Holy Roman Empire •
1167. The
Lombard League was formed in 1167, supported by the
Pope, to counter the attempts by the
Hohenstaufen Holy Roman Emperors to assert influence over the
Kingdom of Italy. At its apex, it included most of the cities of
Northern Italy, but its membership changed with time. With the death of the third and last Hohenstaufen emperor,
Frederick II, in 1250, it became obsolete and was disbanded. •
1190. The
Hanseatic League was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant
guilds and market towns in
Northwestern and
Central Europe. Growing from a few
North German towns in the late 1100s, the league came to dominate
Baltic maritime trade for three centuries along the coasts of Northern Europe. Hansa territories stretched from the
Baltic to the
North Sea and inland during the
Late Middle Ages, and diminished slowly after 1450. •
1197. The
Tuscan League comprised the chief cities, barons and bishops of the
Duchy of Tuscany, directed against the Holy Roman Emperor in alliance with the papacy. The original signatories were the communes of
Lucca,
Florence and
Siena, the people living under the castles of
Prato and
San Miniato, and the
bishopric of Volterra. They were later joined by the city of
Arezzo. •
1254. The First Rhenish League (
Rheinischer Städtebund) existed only between 1254 and 1257. It comprised 59 cities. •
1306.
:de:Thüringer Dreistädtebund - the Three City League of Thuringia, was an alliance of
Erfurt, Nordhausen and Mühlhausen against the princely Wettin family of Saxony. It lasted from 1306 - 1481. •
1346. The
Lusatian League () was a league of six
towns in the
Bohemian (1346–1635), later
Saxon (1635–1815) region of
Upper Lusatia, that existed from 1346 until 1815. The member towns were
Bautzen (),
Görlitz ('
), Kamenz ('),
Lauban ('
), Löbau (') and
Zittau ('''') •
1354. The
Décapole (
Dekapolis or ) was an alliance formed in 1354 by ten
Imperial cities of the
Holy Roman Empire in the
Alsace region to maintain their rights. It was disbanded in 1679. •
1367. The
Confederation of Cologne was a
military alliance against
Denmark signed 1367 by cities of the
Hanseatic League on their meeting called
Hansetag in
Cologne. •
1376.
Swabian League of Cities •
1381. A Second Rhenish League and a first Swabian League were formed in 1381, merging into the South German League (
Süddeutscher Städtebund) still in the same year. The League was a military defense pact against the nobility. Peace was made in the Treaty of Heidelberg on 26 July 1384. •
1397.
Lizard Union was an organization of Prussian nobles and knights. •
1412.
Pentapolitana was a 15th-century alliance of the five most important
Hungarian royal free cities (now eastern
Slovakia): Kassa (today
Košice), Bártfa (
Bardejov), Lőcse (
Levoča), Eperjes (
Prešov), and Kisszeben (
Sabinov). •
1440. The
Prussian Confederation () was formed on 21 February 1440 at
Marienwerder by a group of 53 nobles and clergy and 19 cities in
Prussia, to oppose the
Teutonic Knights. It was based on the basis of an earlier similar organization, the
Lizard Union established in 1397 by
Chełmno Land nobles. •
1454.
Italic League •
1471.
Three Leagues was the alliance leading eventually to the formation of the Swiss canton of Grisons. •
Grey League •
League of God's House •
League of the Ten Jurisdictions •
1488. The
Swabian League (
Schwäbischer Bund) was a mutual defence and peace keeping association of
Imperial Estates – free Imperial cities, prelates, principalities and knights – principally in the territory of the early medieval
stem duchy of
Swabia, established in 1488 at the behest of Emperor
Frederick III of Habsburg and supported as well by
Bertold von Henneberg-Römhild, archbishop of Mainz, whose conciliar rather than monarchic view of the
Reich often put him at odds with Frederick's successor
Maximilian. The Swabian League cooperated towards the keeping of the imperial peace and at least in the beginning curbing the expansionist
Bavarian dukes from the
House of Wittelsbach and the revolutionary threat from the south in the form of the
Swiss. The League held regular meetings, supported tribunals and maintained a unified force of 12,000 infantrymen and 1200 cavalry. == See also ==