position and gradually became fused into
an increasingly compact union.

Already at the close of the thirteenth century the young institution
of the Hansa received its initiation in warfare in a conflict with the
kingdom of Norway, which country was compelled to purchase peace at
the price of new and greater concessions to the league. Soon
thereafter, however, the steady progress of the Hansa met with a
rebuff. Denmark, at that time the foremost power of the North, had for
more than a century endeavored to obtain the supremacy of the Baltic,
at the entrance to which it was so advantageously situated. At one
time Lubeck was for an entire decade forced into a sort of vassalage
to the energetic king Eric Menved of Denmark, although the relations
to the sister-cities of the league, which had never been entirely
severed, were subsequently restored and confirmed by new treaties.
When finally, in A.D. 1361, the Danish king Waldemar Atterdag,
inspired by rapacity and revenge, went so far as to fall upon the
metropolis of the Baltic, the Swedish city of Wisby, in the midst of
peace, and to annex it, thereby inflicting serious losses upon the
resident Low-German merchants, Lubeck once more placed herself at the
head of the Wendish cities and at the diet of Greifswald decreed war
against the ruthless invader. But the expedition proved disastrous,
owing chiefly to the tardiness of the kings of Sweden and Norway, who
had been drawn into the alliance. Nevertheless, the unfortunate
admiral of the Lubeck fleet, Johann Wittenborg, who also enjoyed the
rank of burgomaster of the Hanseatic city, was put to the axe in the
public market-place of Lubeck in expiation of his failure.

A doubtful peace was now concluded with the Danes, but was soon broken
by their renewed plunderings of Hanseatic vessels and the obstacles
placed by them upon traffic. Another passage at arms was required. The
ensuing conflict was the greatest and most glorious ever fought, not
only by the Hansa, but by Germany, upon the sea. In 1367 deputies from
the Prussian, Wendish, and Netherlandish cities assembled in the city
hall of Cologne and there prepared those memorable articles of
confederation which decreed another war with King Waldemar of Denmark;
stipulated the levying of a definite contingent of troops on the part
of the contracting cities; provided for a duty on exports to defray
the expenses of the campaign; and draughted letters of protest to the
Pope, to