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625 years ago today, in 1399, merchants from the cities Wismar and Rostock were allowed back in the Hanseatic settlements - Kontore - in Bergen (Norway) and Brugge (Flanders). They had been excluded after the rest of the Hansa cities got fed up with having their ships and merchants attacked and plundered by ships setting out from these two cities, which were also Hansa cities.
How did that come about? It's and interesting and pretty typical case of internal Hansa conflict:
1/*
#history
The Nordic countries had been in turmoil for some time. The Hanseatic League had backed Queen Margrethe, who had become the ruler of all three Nordic kingdoms, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Her main rivals were the ruling dynasty of the Duchy of Mecklenburg, in Northern Germany. They had for some time held the crown of Sweden, but were now on the ropes. They were pretty much reduced to harassing their enemies shipping. 2/*
The Hanseatic League was not a country, not a federation, nor a confederation. It was more like an international organisation, although one with teeth. The members were city states. A few of the city states were de facto independent, but most of them were more or less self-governing parts of the territory of some princely ruler or other. Wismar and Rostock were subject to the Dukes of Mecklenburg.
And the Hansa was basically at war with Mecklenburg. Tricky.
Rostock and Wismar were the main ports of the duke of Mecklenburg. They became the base of operations for his fleet of privateers who attacked the shipping of his enemies, e.g. the other Hansa cities. The city councils of Wismar and Rostock couldn't really do much about this.
In 1393, a fleet from Mecklenburg attacked Bergen, the largest city in Norway, and home to a large Hanseatic settlement. The city was looted - also the Hanseatic quarter. 4/*
The Hanseatic merchants of Bergen complained that their goods were now in the cellars of Wismar and Rostock.
That was it. Merchants from the two cities were excluded from the Hanseatic Kontor in Bergen, and the same happened in Brugge.
This sort of thing would always be a problem for the Hanseatic league. The member cities had divided loyalties and diverging interests. It was very rare that the whole league acted in concert. 5/*
The Mecklenburgers lost the war in the end. The city councils of Wismar and Rostock insisted all the looting had nothing to do with them! Just because all the ships had been based in their port.
Well, once the war was over, it was time to forgive and forget. Rostock and Wismar remained two of the most important cities in the Hanseatic Kontor in Bergen for the next couple of centuries. 6/*
If you read Norwegian, you can read more about this sort of thing in my book, which is out in October.
Fin.
@oysteib I don't! So thank you for these threads in English.