voke them to abolish autonomy of the city.
The fortified city maintained its own guards, not allowing prince-archiepiscopal soldiers to enter it. The city reserved an extra very narrow gate, the so-called Bishop's Needle (Latin: Acus episcopi, first mentioned in 1274), for all clergy including the Prince-Archbishop. The narrowness of the gate made it technically impossible to enter accompanied by knights.
Nevertheless, on the night of 29 May 1366, Albert's troops helped by some burghers invaded the city. After this the city had to render him homage again, the Bremen Roland, symbol of the city's autonomy, was demolished and a new city council was appointed. In return the new council granted Albert a credit amounting to the enormous sum of 20,000 Bremian Marks.
But city councillors of the previous council, who had fled to the County of Oldenburg gained the support of the Counts and recaptured the city on June 27, 1366. The members of the intermediate council were regarded as traitors and beheaded, and the city de facto regained its autonomy. Thereupon, the city of Bremen, which had for a long time held an autonomous status, acted almost in complete independence of the Prince-Archbishop. Albert failed to reduce the city of Bremen a second time, since he was always short of money and without the support of his family, the Welfs, who fought the L�neburg War of Succession (1370�88).
By the end of the 1360s Bremen had granted credits to Albert II, to finance his lavish lifestyle, and gained in return the fortress of V�rde and the dues levied in the bailiwick belonging to it as a pawn for the credits. In 1369 Bremen again lent money to Albert II against the collateral of his mint and his right to mint coins, which was from then on run by the city council. In 1377 Bremen bought � from Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-L�neburg � many of the prince-archiepiscopal castles, which Albert had pledged as security for a loan to Frederick's predecessor. Thus
