League (The Grey), 1424, called Lia Grischa or Graubünd, from the grey homespun dress of the confederate peasants, the Grisons, in Switzerland. This league combined with the League Caddee (1401), and the League of the Ten Jurisdictions (1436), in a perpetual alliance in 1471. The object of these leagues was to resist domestic tyranny.
League (The Hans or Hanseatic), 1241-1630, a great commercial confederation of German towns, to protect their merchandise against the Baltic pirates, and defend their rights against the German barons and princes. It began with Hamburg and Lubeck, and was joined by Bremen, Bruges, Bergen, Novogorod, London, Cologne, Brunswick, Danzig; and afterwards, by Dunkerque, Anvers, Ostend, Dordrecht, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, etc.; still later by Calais, Rouen, St. Malo, Bordeaux, Bayonne, Marseilles, Barcelona, Seville, Cadiz, and Lisbon; and lastly by Messina, Naples, etc.; in all, eighty cities.
League (The Holy). Several leagues are so denominated, but that emphatically so called is the league of 1511 against Louis XII., formed by Pope Julius II., Ferdinand “the Catholic,” Henry VIII., the Venetians, and the Swiss. Gaston de Foix obtained a victory over the league at Ravenna in 1512, but died in the midst of his triumph.
League (The Solemn), 1638, formed in Scotland against the Episcopal government of the Church.
League Caddee (The), or Ligue de la Maison de Dieu (1401), a confederation of the Grisons for the purpose of resisting domestic tyranny. (See League, Grey).
League of Augsburg (1686), a confederation of the house of Austria with Sweden, Saxony, Bavaria, the circles of Swabia and Franconia, etc., against Louis XIV. This league was the beginning of that war which terminated in the peace of Ryswick (1698).
League of Cambray (1508), formed by the Emperor Maximilian I., Louis XII., of France, Ferdinand “the Catholic,” and Pope Julius II., against the republic of Venice.
League of Ratisbonne (1524), by the Catholic powers of Germany against the progress of the Reformation.
League of Smalkalde (December 31, 1530), the Protestant states of Germany leagued against Charles the Fifth. It was almost broken up by the victory obtained over it at Mühlberg in 1547.
League of Wurtzburg (1610), formed by the Catholic states of Germany against the “Protestant Union” of Hall. Maximilian I., of Bavaria, was at its head.