It was a formidable array of enemies that Waldemar had to face in 1368. His treaty with the duke of Mecklenburg |triumph of the League.| had come to nothing, because the Swedes refused to sacrifice their own interests to their new dynasty, and would not surrender the stipulated territories. So Waldemar had to renew both the alliance with Hakon and the war with Albert of Sweden. On the mainland both Mecklenburg and Holstein were on the side of his enemies, the nobles of Jutland were on the verge of rebellion, and now he had provoked the Hanse towns to a new campaign. In the presence of these dangers he adopted an extraordinary course of action. In April 1368 he placed all his accumulated treasure upon a ship, and sailed to Pomerania, leaving the Danish Council to govern the kingdom during his absence, and to carry on the war which he had provoked. For two years he wandered about Europe from one court to another, while his dominions were overrun by his enemies. The Hanseatic fleet appeared in the Sound soon after the king’s departure, and at once attacked Copenhagen. The town was taken and destroyed, and the fortress was occupied by a German garrison. From Zealand the victorious traders turned to Skaania, and by the end of the year every fortress, except the redoubtable Helsingborg, had fallen into their hands. It was decided to keep their forces in the field during the winter and to prolong the tax on exports for another year. In 1369 Helsingborg surrendered after an obstinate resistance, and the Danes, attacked also from Holstein and Mecklenburg, opened negotiations with the Hanse towns. Hakon of Norway had already concluded a truce by which all the rights and privileges of German merchants in his kingdom were confirmed. On |Treaty of Stralsund.| May 24, 1370, the Treaty of Stralsund put an end to the Danish war. For fifteen years all the castles and fortified places on the coast of Skaania were to be held by the League, which was to receive two-thirds of the revenue of the province in order to cover the cost of their maintenance. These terms, which transferred the control of the Sound and its fisheries from Denmark to the Hansa, were to be confirmed by Waldemar as the condition of his return to his kingdom. No future king was to be placed on the Danish throne without the consent of the Hanse towns and until he had confirmed all their privileges and concessions.

The second Danish war marks an important epoch in the history of the Hanseatic League. Not only was it raised to the position of an influential power in northern |The League at the zenith of its power.| Europe, but its whole character had undergone an important change. Hitherto it had been a mercantile league for the extension and strengthening of trade privileges, and for the settlement of trade disputes. The decisions of the Cologne assembly in 1377 had superadded to this mercantile association a political and military alliance. It is true that that alliance was in express terms only temporary and for the achievement of an immediate object—the protection of the narrow waters from outrage and oppression. But the new obligations which success brought to the League gave to the Cologne decrees a more permanent importance than had been contemplated at the time of their adoption. The occupation of the forts on the Sound conceded by the treaty of Stralsund, and the necessity of constantly watching the changes and struggles in the Scandinavian kingdoms—a necessity which was all the more pressing after the Union of Kalmar—compelled the League to maintain an armed force in constant readiness, and to continue the collection of a federal revenue for military purposes. When new towns applied for admission to the League, and there were many such applications in the years following the Treaty of Stralsund, they had to accept, not only the old conditions as to trade, but also the more stringent obligations imposed by the assembly at Cologne. Thus the League became more concentrated and more highly organised than it had been before the war. The federal assemblies were more frequent, and their sessions were longer and more full of business. Every year there was a general assembly at midsummer, but there were also frequent provincial meetings, especially of the Wendish towns, which continued to form the most central and the most influential unit within the League. And not only was the external activity of the League greater, but it began to concern itself with the internal affairs of its members. In the fourteenth century the ascendency of the merchants in municipal government was threatened by the rise of the artisans in Germany, as it was in Florence and other southern towns. The Hanseatic League, essentially mercantile in its origin and its aims, naturally made itself the champion of the old exclusive oligarchy. In 1374 a rising took place in Brunswick against the ruling council: some of its members were executed, and the rest were driven into exile. For this offence Brunswick was formally expelled from the League, and its merchants were excluded from all the markets under its control. This mercantile excommunication was now a formidable weapon, and the men of Brunswick had to make humble reparation for their democratic aspirations before they could obtain their readmission to the confederacy. But in emphasising the greater unity and greater influence of the League after its victory over Waldemar III., it is imperative to remember that there were several defects and weaknesses in its federal constitution. The very wide extent over which the towns were spread, from the Scheldt to the Gulf of Finland, and the jealousy which mercantile rivalry must almost inevitably create, rendered any complete real unity of interest and purpose almost impossible. There was never any assembly at which all the towns were represented, and, in fact, it would be difficult to give a precise enumeration of the members of the League at any given date. Sometimes several towns would combine to give authority to a single delegate, but no town considered itself bound to take part in the meeting. Not infrequently the delegates would declare that their instructions did not allow them to consent to a proposal, and that they must refer the matter back to their respective town-councils. Hence arose uncertainty and delay. But the chief defect was that membership of the League was not and could not be the only political obligation of the towns. Most of them were subject to some immediate authority, usually that of a territorial prince. Thus they had a double allegiance, and the two might come into collision with each other. The princes might allow their towns to gain trading privileges by joining the League, but they were not likely to consent to any diminution of their own authority. Under such conditions it is wonderful that the League held together as long as it did.

The increased dignity and importance of the Hanseatic League after the Treaty of Stralsund are illustrated by the action of the emperor. Charles IV., as is shown |Charles IV and the League.| in the Golden Bull, disapproved of confederations of towns and of the rapid growth of municipal independence. Waldemar III. was his personal friend, and during the recent war the emperor had more than once endeavoured to use his influence in behalf of the Danish king. But in 1373 Charles had obtained Brandenburg from the last Wittelsbach Margrave (see p. [120]), and thus acquired a new interest of his own in the politics of northern Germany. He was now eager to conciliate the League and to obtain the privileges which it could give to the towns of his new dominion. In 1375 he left Prague to pay a visit to Lübeck, where the magnificence of his reception made a profound impression on contemporaries. Tradition declared that he began his speech in acknowledgment of civic hospitality with the words ‘My Lords’; and when the burgomaster shook his head to deprecate such a title, the emperor continued: ‘You are Lords! The old imperial registers prove that Lübeck is one of the five chief towns of the empire; that your city councillors are also imperial councillors; and that they may enter his council without waiting for his permission.’ The chronicler complacently adds that the five chief towns were Rome, Venice, Pisa, Florence, and Lübeck.

The Treaty of Stralsund was followed by a general restoration of peace in the north. Waldemar III. returned to his kingdom, and obtained the restoration of the Mecklenburg conquests by a treaty with Duke Albert, who had established one son on the throne of Sweden, and now hoped with Waldemar’s support to gain Denmark for his grandson. In 1371 the long strife between Sweden and Norway came to an end. On condition that Magnus and Hakon should abandon all claims to the Swedish crown, Albert agreed to release the former from his imprisonment and to allow him an annual income till his death, which |Death of Waldemar III.| occurred three years later. The most pressing question in the north was the succession to Waldemar in Denmark. His only son had died in 1363, so that Waldemar was the last male of his dynasty. Of his two daughters who had lived to become brides, the elder, Ingeborg, had married Henry of Mecklenburg, the elder brother of the reigning king of Sweden, and the younger, Margaret, had married Hakon of Norway. Thus the choice lay between two children—Albert, the son of Ingeborg and Henry, and Olaf, the son of Hakon and Margaret. The Mecklenburg claimant was recognised as his heir by Waldemar, and had the support of the Emperor Charles IV. and of the powerful count of Holstein. But the Danes had not forgotten the rule of the German invaders in the time of Christopher II.; and when Waldemar died in 1375, they elected the five-year-old Olaf as his successor. Both by treaty rights and by actual power the Hanse towns were entitled to a voice in the decision, and they seem to have preferred the possibility of a union between Denmark and Norway to an extension of the already formidable power of the House of Mecklenburg. Olaf was acknowledged by the League, and one of his first acts was to confirm the provisions of the Treaty of Stralsund.

In 1380 Hakon of Norway died, and Olaf wore his father’s crown in addition to that of Denmark. During his minority his mother Margaret ruled in both kingdoms. |Queen Margaret and the Union of Kalmar.| In 1386 she found it necessary to conciliate the count of Holstein by the cession of Schleswig, which was to be held as a fief of Denmark; but in other respects her government was so successful, that on her son’s death in 1387 she was invited to succeed him by the Danes and Norwegians. At the same time she received an offer of the crown of Sweden. The government of Albert of Mecklenburg, who had rewarded his German followers with lands and offices, had excited great ill-will among the Swedish nobles, whose power was more than a match for that of the king. The conquest of the distracted kingdom proved a comparatively easy task. At Falköping in 1389 Albert was completely defeated, and after seven years’ imprisonment he could only procure his liberty by abdication. Stockholm, aided by forces from Mecklenburg, held out for some years; and the famous association of the Vitalien-Brüder, or ‘Victualling Brothers,’ originally formed for its relief, became a formidable body of pirates in the Baltic. The interference which they caused to trade induced the Hanse towns to employ their mediation in favour of Margaret, who became queen of the three Scandinavian kingdoms. Her great ambition was to render this union permanent. As she had no surviving child of her own, she adopted Eric of Pomerania, the grandson of her sister Ingeborg. In 1397 she convened the councils of the three kingdoms to Kalmar, and induced them to agree to a formal act of union. The three kingdoms were to be irrevocably united under the same king, and the election of successors to the crown was limited to the descendants of Eric. Each state was to retain its own laws and institutions, but treaties with foreign powers were to be binding upon all. The arrangement had one obvious defect. No single electing body was created; and if each kingdom could choose a king, even within the limits of a single family, there was no security that their choice would fall upon the same person.

The fifteenth century was a troubled period in the history of northern Europe, but its events are far less interesting and far less important than those of the fourteenth century. There were two great questions at issue: Whether the Union

of Kalmar could be permanent, and whether the Hanse towns could retain either their unity of action or the preponderance in the north which it had given them. Both questions remained in doubt during the century, but ultimately both were answered in the negative. To maintain the union of the three Scandinavian kingdoms, which had no great love for each other, while in two of them a powerful noble class had obtained a considerable measure of independence, would have required either exceptional good fortune or exceptional ability, and the successors of Margaret had neither. Even the ‘Union Queen’ herself made a serious blunder in her later years. Count Gerhard of |War between Denmark and Holstein.| Holstein, to whom she had granted Schleswig, as a hereditary fief, died in 1404, leaving a young son Henry to succeed him. Encouraged by her previous triumphs, Margaret could not resist the temptation of trying to escape from the bargain she had made in 1386, and to gain Schleswig for the crown. Various claims to the duchy were put forward on behalf of Denmark, but the Schauenburg princes were resolute in support of Gerhard’s son. The struggle lasted for thirty years, and in the course of it most of the north German states became involved. Margaret died suddenly in 1412, but Eric of Pomerania continued to maintain the claims which his great-aunt had put forward with the mingled obstinacy and violence which marked his character. The authority of the king of the Romans was called in to settle the dispute, and twice Sigismund gave a formal decision in favour of the Danish crown. But as had happened more than once before, the Hanseatic League showed a greater regard for the interests of Germany than the German king. Hamburg, closely associated with Holstein, from the first supported the House of Schauenburg, and gradually Lübeck and the other Hanse towns were involved in the war against Eric. Their intervention, combined with disturbances in Sweden, turned the balance; and in 1435 Adolf of Holstein, who had succeeded his brother Henry in 1428, was recognised as duke of Schleswig.

The war with Holstein was not only unsuccessful, it also involved Eric in serious domestic difficulties. Sweden and Norway, which required the constant attention of the king, were left unvisited and unregarded. In Denmark, Eric could only induce the nobles to serve in a war in which they had little interest by lavish concessions which further weakened the royal authority. In all the kingdoms discontent was excited by increased taxation and by debasement of the coinage. Another grievance was furnished by Eric’s partiality for his Pomeranian relatives, and his avowed desire to secure the succession to his cousin, Boguslav. In 1434 the first rising took place in Sweden among the peasants of Dalecarlia, but Eric succeeded in conciliating Karl Knudson, the leader of the nobles, who was appointed Marshal of the kingdom, and in 1435 the Union of Kalmar was confirmed by the Swedish diet. But the king’s neglect of the duties of government had become intolerable, and in 1439 he was formally deposed |Deposition of King Eric.| by the Danish Council. As neither of the other kingdoms had the slightest desire to support Eric, this act rendered vacant the three Scandinavian thrones. The deposed king lived for another twenty years, but he never had any chance of recovering the dignity he had forfeited.

The Danes proceeded in 1439 to offer the crown to Christopher of Bavaria, whose mother was a sister of Eric, |Christopher of Bavaria.| and he accepted it upon conditions which narrowly limited the royal power. One of his first acts was to settle the dispute about Schleswig by confirming the duchy to Adolf of Holstein as a hereditary fief. The action of Denmark had no binding force upon the other kingdoms, but lavish bribes to Karl Knudson and the clergy purchased the acceptance of the Swedish diet; and Norway, which had shown less enmity to Eric than the other states, was induced to follow the example of its neighbour. In 1442 Christopher was recognised in the three Scandinavian kingdoms, and the Union of Kalmar was continued for another generation. In 1446 he strengthened his position by marrying Dorothea of Brandenburg, but no heir had been born to continue the Bavarian dynasty, when Christopher was carried off by a sudden death in January 1448.

With the death of Christopher the severance of the kingdoms seemed to be inevitable. There was no obvious heir to any one of them, and it was hardly possible that they should combine to find the same |Severance of Sweden.| successor. Sweden and Denmark were the first to act, and neither paid the slightest regard to the proceedings in the other. In Sweden there was a strong party hostile to the union; and an organised demonstration on the part of the mob led to the hasty election of Karl Knudson, who had been for years the most powerful and wealthy noble of the kingdom (June 1448). Meanwhile the Danes had offered the crown to Adolf, count of Holstein and duke of Schleswig. He refused the offer, but suggested the choice of his sister’s son, Christian of Oldenburg, who could claim descent from a daughter of Eric Glipping, the predecessor and father of Eric Menved. Christian was accepted, but the conditions which were imposed upon him gave the chief control of the government to the council of nobles. And he also had to pay for his uncle’s support by a formal document, in which assurance was given that the duchy of Schleswig or south Jutland ‘shall never be united or annexed to the kingdom of Denmark, so that one person shall be lord of both.’ In Norway, less energetic and independent than the other two kingdoms, there was a prolonged struggle as to whether the Danish or the Swedish king should be chosen. Karl Knudson believed that he had assured his own election, and he actually assumed the crown in Trondhjem, but the party which supported the Danish connection proved the stronger, and in August 1450 the diet decreed the permanent union of Denmark and Norway.