Though officially called Den Haag, the locals often refer to it as 's-Gravenhage, literally: 'The Counts' Hedge'. The Counts of Holland enjoyed hunting and took special interest in the area’s vast forests that reached from Gravenzande to Leiden in the Middle Ages, the remains of which are now known as the Haagse Bos. Originally basing themselves near the pond now known as the Hofvijver in the centre of The Hague, in the 13th century Count Willem II built the Binnenhof, or current houses of parliament, on the same spot. Lacking city rights, The Hague was unable to build the traditional wall and moat system of the day, so a town hall was built which can still be seen today in the Groenmarkt.The Hague is first chartered as a village called Die Haghe, until Louis Napoleon, King of the Netherlands from 1806, took entry. He insisted that by the following day he 'be offered the keys of the city at a ceremony in The Hague.' Without walls, or even a gate, the city couldn’t offer much in the line of actual keys. In some haste the elders asked the silversmith François Simons to produce 2 gilded silver keys which were offered to the king on an embroidered cushion. A few months later Napoleon proclaimed The Hague 'third city of the kingdom'.