in the Hanseatic league, which was jealous of its rivalry, but
their invasion was frustrated by Queen Philippa. Various attempts were
made by successive kings to obtain the town from the see of Roskilde, as
the most suitable for the royal residence; but it was not till 1443 that
the transference was finally effected and Copenhagen became the capital
of the kingdom. From 1523 to 1524 it held out for Christian II. against
Frederick I., who captured it at length and strengthened its defensive
works; and it was only after a year's siege that it yielded in 1536 to
Christian III. From 1658 to 1660 it was unsuccessfully beleaguered by
Charles Gustavus of Sweden; and in the following year it was rewarded by
various privileges for its gallant defence. In 1660 it gave its name to
the treaty which concluded the Swedish war of Frederick III. In 1700 it
was bombarded by the united fleets of England, Holland and Sweden; in
1728 a conflagration destroyed 1640 houses and five churches; another in
1795 laid waste 943 houses, the church of St Nicolas, and the _Raadhus_.
In 1801 the Danish fleet was destroyed in the roadstead by the English
(see below, S _Battle of Copenhagen_); and in 1807 the city was
bombarded by the British under Lord Cathcart, and saw the destruction of
the university buildings, its principal church and numerous other
edifices.

See O. Nielsen, _Kobenhavns Historie oz Beskrivelse_ (Copenhagen,
1877-1892); C. Bruun and P. Munch, _Kobenhavn, Skrilding af dets
Historie_, &c. (ibid. 1887-1901); Bering-Lusberg, _Kobenhavn i gamle
Dage_ (ibid. 1898 et seq.). (O. J. R. H.)

BATTLE OF COPENHAGEN

The formation of a league between the northern powers, Russia, Prussia,
Denmark and Sweden, on the 16th of December 1800, nominally to protect
neutral trade at sea from the enforcement by Great Britain of her
belligerent claims, led to the despatch of a British fleet to the Baltic
on the 12th of March 1801. It consisted of fifty-three sail in all, of
which eighteen were of the line. Prussia possessed no fleet. The nominal
strength of the Russian fleet was eighty-three sail of the line, of the
Danish twenty-three, and of the Swedish eighteen. But this force was for
the most part only on paper. Some of the Russian ships were at
Archangel, others in the Mediterranean. Of those actually in the Baltic
and fit to go to sea, twelve were at Reval shut in by the ice, and the
others were at Kronstadt. The Swedes could equip on