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MARGARET (1353-1412)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 702 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MARGARET (1353-1412) , See also:queen of See also:Denmark, See also:Norway and See also:Sweden, the daughter of Valdemar IV. of Denmark, was See also:born in 1353 and married ten years later to See also:King See also:Haakon VI. of Norway. Her first See also:act, after her See also:father's See also:death (1395), was to procure the See also:election of her See also:infant son See also:Olaf as king of Denmark. Olaf died in 1387, having in 138o also succeeded his father; and in the following See also:year Margaret, who had ruled both'kingdoms in his name, was chosen See also:regent of Norway and Denmark. She had already given proofs of her See also:superior statesmanship by recovering See also:possession of See also:Schleswig from the See also:Holstein See also:counts, who had held it absolutely for a See also:generation, and who now received it back indeed as a See also:fief (by the compact of See also:Nyborg 1386), but under such stringent conditions that the Danish See also:crown got all the See also:advantage of the arrangement. By this compact, moreover, the chronically rebellious Jutish See also:nobility lost the support they had hitherto always found in Schleswig-Holstein, and Margaret, See also:free from all fear of domestic See also:sedition, could now give her undivided See also:attention to Sweden, where the mutinous nobles were already in arms against their unpopular king, See also:Albert of See also:Mecklenburg. At a See also:conference held at Dalaborg See also:Castle, in See also:March 1388, the Swedes were compelled to accept all Margaret's conditions, elected her " See also:Sovereign See also:Lady and Ruler," and engaged to accept from her any king she See also:chose to appoint. On the 24th of See also:February 1389, Albert, who had returned from Mecklenburg with an See also:army of mercenaries, was routed and taken prisoner at Aasle near Falkoping, and Margaret was now the omnipotent See also:mistress of three kingdoms. See also:Stockholm then almost entirely a See also:German See also:city, still held out; fear of Margaret induced both the Mecklenburg princes and the Wendish towns to hasten to its assistance; and the Baltic and the See also:North See also:Sea speedily swarmed with the privateers of the Viktualien brodre or Vitalianer, so called because their professed See also:object was to revictual Stockholm. Finally the Hansa intervened, and by the compact of Lindholm (1395) Albert was released by Margaret on promising to pay 60,000 marks within three years, the Hansa in the mean-See also:time to hold Stockholm in See also:pawn. Albert failing to pay his See also:ransom within the stipulated time, the Hansa surrendered Stockholm to Margaret in See also:September 1398, in See also:exchange for very considerable commercial privileges. It had been understood that Margaret should, at the first convenient opportunity, provide the three kingdoms with a king who was to be her nearest kinsman, and in 1389 she proclaimed her infant See also:cousin, See also:Eric of See also:Pomerania, king of Norway. In 1396 See also:homage was rendered to him in Denmark and Sweden likevi'ise, Margaret reserving to herself the See also:office of regent during his minority.

To weld the See also:

united kingdoms still more closely together, Margaret summoned a See also:congress of the three See also:councils of See also:state to See also:Kalmar in See also:June 1399; and on Trinity See also:Sunday, the 17th of June, Eric was solemnly crowned king of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The proposed act of See also:union divided the three Rigsraads, but the actual See also:deed embodying the terms of the union never got beyond the See also:stage of an unratified draft. Margaret revolted at the clauses which insisted that each See also:country should retain exclusive possession of its own See also:laws and customs, and be administered by its own dignitaries, as tending in her See also:opinion to prevent the See also:complete amalgamation of Scandinavia. But with her usual prudence she avoided every See also:appearance of an open rupture. A few years after the union of Kalmar, Eric, now in his eighteenth year, was declared of See also:age and homage was rendered to him in all his three kingdoms, but during her lifetime Margaret was the real ruler of Scandinavia. So See also:long as the union was insecure, Margaret had tolerated the presence near the See also:throne of " See also:good men " from all three realms (the Rigsraad, or See also:council of state, as these councillors now began to be called); but theirinfluence was always insignificant. In every direction the royal authority remained supreme. The offices of high See also:constable and See also:earl See also:marshal were See also:left vacant; the Danehoffer or See also:national assemblies See also:fell into desuetude, and the See also:great queen, an ideal See also:despot, ruled through her See also:court officials acting as superior clerks. But See also:law and See also:order were well maintained; the See also:licence of the nobility was sternly repressed; the kingdoms of Sweden and Norway were treated as integral parts of the Danish state, and national aspirations were frowned upon or checked, though Norway, as being more loyal, was treated more indulgently than Sweden. Margaret also recovered for the Crown all the landed See also:property which had been alienated during the troublous days of Valdemar IV. This so-called " reduktion," or See also:land-recovery, was carried out with the utmost rigour, and hundreds of estates fell into the Crown. Margaret also reformed the Danish currency, substituting good See also:silver coins for the old and worthless See also:copper tokens, to the great advantage both of herself and the state.

She had always large sums of See also:

money to dispose of, and a consider-able proportion of this treasure was dispensed in See also:works of charity. Margaret's See also:foreign policy was sagaciously circumspect, in See also:sharp contrast with the venturesomeness of her father's. The most tempting offer of See also:alliance, the most favourable conjunctures, could never move her from her See also:system of See also:neutrality. On the other See also:hand she spared no pains to recover lost Danish territory. See also:Gotland she See also:purchased from its actual possessors, Albert of Mecklenburg and the Livonian Order, and the greater See also:part of Schleswig was regained in the same way. Margaret died suddenly on See also:board her See also:ship in Flensborg See also:harbour on the 28th of See also:October 1412. We know very little of her private See also:character. Contemporary records are both scanty and hostile to a sovereign who squeezed the utmost out of the See also:people. See also:Craft and wiliness are the qualities most generally attributed to her, coupled with the cynical praise that " in temporal matters she was very lucky." See Danmarks riges historie, den senere Middelalder, pp. 358-412 (See also:Copenhagen, 1897—1905) ; Erslev, Danmarks historie under dronning Margrethe (Copenhagen, 1882—1901); See also:Hill, Margaret of Denmark (See also:London, 1898). - (R. N.

End of Article: MARGARET (1353-1412)

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