The Lübeck law, which is the constitution of a municipal form of government developed at Lübeck in Schleswig-Holstein after it was made a free city in 1226, provides for self-government.

It had replaced the personal rule of tribal monarchs descending from ancient times or the rule of the regional dukes and kings that had been established by Charlemagne.

Lübeck had set about spreading its form of government to other cities around the Baltic Sea.

(Eventually about 100 will adopt a government based on the law, which today still serves as a foundation for German town laws in many of those cities.)

Charlemagne had held all of his aristocratic vassals personally responsible for the defense, health and welfare of the tribesmen settled on their estates, including the towns.

The Lübeck Law, in theory, makes the cities to which it applies independent of royalty.

Later in the century, cities governed by the Lübeck Law will form into a powerful trade association, the Hanseatic League, which amounts to a confederacy with headquarters at Lübeck.