A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Margaret (of Denmark)
At the age of six she was contracted to Haquin, king of Norway; but the Swedes, of whom his father Magnus was king, insisted on his renouncing the alliance; and to oblige them, he consented to demand Elizabeth of Holstein in marriage. This princess, however, though espoused by proxy, was not destined to replace Margaret. A storm drove her on the coast of Denmark, where she was detained by Waldemar, until his daughter was married to Haquin, in 1366.
Waldemar died 1375, leaving two daughters, his other children had died before him. Margaret was the younger; but her son Olaüs, was king of Norway, and, as grandson to Magnus, who had however been deposed, had some claims on the crown of Sweden. The eldest daughter Ingeburga, duchess of Mecklenburg, had also a son; but the rights of succession where then confused and of little certainty, and by means of Margaret the election was decided in favour of her son, then eleven years old, who was placed upon the throne, under her guidance as regent till he should be of age. Haquin died soon after. Olaüs died 1387, at the age of twenty-two; with him the male line was extinct, and custom had not yet authorized the election of a woman. Henry of Mecklenburg, her brother in law, omitted nothing that could forward his pretensions; but Margaret's genius and well-placed liberality, won over the bishops and the clergy, which was in effect gaining the greater part of the people, and she was unanimously elected to the crown of Denmark. But her ambition grasped at that of Norway also; she sent deputies to solicit the states, gained over the chief people by money, and found means to render herself mistress of the army and garrisons, so that, had the nation been otherwise disposed, she would in the end have succeeded; but she gained them over to her measures as easily as she had those of Denmark. The Norwegians, perceiving that the succession was in danger of being extinct, entreated her to secure it by an advantageous marriage, but she received the proposal coldly. To satisfy, however, their desire, she consented to appoint a successor; but fixed on one so young, that she should have full time to satiate her ambition, before he could be of age to take any share in the government, yet, as being the true heir, and grandson of her sister, she contrived to make it appear more their choice than her own.
She recommended herself so strongly to the Swedes, who were oppressed by their own king Albert, who had gone to war with her, that they renounced their allegiance to that prince and made her a solemn tender of their crown, thinking that her good sense would set bounds to her ambition, and prevent any encroachment on their rights. She accepted the offer, marched to their assistance, and defeated Albert, who was deposed after a war of seven years in 1388; and obliged him, after a seven years imprisonment, and solemn renunciation of his crown, to retire to the dominions of his brother the duke of Mecklenburg. On this revolution in Sweden, Margaret assumed the reins of government, and was distinguished by the appellation of the Semiramis of the North.
In 1395 she associated with her in the three elective kingdoms her great nephew Eric, duke of Pomerania. She governed with absolute authority, and when reminded of her oaths, by the nobility, who added, "they had the records of it;" she replied, "I advise you to keep them carefully; as I shall keep the castles and cities of my kingdom, and all the rights belonging to my dignity."
"This queen," says a French author, "was magnificent in her pleasures, grand in her projects, brilliant in her court. She equalled, in the quickness and extent of her genius, the most famous politicians. The king Waldemar discovering in her, while yet a child, a surprising elevation of soul and mental resources, said that Nature had been deceived in forming her, and instead of a woman had made a hero."
Though merciful, she laid the wisest regulations for strict justice, and to prevent offenders being screened from punishment. Private oppressions and abuses she did away, and decreed that all manner of assistance should be given to those who were thrown on their coasts by shipwreck or misfortune; for which acts of humanity, rewards were provided by law.—She renewed the ancient laws which had slept, and exerted all her powers to suppress piracies, in her kingdoms, and made such regulations as laid the foundations for future commerce: it was in her reign that we first meet with the mention in history of the copper mines of Sweden.
At the treaty of Calmar, concluded in 1397, she endeavoured to make the union of the three kingdoms perpetual, and introduced Eric separately to all the deputies. She represented to them, with abundance of eloquence and address, the advantages that would accrue from the consolidation of the three nations into one kingdom. That it would put an end to the frequent wars that desolated them; render them entire masters of the commerce of the Baltic; keep in awe the Hanse towns, grown powerful by the divisions of her people; and acquire for them, all the conveniences which result from a perfect conformity of customs, laws and interest. The majesty of her person, the strength of her arguments, and the sweetness of her eloquence gained over the deputies. They approved and established a fundamental law, which was received by the three nations, and solemnly confirmed by oath. This was the law so celebrated in the north, under the name of the Union of Calmar; which afterwards only served to shew how impotent are human wishes, though conceived with wisdom, and forwarded with address. 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.
Distinguished at the same time for moderation, solid judgement, enterprising and persevering ambition, Margaret receives different characters from the Danish and Swedish historians.—The latter were prejudiced against her, because she abridged the power of their nobles, and favoured the clergy; but she was exceeded by none in prudence, policy and true magnanimity.