorously resists any suggestion that the ruling elite of that town had any inclination to imi- tate the nobility; to him, their possession of landed estates 107 On this point see above all the highly useful works simply shows their desire for good, secure investments of Ehbrecht, 1974a and 1974b, and the literature cited with steady return. He states that none of the great there. His "Biirgertumund Obrigkeit" (1974a) deals in Lubeck families established residence in the countryside some detail with Lubeck and establishes that at least in before the sixteenth century, and therefore none had the early fourteenthcentury the Lubeck council had recog- adopted a noble life style (1966: pp. 233-234). The nized the principle of citizen consultation with a council problem is, of course, that we are here dealing with as an essential part of government. For Cologne, see attitudes that persons may have had, a subject which is the comments of Hugo Stehkamper following Ehbrecht, always difficult, and frequently impossible, for which to 1974a (p. 300), based on the catalog by T. Diederich of find direct evidence in surviving documents. The actual "Revolutionenin Koln 1074-1918"in the Cologne munici- shifting of principal residence to the landed estate is not pal archive. On the Wittigsten in Hamburg, see Kopp- directly relevant to the question at hand; a citizen who mann, 1885, and Obst, 1890: p. 81. Stralsund, for ex- moved to the countrysidewould presumablylose much, if ample, may have once had an analogous institution: not all, of his influence on town decision-making, and Fritze, 1961a: pp. 102-105. Note also the contention of it is precisely the decisions which are the critical element the citizens of Brunswick in 1374 that the common council in the discussion of uprisings. The evidence assembled lacked the power to institute a new tax: Rotz, 1973b, for the present study certainly shows that investment in and 1973a: p. 215. rural land was well under way by 1400, as von Brandt 108 See for example Hofmann, 1966; Rorig, 1967: pp. readily admits (p. 233). Beyond that, one can only draw 122-133: Dollinger, 1970: pp. 263-264, 400: Bautier, 1971: inferences from the actions of the landed councillors and pp. 227-229; Mollat and Wolff, 1973: pp. 30-32; Berthold, of their opponents, and such inferences are unavoidably Engel, and Laube, 1973: p. 208. highly debatable. This writer would agree that unques- 40 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC. such seemingly disparate characteristics as invest- to an artisan government, since the new Lubeck ment in land, descent from an "old family," and council was dominated by active merchants. To reduction of merchant activity could, over time, some extent, of course, they reflect a desire of the help alter an urban citizen's attitude until he Hansa towns to avoid the legal and political com- favored territorial expansion, took less notice of plications which might have arisen from having pirates or silted harbors, and became impatient an "imperial outlaw" in their midst. The context with the requests citizens made of government. of the internal and territorial issues of this up- But the chief councillors of Lubeck were also rising, however, introduces another possibility: the leaders of the Hanseatic League. Although that by the early fifteenth century, the average the Lubeck citizens made no direct criticism of the citizen of a Hansa town saw the League less as Hansa as a whole, certainly their actions in ex- the protector of his commercial privileges than as pelling men who had been the presiding officers of a vehicle for the pursuit of power by his council. its diet, and the difficulties which the new regime Councillors who strongly supported town terri- found in its relations with the League, contain an torial expansion, such as the Lubeck exiles, also implication which deserves to be explored. Citi- tended to be vigorous champions of Hansa policies, zens of Rostock, Wismar, and Hamburg rallied to for which there are historical as well as logical the side of the new Lubeck regime in 1409-1410. reasons. In the 1360's the Hansa embarked on While only further research will show whether the wars with Denmark which, after the Peace of the pattern established here for the Lubeck upris- Stralsund, made the League a true political power. ing was also typical of these other Hansa towns, This is precisely the same period when Lubeck there were at least superficial resemblances: they, began its vigorous policy of territorial acquisition, too, were probably led by merchants, with only and presumably the same men, the burgomasters minority artisan support, and there were even and leading councillors of Lubeck, helped develop similar complaints, such as the demand of Rostock both policies. Interestingly, it was also in the citizens that men who held landed estates be barred 1360's that the Hansa first began a policy of active from the town council.110 The tensions between intervention when member towns were threatened the new Lubeck regime and the Hanseatic League by uprisings. Evidence for the best-known ex- can no longer be dismissed as merchant hostility ample of such intervention, the exclusion from the Hansa of the new regime established by the Bruns- tionably there were fewer tendencies to imitate the no- wick uprising of 1374, suggests that there the bility in a seaport town like Lubeck than in inland towns Hansa had sided with land-oriented councillors like Brunswick or Nuremberg; nevertheless they existed, a movement led merchants and others as Wehrmann, 1872, establishes. Further, one can in fact against by document one case of a great Lubeck family, the van At- of relatively high status who were basically trying tendorns. which was making the transition to a fully to force a change in the town's costly policy of noble life style in the era of the uprising. Gottschalk I territorial expansion.1ll It seems likely, therefore, was a Lubeck councillor (1356-1388) and merchant who that 1408 the Hansa was identified four manors least two of them by purchase); by historically acquired (at with which an rebel re- his grandson GottschalkIII came to style himself Lord of policies anti-territorial, Culpin (in Ratzeburg) and was recognized as a small gime such as Lubeck's would find it necessary to noble no later than 1433 (See LUB 5: no. 518; 7: nos. oppose. The League was closely associated with 531, 792-793; and Rotz, 1975). This, of course, proves and its were in the no more than that the idea of making such a transition can policies part developed by be found in Lubeck in the period with which we are con- expansionists on the Lubeck council. The Hansa cerned; beyond that there is only speculation and guess- had previously moved to put down uprisings, so here is correct, work. But if the interpretationsuggested that the new council could justifiably have feared then by stopping the further penetration of both Lubeck and her citizens on to the land, the uprising itself may be such a move-as, of course, eventually came in the reason why no further examples of the full comple- 1416. Above all, League membership, for all its have been found in Lubeck before the tion of this process commercial value, required considerable expense sixteenth century. 110There is some evidence for the composition of the on military expeditions, just as Lubeck's terri- forces in Hamburg: see Rotz, 1976. The complaint torial holdings did. Time spent by a council on about landed councillors in Rostock, plus other fragmen- affairs was time taken away from Lubeck's informationabout Rostock and Wismar in 1409-1410, League tary needs. Mutual between the Hansa together with much fuller accounts of 1426-1428, may be internal hostility found in Fritze, 1967b: p. 57 and 1967a: pp. 180-245. Note also Czok, 1963: pp. 103-106 and Hamann, 1956: 111 210-219. pp. 109-110. Rotz, 1973a: pp. VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 41 and the new government emerged naturally from ferences between the new Lubeck regime and the the policies which that government followed.l2 Hansa could be explained, and some accord among But if such a correspondence of attitudes these authorities found, if there was a split be- existed, then the Hanseatic League was no longer tween the Hansa's leaders and its merchants on the organization of and the expression of the in- the proper role of the Hansa, a citizen feeling that, terests of the German merchants, or at least not like the Lubeck council, the Hansa's priorities had all of them. According to the evidence above, become more political than commercial. many of the most active merchants of Lubeck sup- Whether the councillors were actually "abus- ported the new regime. The exiles were on the ing" their power or misdirecting the Hansa is, of whole a less commercial faction of the elite, and course, just as debatable as the wisdom of their citizens opposed them in part because they had territorial policy. What is significant is that im- given insufficient attention to mercantile needs. If portant segments of the citizenry, including mer- merchant citizens of a seaport town like Lubeck chants, may have thought that they were. This could perceive the Hansa as standing against their is not to say that the opposition in Lubeck con- interests and for the exiles, then whether such a sciously revolted "against" the Hanseatic League, view was justified or not, the Hansa was begin- but rather only that by the turn of the fifteenth ning to lose the support of the very persons for century there may have been many merchants who whom it supposedly existed. felt that the League's struggle for political power, Such a possibility is not as startling as it might like the town's land and castles, cost too much, seem, in the light of the literature reviewed at the and served the councillors' glory more than the outset of this investigation. As Dollinger has merchants' interests. If so, then urban uprisings pointed out, the fourteenth-century transition from in Hansa towns were both a cause and a symptom the "Hansa of the merchants" to the "Hansa of of the "decline of the Hanseatic League": a cause, the towns" bought political power, but at the since disorders weakened the Hansa's ability to price of subjecting the merchant communities to maintain a united front and thus affected its pos- the authority of the town councils.ll3 If the mer- ture against both its commercial and its govern- chants came to believe that the struggle for power mental enemies, but also a symptom, because was too costly, then they might also have come to Hansa leadership had apparently passed to men resent the authority. We have seen that Rarig's who were, perhaps, "conservative," but more im- view of a largely "rentier" Hansa ruling elite, at portantly, to men who had lost touch with their sharp economic odds with its commercial popula- citizens, men for whom political considerations tion, needs to be modified; nevertheless the evi- may have outweighed economic ones. The Lu- dence for the alignment of forces in the Lubeck beck uprising suggests that only a fragment of the uprising of 1408 still tends to support his basic citizenry of the towns-certain powerful council- perception that over time there was indeed less and lors and their intimates-strongly supported the less identity between Hanseatic leadership and League's stance as a "great power." Most citizens Hanseatic merchants, at least on questions of of Hansa towns, including a substantial portion of policy. Fritze's concept of a selfish Hanseatic the commercial elite, did not want their towns to leadership seeking power at all costs is also un- be territorial powers, either individually or col- doubtedly too harsh, but after the Danish interven- lectively-or at least they did not want to pay for tion, if not before, there might well have been such power. Parallels between the Hanseatic supporters of the new Lubeck council who would League and Italian towns are often cited: the have agreed with such an assessment. The dif- Hansa towns occupy roughly the same position, both and in the eco- 112Czok, 1956 and 1957,supported by Neuss, 1965,has geographically historically, suggestedthat leaguesof townsfrom theirvery inception nomic development of northern Europe that the included,in additionto the generallyaccepted economic major Italian commercial cities did in the economy and/orpolitical functions, an intentto provideeach town's of the Mediterranean world. Like certain Italian ruling group with collectivesecurity against uprisings. the Hansa towns in the four- See also above (section 1), and the works cited in note cities, too, sought 23. R6rig, 1971:pp. 160-166,while not directlyrelevant, teenth and fifteenth centuries to translate their certainlyindicates his belief that the "conservative"at- economic power into political dominance. Their titudesof Hansaleadership affected virtually every aspect for such the of Hansapolicy. opportunities power, considering 113 Dollinger,1970: pp. 62-67. To this and the follow- weaknesses of the empire in the north and of the ing, see above,section 1. Scandinavian monarchies, were at least equal, if 42 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.

not superior, to those of the Italians. Neverthe- BIBLIOGRAPHY less Lubeck was not Venice. The "Queen of the I. DOCUMENTARY BASE FOR PROSOPOGRAPHY Hansa" may have had the same ambitions to em- A. Source Material from the Archiv pire as a Venice, but she and her citizens had Unpublished der Hansestadt Libeck nothing like the same wealth to support these ambitions.114 VON MELLE. 1738. Testamenta Lubecensa (handwritten The conclusions above are copies, made in 1738 and after, of citizen wills, many speculative-direc- of which are now lost). tions in which the evidence seems to point. The Niederstadtbuch III, 1400-1415. (photocopy of lost preceding summary may imply greater unity in the original) ("Nsb"). of the of the than in Personenkartei. (entries from documentary material design supporters uprising which has now been lost, particularly the Oberstadt- fact existed. Nevertheless, the citizens' words and bicher and various parish registers; on cards, filed by actions indicate that, whether they were aware of name of individual). Wills. of citizen had a of their town as (photocopies wills; originals currently it or not, they concept in Potsdam). something separate from the feudal order, and they expected their government to reflect that B. Published Sources did not want to be of separation. They subjects KOPPMANN,KARL, 1870-1897. Die Recesse und andere the council, nor did they feel that the council Akten der Hansetage, series I, 1256-1430 (8 v. Leipzig). should rule in the same way, with the same goals, ("HR"). - as and A of 1899-1902. Die Chroniken der deutschen Stddte 26 nobles, princes, kings. large portion and 28 (Die Chroniken der niedersachsischen Stadte: the citizenry had come to the conclusion that cer- Liibeck 2 and 3) (Leipzig) ("C 26, C 28"). tain councillors were behaving more like feudal KUNZE, KARL. 1896-1905. Hansisches Urkundenbuch 1362-1433 lords than townsmen. The first to alter 4-6, (Halle). attempts LECHNER, GEORG. 1935. Die Hansische Pfundzollisten policies came from colleagues of these councillors; des Jahres 1368 (Quellen und Darstellungen zur when the council became divided by factions, it hansischen Geschichte, new series 10) (Lubeck). CARL WEHRMANNet al. 1843-1905. the to in MANTELS,WILHELM, gave citizens opportunity join together Codex Diplomaticus Lubicensis-Libeckisches Urkun- an attempt to make their government more re- denbuch 3-8, 1350-1450 (Lubeck) ("LUB"). NIRRNHEIM,HANS. 1910. Das hamburgische Pfundzoll- sponsive. buch von 1369 aus dem Staatsar- the with (Ver6ffentlichungen It is important to remember warning chiv der freien und Hansestadt Hamburg 1) which this study began; to explain one uprising (Hamburg). 1930. Das und Werkzollbuch is not to explain them all. Even in Lubeck itself hamburgische Pfund- von 1399 und 1400 (Ver6ffentlichungen aus dem the citizen movements of the 1370's and 1380's Staatsarchiv der freien und Hansestadt Hamburg 2) have different alignments of forces, different (Hamburg). and different results. Nevertheless it SPRANDEL,ROLF. 1972. Das Hamburger Pfundzollbuch causes, von 1418 (Quellen und Darstellungen zur hansischen seems likely that some of the other uprisings Geschichte, new series 18) (Cologne). which, like this one, have previously been judged STIEDA, WILHELM, 1887. Revaler Zollbiicher und -quit- des social or economic conflicts deserve renewed inves- tungen 14. Jh. (Hansische Geschichtsquellen 5) (Halle). tigation. The Lubeck uprising of 1408 was an effort by taxpayers to change the direction town C. Secondary Works containing primary sources government was taking, to limit the town council's and/or used as basic references pursuit of power both inside and outside the walls. BAASCH, ERNST. 1922. Die Liibecker Schonenfahrer Thus it tells us very little of urban class tensions, (Hansische Geschichtsquellen, new series 4) (Lubeck). W. 1888. "Verzeichnis der der but much about political attitudes and the BREHMER, Mitglieder says Zirkelcompagnie." Zeitschrift des Vereins fur lub- political process in a fifteenth-century town. eckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde 5: pp. 393-455. BRUNS, FRIEDRICH. 1900. Die Libecker Bergenfahrer und ihre Chronistik (Hansische Geschichtsquellen, new 114The Lubeck-Veniceparallel has been made, although series 2) (Berlin). not precisely in this way, by von Brandt, 1954: pp. 147- FEHLING, E. F. 1925. Libeckische Ratslinie von den 164. See also the comparisons made by, for example, Anfangen der Stadt bis auf die Gegenwart (Ver6ffent- Bautier, 1971: p. 121, and Lopez, 1952: p. 291, and 1971: lichungen zur Geschichte der Freien- und Hansestadt pp. 113-119. Liibeck 7, 1) (Lubeck). VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 43

KOPPE, WILHELM. 1933. Lubeck-Stockholmer Handels- telalterlichen Liibeck." Untersuchungen zur gesell- geschichte im 14. Jh. (Abhandlungen zur Handels- schaftlichen Struktur der mittelalterlichen Stadte in und Seegeschichte 2) (Neumiinster). Europa (Konstanzer Arbeitskreis fiir mittelalterliche LESNIKOV, MICHAIL. 1960. "Libeck als Handelsplatz Geschichte: Vortrage und Forschungen 11), pp. fur osteuropiische Waren im 15. Jh." Hansische 215-239. Geschichtsbldtter78: pp. 67-86. BRUCKER, GENE A. 1962. Florentine Politics and Society, NORDMANN, CLAUS. 1933. Niirnberger Grosshdndler im 1343-1378 (Princeton). spdtmittelalterlichen Lubeck (Niirnberger Beitrage zu 1968. "The Ciompi Revolution." Nicolai Rubin- den Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften 37/38) stein, ed., Florentine Studies: Politics and Society in (Nuremberg). Renaissance Florence (London), pp. 314-357. PAULI, C. W. 1847. Lubeckische Zustdnde zu Anfang des CIE?LAK, EDMUND. 1954. "Rewolta w Lubece 1408- 14. Jh. (Lubeck). 1416." Przeglad Zachodni 1954: pp. 471-525. SCHN6BEL, JOHANN HERMANN. ca. 1800. Liibeckische CZOK,KARL. 1956. "Stadtebiinde und Zunftkimpfe in Geschlechter (manuscript in the Archiv der Hansestadt ihren Beziehungen wihrend des 14. und 15. Jh." Liibeck, with additions 1806 and 1844). Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Karl-Marx- Univer- STIEDA,WILHELM. 1921. Hildebrand Veckinchusen. Brief- sitdt Leipzig, gesellschafts- und sprachwissenschaft- wechsel eines deutschen Kaufmanns im 15. Jh. liche Reihe 6: pp. 517-542. (Leipzig). - 1957. "Zum Character der deutschen Stadtebiinde im 14. und 15. Jh." Heimatkundliche Bldtter 1957: p. 173. II. SECONDARY SOURCES -1958. "Zunftkimpfe, Zunftrevolutionen oder Biir- gerkampfe?" Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Karl- BAEHREL, RENE. 1952. "La haine de classe en temps Marx-Universitdt Leipzig, gesellschafts- und sprach- d'epidemie." Annales: e'conomies, socite's, civilisations wissenschaftliche Reihe 8: pp. 129-143. 7: pp. 351-360. - 1963. "Stadtische Volksbewegungen im deutschen BAUTIER,ROBERT-HENRI. 1971. The Economic Develop- Spitmittelalter" (Dr. phil. habil. dissertation, Leipzig, ment of Medieval Europe (London). typewritten). BECKER,MARVIN. 1962. "The Novi Gives in Florentine DAENELL, ERNST. 1905-1906. Die Bliitezeit der Hanse Politics." Medieval Studies 24: pp. 35-82. (2 v., Berlin). BERTHEAU,FRIEDRICH. 1913. "Die Politik Liibecks zur DOLLINGER, PHILIPPE. 1950. "Patriciat noble et Sicherung der Handelswege durch Lauenburg im 14. patriciat bourgeois a Strasbourg au XIVe siecle." und 15. Jh." Zeitschrift des Vereins fiir libeckische Revue d'Alsace 90: pp. 52-82. Geschichte und Altertumskunde 15: pp. 27-73. -1953. "Le patriciat des villes du Rhin superieur et BERTHOLD, BRIGITTE, EVAMARIA ENGEL, and ADOLF ses dissensions internes dans la premiere moitie du LAUBE. 1973. "Die Stellung des Biirgertums in der XIVe siecle." Schweizerische Zeitschrift fur Geschichte deutschen Feudalgesellschaft bis zur Mitte des 16. 3: pp. 248-258. Jhs." Zeitschrift fur Geschichtswissenschaft 21: pp. - 1970. The German Hansa (Stanford). 196-217. DUKER, ALBERT. 1932. Liibecks Territorialpolitik im BJORK,DAVID K. 1932. "The Peace of Stralsund, 1370." Mittelalter (Ph. D. dissertation, Hamburg, published). Speculum 7: pp. 447-476. EHBRECHT,WILFRIED. 1974a. "Biirgertum und Obrig- 1938. "The Hansa Towns and Flanders, 1358-1393." keit in den hansischen Stidten des Spitmittelalters." VIIIe Congres International des Sciences Historiques, Wilhelm Rausch, ed., Die Stadt am Ausgang des Zurich: Communications Presentees 2: pp. 364-366 Mittelalters (Osterreichischer Arbeitskreis fur Stadt- (Paris). geschichtsforschung: zur Geschichte der - Beitrage 1943. "Piracy in the Baltic, 1375-1398." Speculum Stadte Mitteleuropas 3, Linz), pp. 275-302. 18: pp. 39-68. 1974b. "Zu Ordnung und Selbstverstindnis stidt- A\ BODE, ILHELM. 1919. "Hansische Bundesbestrebungen ischer Gesellschaft im spaten Mittelalter." Bldtter fur in der ersten Halfte des 15. Jhs." Hansische Geschichts- deutsche Landesgeschichte 110: pp. 83-103. blatter 45: pp. 173-246. 1974c. "Verhaltungsformen der Hanse bei spitmit- VON BRANDT,AHASVER. 1954. Geist und Politik in der telalterlichen Bfirgerkampfen in Westfalen." West- lubeckischen Geschichte (Lubeck). fdlische Forschungen 26: pp. 46-59. - 1956. "Recent Trends in Research on Hanseatic ENGEL, EVAMARIA, and BENEDIKT ZIENTARA. 1966. History." History, new series, 41: pp. 25-37. Feudalstruktur, Lehnbiirgertum und Fernhandel im - 1959. "Die Liibecker Knochenhaueraufstinde von spdtmittelalterlichen Brandenburg (Weimar). 1380/1384 und ihre Voraussetzungen." Zeitschrift FINK, GEORG. 1938. "Die Frage des liibeckischen des Vereins fiir lubeckischen Geschichte und Altertums- Patriziats im Lichte der Forschung." Zeitschrift des kunde 39: pp. 123-202. Vereins fiir libeckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde 1960. "Erschliessung von liibecker Quellen zur 29: pp. 257-279. hansischen Personen-, Sozial-, und Wirtschaftsges- 1953. "Liibecks Stadtgebiet." Ahasver von Brandt chichte." Hansische Geschichtsblatter78: pp. 121-128. and Wilhelm Koppe, eds., Stddtewesen und - Bargertum 1962. Die Hanse und die nordischen Mdchte im als geschichtliche Krdfte: Gedachtnisschrift fur Fritz Mittelalter (Geisteswissenschaften der Arbeitsgemein- Rorig (Lubeck), pp. 243-296. schaft fur des Forschung Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen FREED, JOHN B. 1976. "The Origins of the European 102, Cologne). Nobility: The Problem of the Ministerials." Viator - 1966. "Die gesellschaftliche Struktur des spatmit- 7: pp. 211-241. 44 RHIMAN A. ROTZ [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.

FRITZE, KONRAD. 1961a. Die Hansestadt Stralsund KELTER,ERNST. 1953. "Das deutsche Wirtschaftsleben (Schwerin). des 14. und 15. Jhs. im Schatten der Pestepidemien." 1961b. "Die Finanzpolitik Liibecks im Krieg gegen Jahrbucher fur Nationalikonomie und Statistik 165: Danemark 1426-1433." Gerhard Heitz and Manfred pp. 161-208. Unger, eds., Hansische Studien: Heinrich Sproemberg KLiUNDER,G., R. LOBSCHand H. SCHULTZ. 1973. "Zum zum 70. Geburtstag (Berlin), pp. 82-89. Landbesitz mecklenburger Stadte im Feudalismus." - 1963. "Tendenzen der Stagnation in der Entwick- Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Universitdt Rostock, lung der Hanse nach 1370." Wissenschaftliche gesellschafts- und sprachwissenschaftliche Reihe 22: Zeitschrift der Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universitdt Greifs- pp. 271-278. wald, gesellschafts- und sprachwissenschaftliche Reihe KOPPMANN,KARL. 1885. "Aus der Geschichte Ham- 12: pp. 519-524. burgs im Mittelalter," in his Aus Hamburgs Vergangen- - 1964. "Danemark und die hansich-hollindische heit 1 (Hamburg), pp. 345-363. Konkurrenz in der Ostsee zu Beginn des 15. Jh." Ibid. LANGER, WILLIAML. 1958. "The Next Assignment." 13: pp. 79-87. American Historical Review 63: pp. 283-304. - 1967a. Am Wendepunkt der Hanse (Berlin). 1964. "The Black Death." Scientific American - 1967b. "Probleme der Stadt-Land-Beziehungen im 210, 2: pp. 114-121. Bereich der wendischen Hansestidte nach 1370." LOPEZ, ROBERT S. 1952. "The Trade of Medieval Hansische Geschichtsbldtter85: pp. 38-58. Europe: the South." M. M. Postan and E. E. Rich, - 1971. "Die Bedeutung des Stralsunder Friedens von eds., The Cambridge Economic History of Europe 2 1370." Zeitschrift fiir Geschichtswissenschaft 19: pp. (Cambridge), pp. 257-354. 194-211. - 1971. The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, FRYDE, MATTHEWM. 1964. "Studies in the History of 950-1350 (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.). Public Credit of German Principalities and Towns in MENKE, JOHANNESB. 1958-1960. "Geschichtsschreib- the Middle Ages." Studies in Medieval and Renais- ung und Politik in deutschen Stadten des Spitmit- sance History 1: pp. 221-292. telalters." Jahrbuch des kolnischer Geschichtsvereins HAMANN,MANFRED. 1956. "Wismar-Rostock-Stralsund- 33: pp. 1-84; 34/35: pp. 85-194. Greifswald zur Hansezeit: ein Vergleich." Hellmut MOLLAT, MICHEL, and PHILIPPE WOLFF. 1973. The Kretzschmar, ed., Vom Mittelalter zur Neuzeit: zum 65. Popular Revolutions of the Late Middle Ages (London). Geburtstag von Heinrich Sproemberg (Berlin), pp. NEUSS, ERICH. 1965. "Hanse und niedersachsische 90-112. Stadtebiinde in ihrem Verhaltnis zu den sozialen HANSELMANN,LUDWIG. 1887. "Braunschweig im tig- Bewegungen im Elbe-Saale-Raum wahrend des lichen Kriege des Mittelalters" in his TWerkstiicke1 Spatmittelalters." Jahrbuch fur Regionalgeschichte 1: (Wolfenbiittel). pp. 153-167. HARRISON,GORDON S. 1971. "The Hanseatic League in NIITEMAA, VILHO. 1960. Der Kaiser und die Nordische Historical Interpretation." The Historian 33: pp. Union bis zu den Burgunderkriegen (Suomalaisen 385-397. Tiedeakatemian Toimituksia, series B, 116, Helsinki). ARTUR. 1890. und der HARTWIG,JULIUS. 1903. Der Liibecker Schoss bis zur OBST, Ursprung Entwicklung D. dissertation, Reformationszeit (Gustav Schmoller, ed., Staats- und hamburgischen Ratsverfassung (Ph. socialwissenschaftliche Forschungen 21, 6, Leipzig). Berlin, published). HYMAN. 1959. First to - 1908. "Die Rechtsverhaltnisse des landlichen PALAIS, "England's Attempt Break the Commercial of the Hanseatic Grundbesitzes im Gebiet der freien und Hansestadt Monopoly League, 1377-1380." American Historical Review 64: Liibeck." Zeitschrift des Vereins fiir liibeckische pp. 852-865. Geschichte und Altertumskunde 9: pp. 209-284. PETERS, ELIZABETH. 1939. "Das grosse Sterben des MARTIN. 1927. Liibecker Kapitalsanlagen HEFENBROCK, Jahres 1350 in Liibeck." Zeitschrift des Vereins fur in bis 1400 D. dissertation Mecklenburg (Ph. Kiel, liibeckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde 30: pp. published Heide, 1929). 15-148. B. 1953. "The of the Medieval HIBBERT, A. Origins PITZ, ERNST. 1959. Schrift- und Aktenwesen der stddt- Present 3: Town Patriciate." Past and 1953, pp. ischen Verwaltung im Spdtmittelalter: Koln, Niirnberg, 15-27. Lubeck (Cologne). HILL, CHARLESE. 1926. The Danish Sound Dues and POSTAN,M. M. 1952. "The Trade of Medieval Europe: the Command of the Baltic: a study in international the North." M. M. Postan and E. E. Rich, eds., The relations (Durham, N. C.). Cambridge Economic History of Europe 2 (Cambridge): HOFFMAN,MAX. 1889. Geschichte der freien und Hanse- pp. 119-256. stadt Libeck 1 (Lubeck). REINCKE,HEINRICH. 1939. "Hamburgische Territorial- HOFMANN, HANS. 1966. "Nobiles Nurembergenses." politik." Zeitschrift des Vereins fur hamburgische Untersuchungen zur gesellschaftlichen Struktur der Geschichte 38: pp. 28-116. mittelalterlichen Stddte in Europa (Konstanzer Arbeits- 1951a. Forschungen und Skizzen zur Geschichte kreis fur mittelalterliche Geschichte: Vortrige und Hamburgs (Hamburg). Forschungen 11) pp. 53-92. 1951b. "Bev6lkerungsprobleme der Hansestadte." VAN HOUTTE, J. A. 1966. "The Rise and Decline of Hansische Geschichtsbldtter70: pp. 1-33. the Market of Bruges." Economic History Review, 1956. "Das Geschlecht der 'von dem Berge' ('de series 2, 19: pp. 29-47. Monte') in Hamburg." Zeitschrift fiir niedersdchsische IRSIGLER,FRANZ. 1974. "Soziale Wandlungen in der Familienkunde 31: pp. 81-94. k6lner Kaufmannschaft im 14. und 15. Jh." Hansische RENOUARD,YVES. 1950. "La peste noire de 1348-1350." Geschichtsbldtter92: pp. 59-78. Revue de Paris 57, 3: pp. 107-119. VOL. 121, NO. 1, 1977] THE LUBECK UPRISING OF 1408 45

R6RIG, FRITZ. 1926. "Geschichte Liibecks im Mittel- und Forschungen zur Geschichte Schleswig-Holsteins alter." Fritz Endres, ed., Geschichte der freien und 33, Neumiinster). Hansestadt Lubeck (Lubeck), pp. 28-56. SPADING, KLAUS. 1970. "Zu den Ursachen fur das 1932. "Hanseatic League." E. R. A. Seligman, ed., Eindringen der Hollander in das hansische Zwischen- Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (New York) 7: handelsmonopol im 15. Jh." K. Fritze, E. Miiller- pp. 261-267. Mertens, J. Schildhauer, and E. Voigt, eds., Neue 1967. The Medieval Town (Berkeley). Hansische Studien (Berlin), pp. 227-242. -1971. Wirtschaftskrafte im Mittelalter (collected STEIN, WALTHER. 1911. "Zur Entstehung und Bedeut- works, ed. Paul Kaegbein; 2nd ed., Vienna, Cologne, ung der Deutschen Hanse." Hansische Geschichts- and Graz). bldtter 17: pp. 265-363. ROTZ, RHIMAN A. 1973a. "Urban Uprisings in Germany: STRAYER,JOSEPH R. 1971. "The Future of Medieval Revolutionary or Reformist? The Case of Brunswick, History." Medievalia et Humanistica, new series 2: 1374." Viator 4: pp. 207-223. pp. 179-188. 1973b. "The Uprising of 1374: Source of Brunswick's VOLLBEHR, FRIEDEL. 1930. Die Holldnder und die Institutions." Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch 54: pp. deutsche Hanse (Pfingstblatter des Hansischen Ge- 61-73. schichtsvereins 21, Lubeck). 1975. "Profiles of Selected Lubeck Citizens, 1360- WEGEMANN,GEORG. 1941. "Die fiihrenden Geschlechter 1450." (Typewritten manuscript, on deposit in the Liibecks und ihre Verschwagerungen." Zeitschrift des Archiv der Hansestadt Liibeck.) Vereins fiir liibeckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde 1976. "Investigating Urban Uprisings (with exam- 31: pp. 17-51. ples from Hanseatic towns, 1374-1416)." In: William WEHRMANN, CARL. 1872. "Das liibeckische Patriziat, Jordan, C. Bruce McNab, and Teofilo Ruiz, eds., insbesondere dessen Entstehung und Verhaltniss zum Order and Innovation in the Middle Ages: essays in Adel." Hansische Geschichtsbldtter2: pp. 91-135. honor of Joseph R. Strayer (Princeton), pp. 215-233, - 1878. "Der Aufstand in Liibeck bis zur Riickkehr 483-494. des Alten Raths 1408-1416." Ibid. 8: pp. 101-156. SCHILDHAUER,JOHANNES. 1963. "Progressive und na- 1888. "Das liibeckische Patriziat." Zeitschrift des tionale Traditionen in der Geschichte der Hanse." Vereins fuir liibeckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Ernst-Moritz-Arndt 5: pp. 293-392. Universitit Greifswald, gesellschafts- und sprach- 1895. "Die liibeckischen Landgiiter." Ibid. 7: wissenschaftliche Reihe 12: pp. 497-505. pp. 151-236. - 1974. "Zum Charakter des mittelalterlichen Stadt- 'WINTER, WILLIAML. 1948. "Netherland Regionalism biirgertums." Ibid. 23: pp. 79-82. and the Decline of the Hansa." American Historical SCHULZ, KNUT. 1968. Ministerialitdt und Biirgertum in Review 53: pp. 279-287. Trier (Rheinisches Archiv 66, Bonn). - 1957. "The Hansa and the European Community SCHULZE, EBERHARD. 1957. Das Herzogtum Sachsen- of Coal and Steel." American Journal of Economics Lauenburg und die lubische Territorialpolitik (Quellen and Sociology 16: pp. 347-352.