| NORWAY | 511 |
chroniclers Haco IV.), who subjugated Iceland (1261), and died in the Orkneys after losing a battle at the mouth of the Clyde (1262). The national prosperity of Norway declined from this epoch. Wars with Denmark exhausted the people. A monopoly of trade in the hands of merchants of the Hanseatic league checked the national industry; and the plague known as the black death, which broke out in 1348, ravaged the kingdom for more than two years to an unparalleled extent, destroying two thirds of the population. The country fell into a decay from which it did not recover for centuries. Magnus Lagabæter (law reformer) reigned from 1263 to 1280, and was succeeded by his son Eric II. After the death of Haco VII. in 1319 two Swedish kings obtained the throne successively, Magnus VIII. of Norway and II. of Sweden, and Haco VIII. of Norway, reckoned by some as the sixth of the name. The kingdom lost its nationality. A province first of Sweden, and afterward of Denmark, the country even lost its proper language, which became thenceforth a corrupt mixture of those of its neighbors. Haco VIII. married the daughter of Waldemar of Denmark, and died in 1380. The crown descended to his infant son, Olaf III. of Denmark, from which period down to the year 1814 the two countries were united. Margaret of Denmark succeeded her son Olaf III., and, having reduced Sweden, framed the “union of Calmar” (1397), the object of which was to unite the three crowns. With this view it was stipulated that the subjects of each country should have equal rights under the common sovereign, and should be governed by their own laws. From this period, and in violation of the treaty, the Norwegians lost all their independence. The nobles, wholly supplanted by Danish immigrants, were amalgamated with the peasants, impoverished, exiled, or massacred. The union of Calmar was severed by Gustavus Vasa of Sweden in 1523; and during nearly two subsequent centuries Norway was scarcely more than a province of Denmark. In the reign of Christian I. the Shetland and Orkney islands were transferred to Scotland as part of the dowry (in mortgage of money) of Christian's daughter on her marriage with James III. of Scotland. They were never redeemed. Christian died in 1481. The reformation reached Norway first in 1536. Christian IV. (1588-1648) was more popular in Norway than any other Danish king. He visited the country more than 50 times; rebuilt Christiania (1624) and founded Christiansand (1641); and instituted a code of laws, many of which are still in force. After this reign Norway was treated as a conquered province rather than as a joint kingdom; and it was not until the beginning of the present century that a brighter day began to dawn. Frederick VI. founded the university of Christiania (1811), and became endeared to the Norwegians. Meanwhile the Swedish government had entered into the coalition against Napoleon (April 8, 1812); and by convention with Russia the possession of Norway was guaranteed to Sweden. England also entered into this guarantee, and the newly elected crown prince of Sweden, Bernadotte, according to engagements, took command of an army in Germany. After the battle of Leipsic (Oct. 16-19, 1813), the crown prince led the Swedish contingent into Holstein, with a view to compel the Danish government to cede Norway. A singular system of spoliation prevailed. Napoleon had on a former occasion signed away to Russia the Swedish province of Finland, which did not belong to him; Russia now indemnified Sweden by a present of Norway, to which she had no title. After the fall of Lübeck and some bloody actions in Holstein, the Danes were forced to the peace of Kiel (Jan. 14, 1814); and Norway was acknowledged as a dominion of Charles XIII. of Sweden. The people of Norway heard of this treaty with great indignation. The Danish crown prince, Christian, went at once to Norway, convoked a national diet in May at Eidsvold, near Christiania, and accepted the crown of Norway in independent sovereignty, and with it a constitution hastily drawn up on the spot. In July the Swedish crown prince, at the head of an army, invaded Norway by way of Frederikshald. A British fleet appeared off the coast, and blockaded the ports. Resistance was obviously a waste of life and property, and after a few unimportant actions the country submitted. The Danish prince abdicated his new throne; and on Aug. 14 an armistice and a convention were signed at Moss, uniting Norway and Sweden. The Norwegians obtained far better terms than had been designed by the allies originally, and the storthing formally ratified the union, Oct. 20. The constitution of Eidsvold, with few alterations, was accepted by the king, Nov. 4. On the death of Charles XIII., Bernadotte ascended the throne (1818) as Charles XIV. John. He made many unavailing attempts to reduce the country to closer submission to royal authority, and, in his desire to modify the constitution, tried in vain to win over a majority of the Norwegian storthing. He endeavored twice to obtain, in place of the suspending veto, an absolute one. In 1815 the storthing passed a resolution to abolish titles of nobility, a measure which the king refused to approve. The next two storthings passed the same resolution, notwithstanding an appeal of the king in person, and a strong military demonstration on the Swedish frontier; and the royal veto was thus rendered constitutionally null. Some years later the storthing resolved that the people of Norway should be styled citizens of that kingdom. Rarely indeed has a political assembly shown more jealousy of executive privileges. King Oscar I., who succeeded his father, March 8, 1844, was more conciliatory in his policy, and obtained a greater degree of
