Margaret

Margaret, the 'Semiramis of the North,' queen of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, was the second daughter of Waldemar IV. of Denmark, and wife of Hacon VIII. of Norway, and was born in 1353. On the death of her father without male heirs in 1375, the Danish nobles offered her the crown in trust for her infant son Olaf. By the death of Hacon in 1380 Margaret became ruler of Norway as well as of Denmark. When Olaf died in 1387 Margaret nominated her grand-nephew, Eric of Pomerania, as her successor. The Swedish king, Albert of Mecklenburg, having so thoroughly alienated the affections of his subjects that the nobles, declaring the throne vacant, offered in 1388 to acknowledge Margaret as their ruler, she sent an army into Sweden, which defeated the king's German troops, near Falköping, and took Albert and his son prisoners. Albert remained in prison seven years, during which time Margaret, in spite of the efforts of the Hanseatic League and its allies, wholly subjugated Sweden. In the following year (1396) Eric of Pomerania was crowned king of the three Scandinavian kingdoms, and though he was proclaimed king de facto next year, the power still remained in the hands of Margaret. In May 1397 was signed the celebrated Union of Calmar, by which it was stipulated that the three kingdoms should remain for ever at peace under one king, though each should retain its own laws and customs. Before her death at Flensburg, on 28th October 1412, Margaret had enlarged the territories she held for her grand-nephew by the acquisition of Lapland and part of Finland. She was a woman of masculine energy and strong will, and ruled her subjects with a firm hand.