Margaret I of Denmark

“ It was during this war that a strong Danish fleet dominated the Baltic for the first time since the age of the Valdemars.
On the succession of Hans’s son, Christian II. (1513-1523) , Margaret’s splendid dream of a Scandinavian empire seemed, finally, about to be realized. The young king, a man Christian II., 1513-1523. of character and genius, had wide views and original ideas. Elected king of Denmark and Norway, he succeeded in subduing Sweden by force of arms ”

“ This union, till the expiration of four hundred and thirty-four years, was not dissolved. When Olaf V, seven years after, died in Falsterbo, both kingdoms elected Margaret their queen, though custom had not yet authorized the election of a female.
During the reign of this great Princess, who deservedly has been called the "Semiramis of the North," Denmark and Norway exercised in Europe an influence the effects of which were long felt throughout the Scandinavian countries with their vast extent and rival races. ”

“ 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 cousin, Eric of Pomerania, king of Norway. In 1396 homage was rendered to him in Denmark and Sweden likewise, Margaret reserving to herself the office of regent during his minority. To weld the united kingdoms still more closely together, Margaret summoned a congress of the three councils of state to Kalmar in June 1397 ”

“ In the year 1388 the people of Norway chose the great Queen Margaret of Denmark for their ruler, and from that date until 1905, more than five hundred years later, the realm of the Norsemen continued out of existence as a separate kingdom, it remaining attached to Denmark until 1814, when it came under the rule of the king of Sweden. In 1905 Norway broke these bonds and for the first time for centuries stood out alone as a fully separate realm. With a description of this peaceful revolution we may fitly close our sketches of the Scandinavian countries. ”

“ At this time Margaret, who had succeeded to her son Olaf, was sovereign of Denmark and Norway. To her the malcontents applied for aid, which she would not afford them, unless they acknowledged her for their queen. The condition was accepted: an army of Danes marched into Sweden, and was immediately joined by many of the nobles and clergy. The lower classes of the population—those who contributed little to the support of the state—were indifferent to the result, or if they had any bias, it was in favour of Albert—not from any attachment to him, but from dislike of the nobles. ”

“ This union afterwards gave birth to wars between Sweden and Denmark, without fulfilling the views of the projector.
Margaret is charged with only one political error, that of suffering Olaüs to grant the important duchy of Sleswick to the house of Holstein, whose enmity they wished thus to do away; but which proved a thorn in her side, till the death of its duke, when she by her vigorous measures drove his successors to submit to hold their possessions as a fief from Denmark. ”

“ Queen Margaret died at Flensborg, October 27, 1412, aged fifty-nine years, leaving the government in the weak hands of King Erik.
In the union Denmark soon assumed the position of the chief country. In Sweden and Norway the people com [Pg 227] plained that the revenues of the countries went to pay the expenses of the war with the Counts of Holstein about Schleswig, although this war, which lasted for twenty-six years, concerned only Denmark. The counts received aid from the Hansa towns, which hated King Erik, because he encouraged the Dutch trade with the northern countries. ”

“ But although Margaret carried out her father's last instructions faithfully, and asked his widow to remain at Court, the new King showed his stepmother scanty kindness, and Eleanor left France with few regrets. Another guest at Margaret of Egmont's wedding was Christina's cousin, Duke Adolf of Holstein, the King of Denmark's youngest brother. Most of his life had been spent in Germany, and he had taken part in the campaign of Mühlberg with his friend Albert of Brandenburg. Now, following the wild Marquis's example, he came to Brussels in October, 1548, and entered the Emperor's service. ”

“ This was not the way to acquire popularity: he and the whole Danish nation were soon detested; nor was the feeling diminished when the secret transpired of a projected union between the king’s son, Hako of Norway, and Margaret, the daughter of Valdemar. To prevent this obnoxious alliance, the nobles arose, imprisoned Magnus in the fortress of Calmar, called on Hako to assume the administration, and made him promise not only that he would renounce all connection with Denmark, but marry Elizabeth, sister of Henry count of Holstein. ”

“ But Francis had no intention of keeping the promises which had been wrung from him under compulsion, and he secretly resolved to break faith with the emperor as soon as he regained his liberty.
234 A few days after the Treaty of Madrid had been signed Margaret had the sorrow of losing her niece, Isabel, the young Queen of Denmark, who died near Ghent on the 19th of January, at the age of twenty-five, and was buried in that city. Her life with Christian II. had not been a happy one, and it was said that she died of a broken heart. ”

“ We know very little of her private character. Contemporary records are both scanty and hostile to a sovereign who squeezed the utmost out of the people. 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 (Copenhagen, 1897–1905) ; Erslev, Danmarks historie under dronning Margrethe (Copenhagen, 1882–1901) ; Hill, Margaret of Denmark (London, 1898) . ”

“ Margaret's chief object, however, was attained. On the 5th of March she returned to Malines with the Prince of Denmark and his little sisters. "Henceforth, Monseigneur," she wrote to Charles, "you will have to be both father and mother to these poor [Pg 50] children, and must treat them as your own." [58] The Regent herself nobly fulfilled the sacred trust committed to her by the dying Queen. From this time until her own death, four and a half years later, Isabella's children were the objects of her unceasing care, and lacked nothing that money could provide or love suggest. ”

“ On the 20th of July 1397 these delegates concluded what was called the union of Calmar. Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, while retaining their local laws and customs, were in all future time to be ruled by one king. When a king died he was to be succeeded by his eldest son; but if he were childless his successor was to be freely elected. In foreign affairs Scandinavia was always to act as a united country. Margaret had excellent intentions in devising this bold scheme, but the time was not ripe for so vast a change. ”

“ Queen Margaret was not cold in her grave before the kingdoms fell apart. Norway clung to Denmark, but Sweden went her own way. In the wars of two generations the Danish kings won back the Swedish crown and lost it, again and again, until in 1520 King Christian II clutched it for the last time, at the head of a conquering army. He celebrated his victory with a general amnesty, and bade the Swedish nobles to a great feast, held at the capital in November.
Christian is one of the unsolved riddles of history. ”

“ Would that I could persuade thee to fly, to take ship at Leith, and cross over to Denmark; my parents would harbour thee till the storm blew past."
Margaret was in deadly earnest, but her lover only laughed again, and assured her that she had been listening to idle tales. To him it seemed incredible that he could get into any trouble because he had lately held some intercourse with his father's old friend, the Earl of Bothwell, and had, at his request, carried back a sealed packet to give to one of the officials at the palace, on his return from a trip to France. ”

“ The said madame (Margaret) has written to inform us how the King of Denmark, [84] who, with the queen and his children, is, as we have already made known to your Majesty, in your Low Countries, has demanded of her three things. One that she should 202 be willing to render sufficient aid and assistance to enable him to reconquer his kingdom; a second, that she should grant a passport to one of his people whom he intends to despatch to your Majesty, and by him should write to you in his favour ”

“ Thus the three realms were united under Queen Margaret, for her son Olaf had died in 1387. The personal union before long became a constitutional one. In 1397 Margaret caused her grand-nephew Erik to be crowned King at Kalmar; and on that occasion there was concluded, by nobles representing the three kingdoms, the famous Union of Kalmar, by which Sweden, Norway, and Denmark were declared to be for ever united under one King, each retaining its own laws and customs. ”

“ In 1380 and 1387 the crowns of Norway and Denmark descended upon Queen Margaret, and soon she made her precious contribution to the innumerable swarm of instances that show with how little wisdom the world is ruled. She made the trade to Queen Margaret's monopoly, and its baneful effects. Greenland, Iceland, and the Færoe isles "a royal monopoly which could only be carried on in ships belonging to, or licensed by, the sovereign.... Under the monopoly of trade the Icelanders could have no vessels, and no object for sailing to Greenland ”

“ Christian then left the Netherlands for Saxony, saying that he intended to raise a fresh army and invade Denmark. "He is confident of recovering his kingdoms," wrote Margaret to the Emperor, "but my own impression is that his exploits will be confined to plundering and injuring your subjects." This prophecy was literally fulfilled, and during the next four years the peaceful folk in Friesland were harassed by turbulent freebooters in the King of Denmark's pay, while pirates ravaged the coasts of the North Sea, and led the Hanse cities to make severe reprisals on the Dutch ships. ”

“ Her son Olaf became king of Denmark upon Valdemar’s death, in 1375, and king of Norway upon that of Hakon, in 1380. Upon his death, in 1387, Margaret succeeded him, and two years later laid Sweden under her sceptre.
Albrecht was captured, but the Germans still were in possession of several Swedish strongholds. These yielded to Margaret, one after the other, except Stockholm. In the [Pg 101] capital, the German influx of soldiers and merchants had made the foreign population exceedingly large. They now acted as oppressors. ”

“ The Danish monarchy since the days of Margaret had continued to be purely elective; and a purely elective monarchy at that stage of the political development of Europe was a mischievous anomaly. It signified in the first place that the crown was not the highest power in the state, but was subject to the aristocratic Rigsraad, or council of state. The Rigsraad was the permanent owner of the realm and the crown-lands; the king was only their temporary administrator. If the king died before the election of his successor, the Rigsraad stepped into the king’s place. ”

“ One year after this important investiture, Olaf, whose constitution had always been feeble, paid the debt of nature. As he was only in his seventeenth year, he left no issue, and indeed was never married. Again, therefore, was the male line extinct; and Margaret only could rule, unless (what nobody contemplated) a foreign house should be called to the succession. The queen-mother had so obvious an interest in the event, that by some people she was suspected of having quietly removed her son to reign in his place. ”

“ But Queen Margaret was no weakling. She was a woman born to command, strong in mind and body, and more like a man than a woman. In Sweden, to which she quickly turned her attention, she had a bitter enemy in Duke Albrecht of Mecklenburg, who had been declared king of that country after the death of King Magnus, and who also claimed the crown of Norway, being remotely related to its royal house. ”

“ A woman of hard indomitable will, mistaking too often cruelty for firmness, using the pliancy and simplicity of her husband for mere party ends, outraging the national conscience by stirring up the Irish, the French, the Scots, against the peace of England, finally pitting the north against the south in a cruel and futile civil war, with nothing left of womanhood but the almost tigress heart of a baffled mother, this is the Queen Margaret as we know her in Shakespeare and in history. ”

“ In the first half of the story 'The Bonny Hind' comes very near to the fine Scandinavian ballad of 'Margaret,' as yet known to be preserved only in Färöe and Icelandic. The conclusions differ altogether. Margaret in the Färöe ballad, 'Margretu kvæði,' Færöiske Kvæder, Hammershaimb, No 18, is the only daughter of the Norwegian king Magnus, and has been put in a convent. After two or three months she longs to see her father's house again. On her way thither she is assaulted by a young noble with extreme violence: to whom she says ”

“ As soon as Margaret escaped to Scotland, far from being disheartened by her misfortunes, she began at once to concert measures for raising a new army and going into England again, with a view of making one more effort to recover her husband's throne. She knew, of course, that there was a large body of nobles, and of the people of the country, who were still faithful to her husband's cause, and who would be ready to rally round his standard whenever and wherever it should appear. ”