632 



HANSA HARDENBERG. 



attained a high political importance, and gave rise to 

 the development of that commercial policy which 

 iias since become intimately connected with all 

 political relations, but of which the sovereigns of 

 tliat time had little idea. The object of the league 

 was now more fully declared ; to protect themselves 

 ami their commerce from pillage ; to guard and 

 extend the foreign commerce of the allied cities, and, 

 as far as practicable, to monopolize it ; to manage the 

 administration of justice within the limits of the con- 

 federacy ; to prevent injustice by public assemblies, 

 diets, and courts of arbitration ; and to maintain the 

 rights and immunities received from princes, and, if 

 possible, to increase and extend them. Among the 

 internal regulations were, the obligations incurred, on 

 being received into the confederacy, to furnish soldiers 

 and vessels, or, in certain cases, money as a substi- 

 tute, and to pay the duties and amercements. The 

 league exercised a judicial power, and inflicted the 

 greater and lesser ban. Any place which incurred 

 these punishments was sa'd to be verhansed. Foreign 

 factories were subject to an almost monastic disci- 

 pline, which even required the celibacy of factors, 

 master?, and members of the guilds. The laws pre- 

 scribed to the agents of our own fur companies, 

 in North America, and the North-west, and Hudson's 

 bay companies, resemble in many particulars, those 

 of the Hanseatic factories. By a uniform adherence 

 to their great object, and by the maintenance of good 

 order, the Hanseatic cities obtained a great import- 

 ance, although the confederacy was never formally 

 acknowledged by the empire ; and kings and princes 

 were, in reality, more dependent on the league than 

 it was on them. The Hanse towns in England were 

 exempted from duties on exports, and in Denmark, 

 Sweden, and Russia, from those on imports privileges 

 which were enjoyed by no subjects of those countries. 



The extensive carrying trade of the Hanseatic 

 confederacy was a great source of wealth ; and, at 

 length, there was no mart in Europe which was not 

 gradually drawn within the circle of its influence ; 

 and, by the greatness of its wealth and the might of 

 its arms, it became the mistress of crowns, and lands, 

 and seas. It conquered Eric and Hakon, kings of 

 Norway, and Waldemar III. of Denmark. It de- 

 posed a king of Sweden, and gave his crown to 

 Albert, duke of Mecklenburg. In 1428, it equipped 

 a fleet of 248 ships, with 12,000 soldiers, against 

 Copenhagen. Niederhoff, a burgomaster of Dantzic, 

 ventured to declare war against Christian, king of 

 Denmark. England, Denmark, and Flanders con- 

 cluded treaties with the league, for the extension of 

 their commerce. It undertook to provide for the 

 security of commerce on the Baltic and North seas. 

 In the country under its immediate influence, it con- 

 structed canals, and introduced a uniform system of 

 weights and measures. 



But the prosperity of the Hanse towns was natu- 

 rally dependent on the continuance of the circum- 

 stances which gave rise to it; and when those 

 circumstances changed, the league was destined to 

 fall. When, therefore, the routes by land and sea 

 were no longer insecure ; when princes learned the 

 advantages of trade to their own states, and turned 

 their attention to the formation of a naval force of 

 their own, and the encouragement of navigation ; 

 when the inland members of the confederation per- 

 ceived that the great seaport towns had a separate 

 interest of their own, and used them principally to 

 promote their own ends ; when the maritime towns 

 ceased to be the masters of the Baltic, and the Ger- 

 man princes determined to subject those of the inte- 

 rior to their immediate control, in order to secure 

 the greatest possible advantages from their com- 

 Birrce, to which they were encouraged especially by 



the emperor Charles V., who thought to improve 

 the commerce of his possessions in the Netherlands, 

 and was, consequently, disuilected to the alliance; and 

 when the discovery of America produced a total 

 revolution in trade, then the dissolution of the 

 Hanseatic league was evidently approaching. The 

 last diet was held at Lubeck, in 1630, and the con- 

 federation was dissolved. But Hamburg, Lubeck, 

 and Bremen united anew (and, in certain cases, 

 Dantzic was admitted among them), though not 

 under the name of Hanseatic towns. In 182(5, 

 Great Britain concluded treaties with the Hanseatic 

 towns, regulating the trade on principles of recipro- 

 city, the same as with Sweden, Denmark, &c. (See 

 Bremen, Hamburg, Lubeck, and Free Cities.) Tl; 

 name of Hanse towns no longer exists in the vocabu 

 lary of politics. Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck, am 

 Frankfort are styled, in the German confederation, 

 the four free cities. 



HANS FOLZ. SeeFote. 



HANS SACHS. See Sachs. 



HAN WAY, JONAS, a merchant and traveller, dis- 

 tinguished for his active benevolence, was born at 

 Portsmouth in 1712. At an early age he was ap- 

 prenticed to a merchant at Lisbon, and, in 1743, 

 became a partner in a British house at Petersburg. 

 The concerns of the partnership rendered a journey 

 to Persia desirable, it was gladly undertaken by Mr 

 Hanway, who went to Astrabad with a cargo of Bri- 

 tish goods. In 1753, he published a work entitled 

 An Historical Account of the British Trade over the 

 Caspian Sea, &c., with the particular History of the 

 great Usurper Nadir Kouli (4 vols. 4to). In the 

 same year, he engaged in the controversy concerning 

 the naturalization of the Jews, and published a 

 Review of the proposed Naturalization, by a Mer- 

 chant ; a third edition of which appeared the same 

 year. From this time, Mr Hanway continued pub- 

 lishing, on a variety of topics, all relating to points 

 of public good, or schemes of charity and utility. 

 His fellow citizens entertained such a sense of his 

 merits, that a deputation of the principal merchants 

 of London waited upon lord Bute, to request that 

 some public mark of favour might be conferred upon 

 a man who had done so much service to the commu- 

 nity, at the expense of his private fortune. He was, 

 in consequence, made a commissioner of the navy, 

 which post he held for twenty years, and, on resigna- 

 tion, was allowed to retain the salary for life. He 

 died in 1786, and a monument was erected to him by 

 subscription. 



HAPSBURG (properly Habsburg) a small place 

 in the Swiss canton of Aargau, on the right bank of 

 the Aar. The castle was built, in the eleventh 

 century, by bishop Werner, on a steep, rocky situa- 

 tion ; whence the name, which was originally 

 Habichtsburg (Hawk's-Castle). The proprietors of 

 Hapsburg became, at a later period, counts of Haps- 

 burg, and gradually acquired a more extensive ter- 

 ritory. In 1273, Rodolph, count of Hapsburg was 

 chosen emperor of Germany. He is the founder of 

 the reigning house of Austria, which is of the line of 

 Hapsburg-Lorraine. From Rodolph to Charles VI., 

 the Austrian monarchs were of the Hapsburg male 

 line. Maria Theresa, who succeeded Charles VI., 

 married Francis Stephen of Lorraine, who, in 1745, 

 was chosen emperor of Germany. Their son, the 

 first of the Hapsburg-Lorraine line, Joseph II., died 

 1790. His successor, Leopold II., died 1792. His 

 successor, Francis (as emperor of Germany, II. j 

 as emperor of Austria, I.), died in 1835. The 

 castle of Hapsburg is still to be seen on the Wul- 

 pelsberg. 



HARDENBERG, FREDERIC von ; known as an 

 author under the name of Novalis, born May 2, 



