This was not owing to any misconduct on the part of its leaders, but to the progress of that improvement it had done so much to promote. … Lubeck, Hamburgh, Bremen, and the towns in their vicinity, were latterly the only ones that had any interest in its maintenance. The cities in Zealand and Holland joined it, chiefly because they would otherwise have been excluded from the commerce of the Baltic; and those of Prussia, Poland and Russia did the same, because, had they not belonged to it, they would have been shut out from all intercourse with strangers. When, however, the Zealanders and Hollanders became sufficiently powerful at sea to be able to vindicate their right to the free navigation of the Baltic by force of arms, they immediately seceded from the League; and no sooner had the ships of the Dutch, the English, etc., begun to trade directly with the Polish and Prussian Hanse Towns, than these nations also embraced the first opportunity of withdrawing from it. … At the middle of the seventeenth century the cities of Lubeck, Hamburgh, and Bremen were all that continued to acknowledge the authority of the League." History of the Hanseatic League (Foreign Quarterly Review, January, 1831). ALSO IN: _S. A. Dunham, History of the Germanic Empire, book 1, chapter 4 (volume 2)._ _C. Walford, Outline History of the Hanseatic League (Royal Historical Society Transactions, volume 9)._ _H. Zimmern, The Hansa Towns (Stories of the Nations)._ _J. Yeats, The Growth and Vicissitudes of Commerce._ See, also, CITIES, IMPERIAL AND FREE, OF GERMANY; and SCANDINAVIAN STATES: A. D. 1018-1397. HANSE OF LONDON, The Flemish. See FLANDERS: 13TH CENTURY. HANSEATIC LEAGUE. See HANSA TOWNS. HAOMA. See SOMA. HAPSBURG, OR HABSBURG, Origin and rise of the House of. See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1246-1282. {1627} HAPSBURG-LORRAINE, The House of. See AUSTRIA; A. D. 1745 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER). HARALD IV., King of Norway, A. D. 1134-1136. Harald Blaatand, King of Denmark, 941-991. Harald Graafield, King of Norway, 963-977. Harald Hardrade, King of Norway, 1047-1066. Harald Harfager, King of Norway, 863-934. Harald Sweynson, King of Denmark, 1076-1080. HARAN.