Flensburg had been founded at the latest by 1200 at the innermost end of the Flensburg Fjord by Danish settlers which were soon joined by German merchants. In 1284, its town rights were confirmed and the town quickly rose to become one of the most important in the Duchy of Schleswig. Unlike Holstein, however, Schleswig did not belong to the German Holy Roman Empire. Therefore, Flensburg was not a member of the Hanseatic League, but it did maintain contacts with this important trading network.
Historians presume that there were several reasons for choosing this spot for settlement:
� Shelter from heavy winds
� Trade route between Holstein and North Jutland (namely the H�rvejen or Ochsenweg, a name for a series of roads between Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland, possibly dating from the Bronze Age)
� Trade route between North Frisia and Angeln (Angelbovej)
� A good herring fishery
Herrings, especially kippered, were what brought about the blossoming of the town's trade in the Middle Ages. They were sent inland and to almost every European country.
On 28 October 1412, Queen Margaret I of Denmark died on board a ship in Flensburg Harbour of the Plague.
From time to time plagues such as bubonic plague, caused mainly by rat fleas (Xenopsylla cheopis, a parasite found on brown rats), "red" dysentery and other scourges killed a great deal of Flensburg's population. Lepers were strictly isolated, namely at the St.-J�rgen-Hospital (Hellig�ndshspital, built before 1290), which lay far outside the town's gates, where the St. J�rgen Church is nowadays. About 1500, syphilis also appeared. The church hospital "Zum Heiligen Geist" ("To the Holy Ghost") stood in Gro�e Stra�e, now Flensburg's pedestrian precinct.
A Flensburger's everyday life was very hard, and the old roads and paths were bad. The main streets were neither paved nor lit at night. When
