amers,
engines, &c., but some factories have been erected within the area of
the free port for the purpose of working up imported raw materials duty
free.

_History._--Copenhagen (i.e. Merchant's Harbour, originally simply Havn,
latinized as _Hafnia_) is first mentioned in history in 1043. It was
then only a fishing village, and remained so until about the middle of
the 12th century, when Valdemar I. presented that part of the island to
Axel Hvide, renowned in Danish history as Absalon (q.v.), bishop of
Roskilde, and afterwards archbishop of Lund. In 1167 this prelate
erected a castle on the spot where the Christiansborg palace now stands,
and the building was called after him Axel-huus. The settlement
gradually became a great resort for merchants, and thus acquired the
name which, in a corrupted form, it still bears, of Kaupmannahofn,
Kjobmannshavn, or _Portus Mercatorum_ as it is translated by Saxo
Grammaticus. In 1186, Bishop Absalon bestowed the castle and village,
with the lands of Amager, on the see of Roskilde; but, as the place grew
in importance, the Danish kings became anxious to regain it, and in 1245
King Eric IV. drove out Bishop Niels Stigson. On the king's death
(1250), however, Bishop Jacob Erlandsen obtained the town, and, in 1254,
gave to the burghers their first municipal privileges, which were
confirmed by Pope Urban III. in 1286. In the charter of 1254, while
there is mention of a _communitas_ capable of making a compact with the
bishop, there is nothing said of any trade or craft gilds. These are,
indeed, expressly prohibited in the later charter of Bishop Johann Kvag
(1294); and the distinctive character of the constitution of Copenhagen
during the middle ages consisted in the absence of the free gild system,
and the right of any burgher to pursue a craft under license from the
_Vogt_ (_advocatus_) of the overlord and the city authorities. Later on,
gilds were established, in spite of the prohibition of the old charters;
but they were strictly subordinate to the town authorities, who
appointed their aldermen and suppressed them when they considered them
useless or dangerous. The prosperity of Copenhagen was checked by an
attack by the people of Lubeck in 1248, and by another on the part of
Prince Jaromir of Rugen in 1259. In 1306 it managed to repel the
Norwegians, but in 1362, and again in 1368, it was captured by the
opponents of Valdemar Atterdag. In the following century a new enemy
appeared