Kalmar Union

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
The Kalmar Union at the beginning of the 16th century
The Kalmar Union at the beginning of the 16th century
This article is part of the
Scandinavia series
Geography
The Viking Age
Political entities
History
Other
History of Sweden
The Kalmar Union flag.
The Kalmar Union flag.

The Kalmar Union (Danish/Norwegian/Swedish: Kalmarunionen) was a series of personal unions (1397–1524) that united the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway (with Iceland) and Sweden (including 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 Iceland however, continued to remain a part of the realm of the Oldenburg dynasty for several centuries after the dissolution.

Contents

[edit] Union

An artist's impression of the crowning of Eric of Pomerania as union king on 17 June 1397
An artist's impression of the crowning of Eric of Pomerania as union king on 17 June 1397

The union was formed by Queen Margaret I of Denmark (1353–1412) in the Swedish town of Kalmar, then close to the Danish border, after Danish and Swedish troops in 1389 had 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]. King Albert, born in Germany, was involved in a struggle regarding a contested inheritance with parts of the Swedish nobility and their rebellion received help from the Danes, who intended the union to serve as a check on the growing power of the German Hanseatic League.[3] Queen Margaret, who was a daughter of the late Danish king Valdemar Atterdag and wife of the late Norwegian king Haakon VI, maneuvered to have her grandnephew Erik of Pomerania recognized as heir to the Norwegian throne [4], and then elected king over the two other countries. Margaret promised to protect the political influence and privileges of the nobility under the union, but Eric wanted to strengthen the monarchy.

[edit] Conflict

Royal seal of Eric VII (1398) symbolising: (Centre): Norway (the hereditary realm) within an inescutcheon upon a Dannebrog cross over all; Quarterly: dexter chief: Denmark, sinister chief: Sweden, sinister base: Pomerania, dexter base: Norway.
Royal seal of Eric VII (1398) symbolising: (Centre): Norway (the hereditary realm) within an inescutcheon upon a Dannebrog cross over all; Quarterly: dexter chief: Denmark, sinister chief: Sweden, sinister base: Pomerania, dexter base: Norway.

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 (1438–1439) 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.

[edit] 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 1814 the king of Denmark-Norway was forced to cede Norway to the king of Sweden, Charles XIII. In the middle of the 19th century, this would give rise to the Scandinavist movement, which sought to reunite the countries of the Kalmar Union, except Finland[citation needed], under one monarch.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Boraas, Tracey (2002). Sweden. Capstone Press, 24. ISBN 0-7368-0939-2. 
  2. ^ Boraas, Tracey; Henry Smith Williams (1904). The Historians' History of the World. The Outlook Company, 205. 
  3. ^ Nordstrom, Byron (2000). Scandinavia Since 1500. University of Minnesota Press, 22. ISBN 0-8166-2098-9. 
  4. ^ Boraas, Tracey; Henry Smith Williams (1904). The Historians' History of the World. The Outlook Company, 204. 
  5. ^ a b Nordstrom, Byron (2000). Scandinavia Since 1500. University of Minnesota Press, 147. ISBN 0-8166-2098-9. 
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../k/a/l/Kalmar_Union_e3b1.html"