This thesis investigates how the councils of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Lübeck and Reval (Tallinn) managed conflicts which transcended the boundaries of their own political and legal authority. During this period, discord among the members of the Hanse, intercity disputes between individual burghers, and large-scale “international” altercations required municipal governments of Hanseatic cities to engage with actors and institutions beyond the town walls. These different conflicts carried the risk of escalating beyond the councils’ control and—in the worst case—involve non-Hanseatic parties who threatened the cities’ trade and autonomy.
Analysing the substantial correspondence as well as extensive diplomatic reports and Hanseatic minutes produced by the towns’ chanceries, this dissertation demonstrates how the magistrates of Lübeck and Reval balanced their relations to their citizenry and overlords as well as to the Hanse and foreign rulers. By focussing on the processes of negotiation and urban diplomatic practice, my research aims to show that the councils’ conflict management was dynamic and multi-layered, employing shared political notions as well as tactics of secrecy, mediation and protraction, both in oral and written form. While the magistrates’ main goal lay in the de-escalation of conflict and in preventing disputes from leaving the level of intercity diplomacy, their strategies and tactics left room for ambiguity and contention.