MARGARET, sometimes called the "Northern Semiramis," queen of the triple Scan dinavian kingdom of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, was the second daughter of Val demar III., king of Denmark, and wife of Hakon VIII., king of Norway. Margaret WWI born in 1353; and on the death of her father, without direct male heirs, in 1375, the Danish nobles, passing over the son of Valdemar's eldest daughter, Ingeborg of Meck lenburg, offered the crown to Margaret and her husband in trust for their infant son Olaf. By the death of Hakou in 1380, Margaret became sole guardian of the young prince, who died at the age of 17 in 1387; and such was the discretion with which she had conducted the government during her sole regency, that the estates of both king doms concurred in electing her as their joint sovereign ruler. Having received the crown at their hands, she convoked a landthing , in which she announced that, with the concurrence of her subjects, she would nominate her grand-nephew, Eric of Pomerania, as her successor; and although, owing to Eric's infancy at the time, and his subsequent incapacity, the real power rested in the hands of 3Iargaret, she contented herself from that time with the title of "Margaret, by the grace of God, daughter of Valdemar, king of Denmark." At the moment that Margaret was cementing the union of Norway and Denmark, the condition of affairs in Sweden opened the way for a further extension of her power; for the Swedish king, Albert of Mecklenburg, had so thoroughly alienated the affections of his subjects, that the nobles, declaring the throne vacant, offered to acknowledge Margaret as their ruler. The queen lost no time in sending an army into
Sweden to support her pretensions, and defeated the king's German troops at Leaby, where Albert and his son Eric fell into her hands. Albert remained in prison seven years, during which time Margaret succeeded in wholly subjugating Sweden; and in 1397 she made her triumphal entry into Stockholm, with her nephew Eric, who shortly afterwards was, in his 16th year, crowned king of the three Sc.andinavian kingdoms. On this occasion, 3Iargaret brought forward the memorable act of union, which she had drawn up with her own hand, and to which were appended the signatures of seven teen of the principal men in the three kingdoms. By this remarkable act, known as the union of Calmar, from the place at which it was signed and first promulgated, it was stipulated that the three kingdoms should remain forever at peace under one king, retaining their own laws and customs; and that, at the death of the sovereign, if he left several sons, one of their number should be chosen by the combined estates of the three realms, who were also to elect a new king in the event of the deceased monarch having died childless. This utopian scheme utterly broke down at the death of Margaret, which took place in 1412.