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The 'Kalmar Union' (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish: ''Kalmarunionen'') was a series of personal unions (1397–1524) that united the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway (with Iceland and Greenland) and Sweden (including some of Finland) under a single monarch.^[1] The countries had given up their sovereignty, but not their independence, and diverging interests (especially Swedish nobility's dissatisfaction over the dominant role played by Denmark and Holstein) gave rise to a conflict that would hamper it from the 1430s until the union's breakup in 1523 when Gustav Vasa became king of Sweden. The union was formally dissolved the following year. Norway and her overseas dependencies, however, continued to remain a part of the realm of Denmark-Norway under the Oldenburg dynasty for several centuries after the dissolution.

Contents

Union

Conflict

Final dissolution

See also

External links

Notes

Union

The union was the work of Queen Margaret of Norway (1353–1412), a daughter of King Valdemar IV of Denmark. At the age of ten, she was married to King Haakon VI of Norway. Margaret succeeded in having their son Olav recognized as heir to the throne of Denmark. In 1376 Olav inherited the crown of Denmark from his maternal grandfather as King Oluf III, with his mother as guardian. When Haakon VI died in 1380, Olav also inherited the crown of Norway. The two kingdoms were united in a personal union under a child king, with the king's mother as his guardian.
Before Olav came of age and could take over the government, he died in 1387. Margaret made the Danish Council of the Realm elect her as regent of Denmark, but she could not assume the title of queen. Next year she was also recognized as regent of Norway, on February 2, 1388. She adopted her sister's grandson Bogislav, a son of prince Vartislav of Pomerania, and gave him the more Nordic name Erik. She manoeuvred to have the Norwegian Council recognize him as heir to the throne of Norway^[2], in spite of his not being first in the line of succession, and he was installed as king of Norway in 1389, still with Margaret as his guardian.
In Sweden, this was a time of conflict between king Albert of Mecklenburg and leaders of the nobility. Albrecht's enemies in 1388 elected Margaret as regent in the parts of Sweden that they controlled, and promised her assistance in conquering the rest of the country. Their common enemy was the Hanseatic league and the growing German influence over the Scandinavian economy.^[3] After Danish and Swedish troops in 1389 defeated the Swedish king, Albert of Mecklenburg, and he subsequently failed to pay the required tribute of 60,000 silver marks within three years after his release ^[2], her position in Sweden was secured. The three Nordic kingdoms were united under a common regent. Margaret promised to protect the political influence and privileges of the nobility under the union. Her grandnephew Erik, already king of Norway since 1389, succeeded to the thrones of Denmark and Sweden in 1396.

The Nordic union was formalized on June 17 1397 by the Treaty of Kalmar, signed in the Swedish castle of Kalmar, close to the Danish border. The treaty stipulated an eternal union of the three realms under one king, who was to be chosen among the sons of the deceased king. They were to be governed separately, together with the respective councils, and according to their ancient laws, but foreign policy was to be conducted by the king. At Kalmar, the 15 year old Eric of Pomerania {right} was crowned king of all three kingdoms by the archbishops of Denmark and Sweden, but Margaret managed to remain in control until her death in 1412.

Conflict

The Swedes were not happy with the Danes' frequent wars on Schleswig, Holstein, Mecklenburg, and Pomerania, which were a disturbance to Swedish exports (notably iron) to the Continent. Furthermore, the centralization of government in Denmark raised suspicions. The Swedish Privy Council wanted to retain a fair degree of self-government. The unity of the union eroded in the 1430s, even to the point of armed rebellion (the Engelbrecht rebellion), leading to the expulsion of Danish forces from Sweden. Erik was deposed (1438–39) as the union king and was succeeded by the childless Christopher of Bavaria. In the power vacuum that arose following Christopher's death (1448), Sweden elected Charles VIII king with the intent to reestablish the union under a Swedish crown. Charles was elected king of Norway in the following year, but the counts of Holstein were more influential than the Swedes and the Norwegians together, and made the Danish Privy Council appoint Christian I of Oldenburg as king. During the next seven decades struggle for power and the wars between Sweden and Denmark would dominate the union.
After the successful reconquest of Sweden by Christian II and the subsequent Stockholm bloodbath in 1520, the Swedes started yet another rebellion which ousted the Danish forces once again in 1521. While independence had been reclaimed the election of King Gustav of the Vasa on June 6, 1523, restored sovereignty for Sweden and dissolved the union. The day of Gustav Vasa's crowning is since 1983 the National Day of Sweden, but was only recently made a national holiday, in 2005 (482 years later).

Final dissolution

The last structures of the Kalmar Union remained until 1536 when the Danish Privy Council, in the aftermath of a civil war, unilaterally declared Norway to be a Danish province ^[5], without consulting their Norwegian colleagues. Norway kept some separate institutions and its legal system ⁵, but the former Norwegian possessions of Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands, came directly under the Danish crown. In the 1814 treaty of Kiel, the king of Denmark-Norway was forced to cede Norway to the king of Sweden, Charles XIII. Norway, led by the vice-roy, prince Christian Frederik, objected to the terms of the treaty. A constitutional assembly declared Norwegian independence, adopted a liberal constitution, and elected Christian Frederik king. After a brief war with Sweden, however, the peace terms of the Convention of Moss recognized Norwegian independence, but forced Norway to accept a personal union with Sweden.


In the middle of the 19th century, many intellectuals joined the Scandinavist movement, which promoted closer contacts between the three countries. At the time, the union between Sweden and Norway under one monarch, together with the fact that King Frederik VII of Denmark had no male heir, gave rise to the idea of reuniting the countries of the Kalmar Union, except Finland.

See also

★ List of Kalmar Union monarchs

★ Grand Duchy of Finland

★

★ Denmark-Norway

★ Union between Sweden and Norway

External links

★ Kalmar Union Flag - Flags of the World

★ The Kalmar Union - Maps of the Kalmar Union

★ Alternative history scenario in which the Kalmar Union survived

Notes

1. Sweden, , Tracey, Boraas, Capstone Press, 2002, ISBN 0-7368-0939-2
2. The Historians' History of the World, , Tracey, Boraas, The Outlook Company, 1904,
3. Scandinavia since 1500, , Byron, Nordstrom, University of Minnesota Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8166-2098-9
4. The Historians' History of the World, , Tracey, Boraas, The Outlook Company, 1904,
5. Scandinavia since 1500, , Byron, Nordstrom, University of Minnesota Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8166-2098-9