Kalmar Union

Kalmar Union Kalmarunionen (in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish)Kalmarin unioni (in Finnish)Kalmarsambandið (in Icelandic)Kalmar unioni (in Greenlandic)Kalmarsamveldið (in Faroese)Unio Calmariensis (in Latin)
1397–June 6, 1523
Flag (in use by 1430) Arms of Eric of Pomerania
Status	Personal union
Capital	Copenhagen, Denmark (from 1443)
Common languages	Official use: Middle Danish, Old Swedish, Renaissance Latin Also spoken: Middle Low German, Finnish, Karelian, Middle Norwegian, Middle Icelandic, Norn, Sami languages, Greenlandic Greenlandic Norse
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Government	Personal union
Regent
• 1387–1412a	Eric of Pomerania (first)
• 1524–33	Christian II (last)
Legislature	Riksråd and Herredag (one in each kingdom)
Historical era	Late Middle Ages
• Established	17 June 1397
• Engelbrekt rebellion	1434–36
• Stockholm Bloodbath	November 1520
• Gustav Vasa elected King of Sweden	6 June 1523
• the Danish Rigsråd annexes Norway	1536
• Disestablished	June 6, 1523
• Treaty of Kiel	14 January 1814
Currency	Mark, Örtug, Öre, Swedish penning
Preceded by Succeeded by Denmark Hereditary Kingdom of Norway History of Sweden (800–1521) Denmark–Norway History of Sweden (1523–1611)
Today part of	Denmark Faroe Islands Greenland Iceland Norway Sweden Finland b Åland United Kingdomb Shetland Orkney Germanyb Schleswig Russiab Karelia
Margaret I ruled Denmark between 1387–1412 and Norway between 1388–1389. She also ruled Sweden between 1389–1412 Parts of these countries today. Back then they belonged to the three main countries of the Kalmar Union; Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

The Kalmar Union was a royal personal union consisting of the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and various other provinces and areas. At that time, Norway included Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Jan Mayen, Shetland, and Orkney. Parts of Finland belonged to Sweden. The union was started in 1397 when Eric of Pomerania was crowned in the town of Kalmar in Sweden. The union ended on 6 June 1523 when Sweden left the union by Gustav I.

History

Inception

The union was the work of Scandinavian aristocracy who sought to counter the influence of the Hanseatic League, a northern German trade league centered around the Baltic and North Seas. Denmark in particular was in a power struggle with the League and had recently suffered a humiliating defeat in the Danish-Hanseatic War (1361-1370) that allowed the League to become even more powerful.

On the personal level, the union was achieved by Queen Margaret I of Denmark (1353–1412). She was a daughter of King Valdemar IV of Denmark and had married King Haakon VI of Norway and Sweden, who was the son of King Magnus IV of Sweden, Norway and Scania.

Margaret succeeded in having her and Haakon's son Olaf recognized as heir to the throne of Denmark. In 1376, Olaf inherited the crown of Denmark from his mother's father as King Olaf II. His mother was guardian; when Haakon VI died in 1380, Olaf also inherited the crown of Norway.

Margaret became regent of Denmark and Norway when Olaf died in 1387, leaving her without an heir. She adopted her great-nephew Eric of Pomerania the same year. In 1388, Swedish nobles called upon her help against their King Albert. After Margaret defeated Albert in 1389, her heir Eric was proclaimed King of Norway. Eric was subsequently elected King of Denmark and Sweden in 1396 under the banner of the House of Griffin. His coronation was held in Kalmar on 17 June 1397.

One main impetus for the union's formation was to block German expansion northward into the Baltic region. The main reason for its failure to survive was the perpetual struggle between the monarch, who wanted a strong unified state, and the Swedish and Danish nobility, which did not.

The Union lost territory when Orkney and Shetland were pledged by Christian I, in his capacity as King of Norway, as security against the payment of the dowry of his daughter Margaret, betrothed to James III of Scotland in 1468. The money was never paid, so in 1472 the Kingdom of Scotland annexed the islands.

Other page

• Stockholm Bloodbath