'free cities' definitions:
Definition of 'free cities'
From: GCIDE
- Hanse \Hanse\, n. [G. hanse, or F. hanse (from German), OHG. & Goth. hansa; akin to AS. h[=o]s band, troop.] An association; a league or confederacy. [1913 Webster]
- Hanse towns (Hist.), certain commercial cities in Germany which associated themselves for the protection and enlarging of their commerce. The confederacy, called also Hansa and Hanseatic league, held its first diet in
- 1260, and was maintained for nearly four hundred years. At one time the league comprised eighty-five cities. Its remnants, L["u]beck, Hamburg, and Bremen, are {free cities}, and are still frequently called Hanse towns. [1913 Webster]