This page needs to be proofread.
at times, an overbearing dominion. Arrogant and despotic, it even claimed the right of having submitted for its sanction the question of the succession of the Danish princes to the throne. At Bergen it persecuted with inveterate rancour any foreigner who attempted to oppose it in trade; and, at Novgorod, it behaved in such a manner as more than once to arouse the severe displeasure of the Russian government. Nor did it hesitate, when it suited its purpose, to carry on maritime wars, frequently exercising the power of an European sovereign; and more than one potentate of the North experienced the terrible ravages caused by the fleets of this powerful and haughty commercial association.[1]
- ↑ The following are the most important dates in connection with the history of this celebrated confederacy. Great German Hansa established A.D. 1241, with the view of clearing the Baltic and adjacent coasts of pirates. Their first cities were Lubeck and Hamburg, then Bremen, ultimately Bergen and Brunswick; they were supported, generally, by the emperors as a commercial counterpoise to the feudal nobility—Lubeck was chosen as queen of the Hansa. In 1281 the citizens of the Hanseatic League were placed on the same footing as those of London. From A.D. 1303 to 1475 they possessed many houses in London, with a jury, half English, half foreign, to try their causes, and two English aldermen to act as their chiefs. This was the period of their greatest power. The power of the League began to decline in 1547, after the death in this year of Henry VIII. Though Edward VI. renewed their privileges, the English "Merchant Adventurers" proved too strong for them. In 1666 their buildings of the Steel-yard were burnt in the great fire of London, but were reconstructed in 1680. In 1852 the premises of the Hanseatic League were finally alienated, and are now built over by the Cannon Street railway station.
