Hanse a medieval guild of merchants; the Hanse or Hanseatic League. The word is recorded from Middle English, and comes from Old French hanse ‘guild, company’, from Old High German hansa ‘company, troop’.

The Hanseatic League was a medieval association of north German cities, formed in 1241 and surviving until the 19th century. In the later Middle Ages it included over 100 towns and functioned as an independent political power, but it began to collapse in the 17th century, and only Hamburg, Bremen, and Lübeck remained when it disbanded in the 19th century.

Hanse merchant guild; entrance fee of such a guild XII; commercial league of German towns XV. First in hanshus ‘hanse-house’, guildhall — MLG. hanshūs, and in medL. form hansa — OHG. hansa, (M)HG. hanse = OE. hōs troop, company, Goth. hansa company, crowd :- Gmc. *χansō; of unkn. orig.
So Hanseatic XVII. — medL.