orders that all the frontier-castles should be surrendered to her,' she had him and his son shut up in prison within the tower of Lindholm castle, where they were left for seven years to repent of their rudeness to her.

After these events nearly all the castles of Sweden which were held by the royal troops opened their gates to her. Stockholm, the chief city, however, held out year after year, until she agreed to release her prisoners on the payment of a ransom. The Swedes themselves showed no wish to oppose the Queen, and would gladly have given Stockholm into her hands, but the city was held by a band of Germans in the service of Albert, who would not submit. These men brought great misery on the land by engaging the help of a large number of their countrymen, known as the Vitalen, or Victualling Brotherhood, because their chief duty was to keep the town and fortress of Stockholm well supplied with victuals. They cared very little how they got them, or how heavily they taxed the poor country people to furnish what they needed.

King Albert and his son were kept in prison till 1395, when, in accordance with a treaty made with Queen Margaret on their behalf by the Hanse Leaguers and other German powers, they were released on the payment of 60,000 marks-silver. The Hansers who had advanced this sum had taken Stockholm as a security for three years, at the end of which time the city was to be given up to the Queen if the money were not paid back to them. It is said that the women of Mecklenburg gave up all their gold and silver ornaments to enable the deposed king to repay the ransom, but Albert, with his usual want of principle, spent the money on his own pleasures, and left Stockholm to fall into Margaret's hands. In the year 1398 she made a solemn entry into the Swedish capital, accompanied by her young nephew, Erik of Pomerania, who was then presented to the people as their future king. Shortly afterwards, Erik was crowned with great state at Calmar by the

1 "And thus," says the chronicler who relates the circumstance, "was King Albert tortured in one night out of his two castles of Axelwald and Rummelberg, and would by the like means have been robbed of a third, Orebro, if the governor, who was a German, had not defied Queen Margaret's power and kept himself and his men shut up in the fort

Archbishops of Lund and Upsala, and proclaimed King of the three northern monarchies, and on this occasion the remarkable Act, known as the Calmar Act of Union, was first made known to the Scandinavian peoples. By this Act, which had been drawn up at Calmar in 1397, and signed by the Queen and seventeen deputies of the several councils of state of the three northern kingdoms, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway were declared to be for ever united, and to be ruled over by one king only, while each state was to retain its own laws, rights, and usages. The king of this triple monarchy was to be chosen conjointly by all three nations, but nothing was said in regard to the manner in which the election to the throne was to be carried on, and hence from the very first this scheme for Scandinavian unity was beset with doubts and difficulties, which could not fail to create troubles in the future.1

Margaret and Erik, 1397-1412.-After the union of the three northern kingdoms had been settled, Queen Margaret withdrew more and more from public affairs, as if to show that Erik, since his coronation in 1397, had become sole King of the Scandinavian lands. But in fact she was as much the actual sovereign as ever, for Erik's incapacity forced her to retain her hold upon the regal power. As long as she lived, the people scarcely knew how feeble a ruler she had given them in the person of this young German prince, for she was almost always at hand to advise and control him, and he was thus generally prevented from showing his want of talent for governing, or commanding troops. Erik was not without a certain kind of ability, and he was learned and accomplished for the age in which he lived, but he seems to have been wholly wanting in good sense, and to

1 If Margaret could have been certain of being followed on the throne by rulers as able and just as she had been, this Act of the Union of Calmar might have worked for the good of the three kingdoms. For it was quite true, as the Queen said, that each one alone was a poor weak state, open to danger from every side, but that the three united would make a monarchy, strong enough to defy the attacks and schemes of the Hanse traders and all foes from the side of Germany, and would keep the Baltic clear of danger from foreigners. There was however no ruler who came after Queen Margaret equal to her, as there had been none before her to be compared

to her.

have been very vain, headstrong, and obstinate, besides which his wonderful fortune in being chosen to rule over three kingdoms made him conceited and haughty, while at the same time he was ungrateful to her to whom he owed everything. In spite of all her watchfulness he was often led by his own wilfulness to betray his incapacity to his subjects, and shortly before Margaret's death in 1412, he gave proof of his injustice, and his indifference to her feelings, by ordering the execution of her intimate friend and counsellor, Abraham Brodersen, on pretence that it was owing to this nobleman's fault that the war, which Erik was then carrying on against the Counts of Holstein, had proved unsuccessful.

This act must have shown the Queen how unworthy her nephew was of the confidence and affection she had lavished upon him, and according to some authorities it gave her a shock from which she never recovered. The two years that passed between Brodersen's execution and Margaret's death were marked by great disturbances in Denmark, where the people were heavily taxed to keep up the war which Erik was waging against Holstein, and which had broken out soon after the death of the former count, Gerhard VI., to whom Queen Margaret had in earlier times ceded the duchy of Slesvig. This prince had fallen in an attack against the Ditmarshers in 1402, leaving three infant sons, the Counts Henrik, Adolf, and Gerhard, and the widowed countess, Elizabeth of Holstein, had at first sought help from Margaret against her husband's brother, Bishop Henrik of Osnabrück, but after a time, fearing that the Danish Queen might keep the strongholds in Slesvig which had been garrisoned with Danes, she made friends with her brother-in-law. Upon this a war soon broke out, and it was in the midst of these troubles that Margaret, seeing how ill King Erik understood how to conduct public affairs in times of difficulty, resolved to try to bring about a peace with Holstein. Accordingly, in the spring of the year 1412, she left Sjælland in her ship, "Trinity," and sailing to the coast of Slesvig, invited the Countess Elizabeth to confer with her.

Three days after these royal ladies had settled the terms of an agreement which it was hoped would restore quiet to

the provinces, Margaret died suddenly at the age of sixtythree, and almost before the sound of her funeral bells ceased, the three kingdoms had begun to resound with the noise of active preparations for war.

"Death," says a Swedish writer, "made an end of Queen Margaret's life, but it could not make an end of her fame, which will endure through all ages. Under her hands the three kingdoms enjoyed a degree of strength and order, to which they had long been strangers before her time, and which neither of the three regained till long after her."

CHAPTER XIV.

DENMARK FROM 1412 TO 1448.

Erik rules alone-Trouble of people at loss of Margaret; her tact; her difficulties-Erik's incompetency; makes war for twenty-five years on Holstein; rest of monarchy neglected; his want of success-Men of Femern; decision of Sigismund, Erik's cousin-Erik's pilgrimage; capture-Philippa of England; her abilities; the bad coinage-Close of Holstein War-Engelbrechtsson; the rebellion; his conduct to the Bishops-Nobles side with Erik-Karl Knudsson-Erik's deposition; his piracy; his return to Germany-Christopher of Bavaria; his claims; nis character; proclaimed King of Norway and Sweden; his conduct to Knudsson-his Queen Dorothea; their stay in Stockholm-Christopher's troubles; his easy temper-A revolt in Jutland; peasants defeatedChristopher's schemes for raising money; his death-Search for a new king-Christian of Oldenburg-Queen Dorothea's dowry; what became of her-Sweden under Christopher and Karl Knudsson-Christopher's conduct to the Swedish people-Trial of Swedish heretics- Karl crowned king of Sweden, and soon afterwards made king of Norway; frequently deposed-Alternation of fortune-Enemies of Karl; Karl in banishment Christian I. of Denmark made king of Sweden; Christian's defeat-Karl dies king, and appoints Sten Sture marshal at his death; Sten Sture's successful rule of Sweden- Prosperity of country-Founding of Universities at Upsala and Copenhagen.

PART I.

ERIK LOSES THRee crowNS.

Erik, 1412-1439.-THE news of Queen Margaret's death spread like wild-fire through the three Northern kingdoms. Everywhere men were disturbed when they thought of the future; for, the little that was known of Erik's character and conduct was fitted to excite fear and dislike of him