Were cities which enjoyed sovereign rights within their own walls, independent representation in the Diet, and owned allegiance solely to the emperor. Their internal government was sometimes democratic, sometimes the opposite. Their peculiar privileges were obtained either by force of arms, by purchase, or by gift of the emperors, who found in them a convenient means of checking the power of their feudal lords. Most of them lost their privileges in 1803, and since 1866 only Lubeck, Bremen, and Hamburg remain in the category of free cities.