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Kalmar UnionKalmarunionen

EuropeHeartland today: Denmark, Sweden, and Norway

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A union of Denmark, Norway and Sweden under one monarch, agreed at Kalmar in 1397. Margaret I built it and Denmark led it. Swedish revolts weakened it from the 1430s, and Gustav Vasa's election as Sweden's king in 1523 ended it.

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Key events

  1. – Swedish nobles turn to Margaret, regent of Denmark and Norway, against King Albert; she defeats and captures him in 1389 and becomes regent of SwedenDisputed

    The dates differ by source. The 1911 Britannica says Albert was driven out in 1388 at the Swedes' own request. Britannica's biography has the Swedish nobles proclaim Margaret ruler in the Treaty of Dalaborg in 1388, her victory over Albert in 1389, and her regency in Sweden from 1389.

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  2. Erik of Pomerania is crowned common king of Denmark, Norway and Sweden at Kalmar, where a union act reserves each realm's own lawsDisputed

    The 1911 Britannica says Erik was elected common king at a Kalmar convention in 1397. Britannica's biography of Margaret says he was elected king of Denmark and Sweden in 1396 and crowned at Kalmar in 1397, and that historians still debate the union act, a plan that failed.

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  3. Margaret I dies at Flensburg, having ruled as the effective head of all three realms since Erik's election

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  4. – The Swedes first break away in 1434 under Engelbrekt; Erik of Pomerania is deposed in Denmark and Sweden in 1439 and in Norway in 1442

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  5. In Stockholm, after his coronation as king of Sweden, Christian II has more than 80 people executed, most of them leaders of the Swedish party

    Britannica gives more than 80 executions of Swedish party leaders, after they were accused of heresy. The 1911 Britannica says about 82 people died, and counts about twenty common citizens among them.

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  6. Swedes elect Gustav Vasa king at Strängnäs on 6 June, ending the Kalmar Union

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