Emperor Charles IV, and to many of the German princes. That
auspicious day marks a turning-point in the history of the Hanseatic
League, and was fraught with high importance to the whole German
empire. The preliminary history of the Hansa here ends and its
brilliant epoch begins. The warships of the cities and their army so
thoroughly vanquished Denmark that, after two years of warfare, the
Danish royal council and the representatives respectively of the
municipalities, the nobility, and the clergy despatched a commission
of thirty-two to Stralsund to sign a treaty, ostensibly in the name of
their fugitive ruler--a treaty which may justly be said to mark the
climax in the development of the power of the burghers of Germany.

The treaty not only provided for considerable concessions in matters
of navigation and intercourse, but also conceded to the members of the
Cologne confederation, comprising about sixty Hansa cities, the right
to occupy and to fortify for a period of fifteen years the four chief
castles on Skane--Helsingborg, Malmo, Scanov, and
Falsterbo--commanding the sound, the most important maritime highway
traversed by the Hanseatic vessels.

But the most extraordinary privilege granted by this treaty was that
making the subsequent election of a king for Denmark subject to the
approval of the confederation--thus assigning to the burghers a right
such as no king or emperor of that time exercised over a foreign
state. The confederates, however, wisely declined to avail themselves
of this dangerous prerogative, not only for political reasons, but
also because of the clever negotiations of the youthful queen
Margaret, the daughter and heir of Waldemar, who, by the union of
Kalmar in 1397, became invested with the triple crown of Denmark,
Norway, and Sweden. The fact remains, however, that the Hansa for the
ensuing century and a half maintained its title as the foremost of
maritime and as one of the principal political powers--and that
entirely unaided and without the sanction of kaiser or empire.

Let us take a very general survey of this glorious period, concerning
which many interesting disclosures have recently been made, and
endeavor to obtain, if possible, a glimpse of the activity of these
busy cities and of the confederation which they formed.

As to commerce, the first task which the confederation set itself to
fulfil was the abolition of that early mediaeval condition which
inclined to regard the stra