The Lubbock - Lubeck Link

The founder of the Lubbock family was almost certainly a merchant from the Schleswig-Holstein city of Lubeck. Most likely, he was based in Norfolk (13th Century) trading Baltic herrings for English wool, when he was either requested to settle in England by his guild - or decided to 'jump ship' and marry locally.

His home city was rich and powerful. It still retains some magnificent brick medieval architecture - not least the Cathedral of St Mary & St Peter. Keith visited the cathedral in 1960 when he and 5 other schoolfriends 'cycled around the North Sea'.

BACKGROUND

Lubeck: Queen of the Hanseatic League

Lübeck was founded in 1143 as the first German city on the Baltic Sea. The site was extremely promising - surrounded by the protective waters of the Wakenitz and Trave rivers, sailors were free to put off to the Baltic sea from its shore. The city's ruler sent his men to recruit merchants from Westphalia, from the Rhine, from Friesland and Saxony in order to help the newly-founded town blossom and flourish.

But the town's growth remained stunted in the wake of attacks, fires and conflicts between the city's founder, Adolphus of Schauenburg and his lord, Henry the Lion. It was not until Henry the Lion refounded the city in 1159 that the project bore its first fruits.

Off to new shores! The merchants in Lübeck set sail for the herring markets in Schoonen, reaching as far as Gotland in the 12th century and penetrating further into the Baltics, all the way to Novgorod: the path to Eastern Europe was finally forged. Further towns sprouted up near and around Lübeck: Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund, Greifswald, Stettin, Danzig, Elbing, Königsberg, Riga, Reval and Dorpat, all subject to Lübeck law.

Thus Lübeck rose to head the Hanseatic League as the leader of the economic power in mediaeval times. The Hanseatic League had no navy of its own, no soldiers; it lacked an executive body and a separate budget. Nevertheless, merchants from the "dudeschen hense" were respected - and sometimes even feared - throughout the known world.

Lübeck's merchants maintained contacts reaching from the Orient to Venice all the way to Russia. The League set up branches in the most important cities - Peterhof in Novgorod, Stalhof in London, Deutsche Brücke in Bergen and Haus der Osterlinge in Brügge. In the Middle Ages, the citizens of Lübeck were cosmopolites who, though intertwined in the hearts to their city, were at home all over.

The cog was their preferred mode of transportation. Merchants climbed aboard these large trading vessels, braving wind, waves and pirates to bring their goods to their destination.

CHRONOLOGY

Around 1000 At the point where the Schwartau and Trave rivers meet, the Wends found "Liubice" as a principality, a settlement of artisans and a marketplace

1138 The Slavs destroy Liubice

1143 Count Adolphus II of Schauenburg founds a mercantile settlement on the Trave

1157 The settlement is burned to the ground

1159 Lübeck is refounded by Henry the Lion

1170-1180 Construction is begun on the largest church buildings: Cathedral - St. Mary's - St. Peter's

1226 Kaiser Frederick II grants Lübeck the status of a Free City of the Empire

Around 1300 Lübeck becomes the leader of the Hanseatic League of cities (1358 first Hanseatic Day in Lübeck), an organisation of merchants created for the purpose of self-protection

1370 Peace of Stralsund after two wars waged with Denmark - peak of Lübeck's glory

1669 Nine cities of the German Hanseatic League meet for the last time in Lübeck. Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen carry on the legacy of the Hanseatic League as Free and Hanse Cities into the 21st century