ERIC, the name of several Danish and Swedish kings. ERIC VII., King of Denmark; born in 1382, the son of Duke Wratislaw of Pomerania, was selected as her successor by Queen Margaret of Den mark, and in 1412 mounted the throne of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, united by the treaty of Calmar. Cruel and cowardly in character, he lost Sweden in 1437 through a revolt of the peasants of Dalecarlia, and in 1439 was deposed also in Denmark. He died in Riigenwald in 1459. ERIC IX., the Saint, became King of Sweden in 1155, did much to extend Christianity in his dominions, and to improve the laws, and fell in battle with the Danes in 1160. ERIC XIV., the last of the name who reigned in Sweden, suc ceeded in 1560 to the throne of his father, the great Gustavus Vasa, and at once began to exhibit the folly that disgraced his reign. His flighty matrimonial schemes reached even Elizabeth of Eng land, till at length (1567) his roving fancy found rest in the love of a Swedish peasant-girl, who acquired an influence over him which was ascribed by the superstitious to witchcraft. His capri
cious cruelties and the disastrous wars alienated his subjects, who threw off their allegiance in 1568, and elected his brother John to the throne. In 1577 he ended his miserable life by a cup of poison. His story has been worked into dramatic form by Swedish poets; in Ger man by Kruse in his tragedy, "King Erich" (1871).
ERICA (-ri'kR), the heath, a large genus of branched rigid shrubs, type of the natural order Ericacex, most of which are natives of south Africa, a few being found in Europe and Asia. The leaves are narrow and rigid, the flowers are globose or tubular, and four-lobed. Five species are found in Great Britain.