Copenhagen

THE HISTORY OF COPENHAGEN.

o p e n h a g e n is a comparatively m odern city, which in its first beginning s is said to have been con ­ nected with the herring fishery in the Sound in the M iddle Ages. The first time it is m en tioned, and then only

incidentally, is in the “Knytlinge Saga", u n d e r the nam e of “H avn" (harbour). In 1167 the town appears again in history as "Köpm annahafn", or, as Saxo calls it, mercatomm portus. K ing V aldem ar the G reat (1157—1182) bestow ed C openhagen and a g reat part of the su rround ing country on his friend and counsellor, the w arrio r Bishop Absalon, who, in a sense, may be considered the founder of the tow n , it being indebted to him for its first development. He defended it against pirates and other depredators, and in all probality founded the stro n g ­ ho ld (castrum de Hafn), which afterwards becam e the castle of C openhagen. From him the town passed into the hands of the episcopal see of Roskilde, and its citizens consequently becam e involved in the strife between the regal pow er and the clergy. The oldest records of Copenhagen abo u n d in accounts of fighting and disturbances. In the 12th and 13th centuries it was several times taken and sacked by the Han- seatic tow ns; in 1427 and 1428 the Lübeckers were, on the o ther h and , driven off w ith g reat loss. In 1416 K ing Eric of Pom eran ia took possession of the town in spite of the protest

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