The Kalmar Union or Union of Kalmaris was a state that brought together the
Scandinavian nations from 1397 to 1523. It was a personal union that joined
under a single monarch the three kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway,
together with Norway's overseas dependencies. The Union was not quite
continuous; there were several short interruptions. Legally the countries
remained separate sovereign states, but with their domestic and foreign policies
being directed by a common monarch. One main impetus for its formation was
to block German expansion northward into the Baltic region. The main reason for
its failure to survive was the perpetual struggle between the monarch, who wanted
a strong unified state, and the Swedish and Danish nobility which did not.
Diverging interests gave rise to a conflict that would hamper the union in
several intervals from the 1430s until its definitive breakup in 1523 when
Gustav Vasa became king of Sweden. Norway continued to remain a part of the
realm of Denmark–Norway under the Oldenburg dynasty for nearly three
centuries until its dissolution in 1814. In 1397, the land area of the union was
as large as 3,000,000 square kilometres under the rule of Margaret I of Denmark.
Inception The union was the work of Scandinavian
aristocracy wishing to counter the influence of the Hanseatic League.
Margaret, a daughter of King Valdemar IV of Denmark, married King Haakon VI of
Norway and Sweden, who was the son of King Magnus IV of Sweden, Norway and
Scania. Margaret succeeded in having her son Olav recognized as heir to the
throne of Denmark. In 1376 Olav inherited the crown of Denmark from his
maternal grandfather as King Oluf III, with his mother as guardian; when Haakon
VI died in 1380, Olaf also inherited the crown of Norway. The two kingdoms were
united in a personal union under a child king, with the king's mother as his
guardian; later, Olav had designs on the throne of Sweden from 1385 until 1387.
Olav died in 1387, before he came of age and could take over the government, so
Margaret made the Danish Council of the Realm elect her as regent of Denmark,
but she did not attempt to assume the title of queen. On 2 February the next
year, she was also recognized as regent of Norway. She adopted her sister's
grandson Bogislav, a son of Prince Vartislav of Pomerania, and gave him the
more Nordic name Erik, and manoeuvred to have the Norwegian Council recognize him
as heir to the throne of Norway, in spite of his not being first in the line
of succession, and he was installed as king of Norway in 1389, still with
Margaret as his guardian. In Sweden, this was a time of conflict between King
Albert of Mecklenburg and leaders of the nobility; Albert's enemies in 1388
elected Margaret as regent in the parts of Sweden that they controlled, and
promised to assist her in conquering the rest of the country. Their common enemy
was the Hanseatic League and the growing German influence over the Scandinavian
economy. After Danish and Swedish troops in 1389 defeated the Swedish king,
Albert of Mecklenburg, and he subsequently failed to pay the required
tribute of 60,000 silver marks within three years after his release, her
position in Sweden was secured. The three Nordic kingdoms were united under
a common regent, and Margaret promised to protect the political influence and
privileges of the nobility under the union; her grandnephew Erik, already
king of Norway since 1389, succeeded to the thrones of Denmark and Sweden in
1396. The Nordic union was in a way formalized
on 17 June 1397 by the Treaty of Kalmar, signed in the Swedish castle of Kalmar
on Sweden's south-east coast, which in medieval times was close to the Danish
border. The treaty stipulated an eternal union of the three realms under one
king, who was to be chosen among the sons of the deceased king; they were to
be governed separately, together with the respective councils, and according
to their ancient laws, but foreign policy was to be conducted by the king.
It has been doubted that several of the signatories were personally present, and
it has been argued that the Treaty was only a draft document; it appears that
the treaty was never ratified by "constitutional" bodies of the three
kingdoms. The short-term effects of the Treaty
were achieved anyway, independently of whether the Treaty was binding or not,
because the stipulations as to day-to-day governmental operations were
mostly matters which were in the power of the king to decide; moreover, until
Eric was deposed in the late 1430s, he made decisions as to each of the
kingdoms in accordance with the treaty intentions. Long-term stipulations, such
as what should happen when the individual monarch ceases to reign and a
new monarch succeeds, were not among those achieved without problems, as
subsequent events show during the next 130 years. At each junction,
installation of a new monarch tended to mean a break-up of the union for a
while, though for the moment, Eric of Pomerania became unanimously the monarch
of all three kingdoms. At Kalmar, the 15-year-old Eric of Pomerania was
crowned king of all three kingdoms by the archbishops of Denmark and Sweden,
but Margaret managed to remain in control until her death in 1412.
It is said that contemporaries of the Union would not recognize the
historiographic term, "Union of Kalmar"—that they just understood that
much of the time, the three kingdoms shared a common king. While the term
meaning "Treaty of Kalmar" was known already at the time, the term "Union of
Kalmar" cannot be found in any contemporary documents. Presumably, the
term union was coined for this only by historians writing centuries later.
Conflict The Swedes were not happy with the
Danes' frequent wars on Schleswig, Holstein, Mecklenburg, and Pomerania,
which were a disturbance to Swedish exports to the European continent.
Furthermore, the centralization of government in Denmark raised suspicions.
The Swedish Privy Council wanted to retain a fair degree of self-government.
The unity of the union eroded after the Danish defeat against the German
Hanseatic League in the 1430s, even to the point of armed rebellion, leading to
the expulsion of Danish forces from Sweden. Erik was deposed as the union
king and was succeeded by his nephew, the childless Christopher of Bavaria. In
the power vacuum that arose following Christopher's death, Sweden elected
Charles VIII king with the intent to reestablish the union under a Swedish
king. Charles was elected king of Norway in the following year, but the counts of
Holstein were more influential than the Swedes and the Norwegians together, and
made the Danish Privy Council appoint Christian I of Oldenburg as king. During
the next seven decades struggle for power and the wars between Sweden and
Denmark would dominate the union. After the briefly successful reconquest
of Sweden by Christian II and the subsequent Stockholm bloodbath in 1520,
the Swedes rose in yet another rebellion which ousted the Danish forces once
again in 1521, though Stockholm did not surrender until the summer of 1523.
While independence was being reclaimed, the election of King Gustav of the Vasa
at Strängnäs on 6 June 1523, has been seen as a formal declaration of
independence, and as the de facto end of a union that had lost all long-term
support in Sweden. On that date Gustav Vasa was hailed as King, though he was
not crowned until 1528. In 1983, June 6 became the National Day of Sweden.
Dissolution One of the last structures of the Kalmar
Union, or, rather, medieval separateness, remained until 1536 when
the Danish Privy Council, in the aftermath of a civil war, unilaterally
declared Norway to be a Danish province, without consulting their Norwegian
colleagues. Although the Norwegian council never
recognized the declaration formally, and Norway kept some separate institutions
and its legal system, this had the practical effect that the Norwegian
possessions of Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands came under direct
control of the crown. In principle this meant the Norwegian crown, but under the
Danish union this resulted in them henceforth being controlled from Denmark
and not from Norway. In the 1814 treaty of Kiel, the king of
Denmark–Norway was forced to cede mainland Norway to the king of Sweden,
Charles XIII. Norway, led by the viceroy Prince Christian Frederick, objected to
the terms of the treaty. A constitutional assembly declared
Norwegian independence, adopted a liberal constitution, and elected
Christian Frederick king. After a brief war with Sweden the peace terms of the
Convention of Moss recognized Norwegian independence, but forced Norway to
accept a personal union with Sweden. In the middle of the 19th century, many
intellectuals joined the Scandinavist movement, which promoted closer contacts
between the three countries. At the time, the union between Sweden and
Norway under one monarch, together with the fact that King Frederick VII of
Denmark had no male heir, gave rise to the idea of reuniting the countries of
the Kalmar Union, except for Finland, which was annexed by the Russian Empire
in 1809-1917. In 1953–55 the former territories of the
Kalmar Union, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, formed the Nordic
Council, a discussion forum for members of the parliaments. In addition, two
important treaties were agreed in 1955. First, the Nordic countries were formed
as a passport-free zone which was somewhat similar to modern day Schengen
treaty. Also, citizens of the Nordic countries were allowed to live and work
in any member state without limitation. These treaties still exist but their
importance has waned due to the EU/EEA and Schengen. The background for the
treaties was Sweden's need of labour for her fast-growing industry in the
fifties. See also
List of Kalmar Union monarchs Grand Duchy of Finland
Scandinavian royal lineage chart for the time around the founding of the Kalmar
Union Union between Sweden and Norway
Nordic countries Scandinavism
References and notes Further reading
Gustafsson, Harald. "A State that Failed?" Scandinavian Journal of History
32#3 pp 205–220 online; general overview of the Union
Helle, Knut, ed. The Cambridge History of Scandinavia, Volume 1: Prehistory to
1520 excerpt and text search Imsen, Steinar. "The Union of Calmar:
Northern Great Power or Northern German Outpost?" in Christopher Ocker, ed.
Politics and Reformations: Communities, Polities, Nations, and Empires pp 471–90
online Kirby, David. Northern Europe in the
Early Modern Period. The Baltic World 1492–1772
Roberts, Michael. The Early Vasas: A History of Sweden 1523–1611
External links The Kalmar Union - Maps of the Kalmar
Union