Hanso-English War
| date | 1469 to 1474 |
|---|---|
| place | English Channel |
| Casus Belli | Looting of the Stalhof |
| output | Victory of the Hanseatic League |
| consequences | Recognition of the privileges of the Hanseatic League |
| Peace treaty | Peace of Utrecht |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
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The Hanso-English War from 1469 to 1474 was a war between the Hanseatic League of Cities and the Kingdom of England .
prehistory
The aspiring English trading bourgeoisie tried more and more to break the prerogatives of the Hanseatic League in Baltic Sea trade . In 1437, with the support of the monarchy, it achieved recognition in principle of the right to participate in Baltic Sea trade. In 1447 King Henry VI withdrew . the Hanseatic League all privileges. In May 1449 the English captured a Hanseatic Baiens salt fleet , with Lübeck losing 16 and Danzig 14 large ships. After tough negotiations, an eight-year armistice was concluded in 1456, in which the claims for damages were postponed and the privileges were extended by the English king.
As early as 1458 and again after the armistice had expired, English privateers repeatedly brought up Hanseatic merchant ships. The unsuccessful peace negotiations in Hamburg in 1465 brought to light the differences within the Hanseatic League. England's peace offer excluded compensation, and most of the Hanseatic cities were unwilling to follow Lübeck's line .
The cause of the war was ultimately a dispute between England and Denmark , with English ships being seized and confiscated in the Sound in 1468 with the help of Danzig capers chartered by the Danish Crown . Thereupon Edward IV stormed and plundered the Stalhof in the spring of 1469 . The merchants were temporarily imprisoned and had to be liable for the damage caused in the sound with their property.
In April 1469 the Hanseatic League met in Lübeck. They decided the war against England, banned the importation of English cloth and ordered the use of privateers against the English sea connections.
Course of war
Lübeck, Danzig, Hamburg and Bremen took the leading role on the part of the Hanseatic League , while Cologne , Wesel and Arnhem were neutral. In the autumn of 1469 the first Hanseatic privateers left for England. Duke Charles the Bold initially permitted the opening of the Dutch ports to Hanseatic privateers, but withdrew this permit at the beginning of 1470. The Hanseatic privateers had to spend the winter in Hamburg and their home ports in order to reappear on the naval theater in the spring. Danzig bore the brunt of the war, while Lübeck, under the leadership of its mayor Hinrich Castorp, was relatively little involved.
On the other hand, England was also considerably weakened by the Wars of the Roses . After King Edward IV fled to Holland in the fall of 1470 due to the internal power struggles, Charles the Bold allowed Hanseatic ships access to his state ports for a year in order to support Edward's return. On this occasion, the Hanseatic ships not only captured several ships of Edward's opponents, but even gave him escort on his return to England in 1471. After Edward's return, the Danzig privateer captain Paul Beneke was able to raise the ships of Edward's enemies Magdalena von Dieppe and Schwan von Caen , who were on their way to France with the Lord Mayor of London .
After Eduard was back in England, Charles the Bold forbade accepting mercenary services on Hanseatic ships, stocking up on Hanseatic pirates and buying up prizes from them. With this, the Hanseatic pirates again lost the Flemish ports as a base of operations.
In 1472 the Hanseatic League began to operate with larger associations. The Hamburg squadron included the Große Marie and the Flying Spirit , while the Lübeck squadron included the Mariendrachen and the Georgsdrachen . An association of captains Michel Ertmann and Jacob Heymann with the Great Kraweel sailed to the island of Ouessant , where some of the ships were lost in a storm. On the way back, the Great Kraweel suffered a leak and could only be held with difficulty and brought to Bruges for repairs . Now the French fleet turned up and blocked the ships of the Hanseatic League with 29 combat ships. An English fleet of 20 ships appeared, after which the French departed for Normandy . The English commander, Lord Howard , attacked the Hanseatic ships blocked between the island of Walcheren and the mouth of the Scheldt and brought them up.
The Great Kraweel returned to Hamburg after the damage had been repaired. Danzig empowered three of its citizens by letters of collapse to wage war against England at their own profit or loss. From 1473 Paul Beneke successfully carried out several pirate trips against England with the Peter von Danzig . When English traders brought their goods to England on neutral ships, Beneke did not shy away from the diplomatic entanglements that were to be expected. Off the English coast, he captured the ship St. Thomas, which was loaded with particularly valuable cargo and sailing under the Burgundian flag . In 1474 a Hanseatic League ravaged the east coast of England.
Peace treaty
In the Peace of Utrecht of 1474 the Hanseatic League was able to achieve its goals. She regained her rights and privileges in England, regained the Stalhof and its branches in Boston and Lynn , and was compensated with £ 10,000.
literature
- Konrad Fritze / Günter Krause: Sea Wars of the Hanseatic League . Military publishing house of the GDR, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-926642-02-5