30 TRADE OF THE NORTH OF EUROPE. CHAP. XVI. 



and then to take permanent possession of favoured 

 spots in them, till, in a short space of time, they 

 became the settled owners and princes in Eng- 

 land, Scotland, France, and the distant country 

 of Naples. 



The loss of the most enterprising and energetic 

 portions of these northern people, with the co- 

 temporaneous rise of the Hanse Towns, and after- 

 wards the Dutch, who became their successful 

 competitors in the fisheries, seems to have pro- 

 duced a general depression in the state of Den- 

 mark, Norway, and Sweden, which left them a 

 prey to such internal feuds and hostilities, as had 

 been avoided during the excitement which the 

 preparation for offensive operations against the 

 southern kingdoms had created. It is not ne- 

 cessary to enter into the relation of the petty, but 

 harassing, warfare which was carried on by these 

 kingdoms against each other, or the internal 

 contests which existed in each. They were, for 

 a period, diminished during the reign of Mar- 

 garet of Denmark, who was raised to the throne 

 in 1385, and ruled, during thirty-six years, the 

 three kingdoms of Scandinavia, acquiring the 

 name of the Semiramis of the north. After the 

 death of that heroine, those three kingdoms became 

 again separate sovereignties. They were com- 

 monly at war with each other; whilst the rising 

 state of Lubec, by its wealth and its naval forces, 

 acted, as suited best its commercial purposes, the 



