Kalmar Union Kalmarunionen (Danish)/(Norwegian)/(Swedish) Kalmarin unioni (Finnish) Kalmarsambandið (Icelandic) Kalmarsamveldið (Faroese) Unio Calmariensis (Latin)
Personal union
←   ←   ← 1397–1523 →   →
Flag Coat of arms
The Kalmar Union at the beginning of the 16th century, superimposed over modern European borders
Capital	Copenhagen
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Government	Feudal monarchies in personal union
Regent
- 1387–1412 (Denmark)    1388–1389 (Norway)    1389–1412 (Sweden)	Margaret Valdemarsdatter
- 1389–1442 (Norway)    1396–1439 (Sweden)    1396–1439 (Denmark)	Eric of Pomeraniaa
- 1481–1513 (Denmark)    1483–1513 (Norway)    1497–1501 (Sweden)	John of Denmark
- 1513–23 (Den. & Nor.b)    1520–21 (Sweden)	Christian II
- 1524–33	Frederick I
Legislature	Riksråd and Herredag (one in each kingdom)
Historical era	Late Middle Ages
- Margaret I recognized as regent of Denmark	1387
- Established	June 17, 1397
- Engelbrekt rebellion	1434–36
- Stockholm Bloodbath	November 1520
- Gustav Vasa elected King of Sweden	June 6, 1523
- Danish Rigsråd annexes Norway	1523
- Treaty of Kiel	January 14, 1814
Today part of	Denmark  Faroe Islands  Germany  Greenland  Iceland  Norway  Sweden  United Kingdom (in part)  Finland  Russia (in part)  Åland Islands
a: Erik VII of Denmark, Eirik III of Norway, Eric XIII of Sweden b: Christian II was Regent of Norway from 1506

The Kalmar Union (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish: Kalmarunionen Latin: Unio Calmariensis) is a historiographical term meaning a series of personal unions (1397–1523) that united the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway (then including Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and, prior to their annexation by Scotland in 1471, Shetland and Orkney), and Sweden (then including Finland) under a single monarch, though intermittently and with a population fewer than 3 million.^[1]

The countries had not given up their sovereignty or even their independence, but in practice, they were not autonomous, the common monarch holding sovereignty and, in practice, leading foreign policy; diverging interests (especially the Swedish nobility's dissatisfaction over the dominant role played by Denmark and Holstein) gave rise to a conflict that would hamper the union in several intervals from the 1430s until its breakup in 1523 when Gustav Vasa became king of Sweden.

Norway and its overseas dependencies continued to remain a part of the realm of Denmark–Norway under the Oldenburg dynasty for nearly three centuries until its dissolution in 1814.

Inception[link]

The Letter of Union from July 1397. It never properly entered into force.

History of Scandinavia
Stone Age Bronze Age Pre-Roman Iron Age Roman Iron Age Germanic Iron Age Barbarian Invasions Viking Age Christianization Kalmar Union Great Northern War Monetary Union Defence Union Nordic Council

The union was the work of Queen Margaret I of Denmark (1353–1412), a daughter of King Valdemar IV of Denmark. At the age of ten, she married King Haakon VI of Norway and Sweden, who was the son of King Magnus IV of Sweden and Norway. 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, Olav 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. Olav also had designs on the throne of Sweden (in opposition to Albert of Mecklenburg) from 1385 until 1387.

A ship flag from this period, showing coats of arms from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Pomerania

An artist's impression of the crowning of Eric of Pomerania as union king on June 17, 1397

Royal seal of Eric of Pomerania (1398)^[2]

Olav died in 1387, before he came of age and could take over the government. 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 February 2 the next year (1388), 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. She manoeuvred to have the Norwegian Council recognize him as heir to the throne of Norway,^[3] 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. Albrecht'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.^[4] 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,^[5] her position in Sweden was secured. The three Nordic kingdoms were united under a common regent. 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 June 17, 1397 by the Treaty of Kalmar, signed in the Swedish castle of Kalmar, on Sweden's south-east coast, in medieval times 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 (for example, the entire Norwegian "delegation"), 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. And, 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. 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 historiographical 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", the pact, 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[link]

King Christian II

The Swedes were not happy with the Danes' frequent wars on Schleswig, Holstein, Mecklenburg, and Pomerania, which were a disturbance to Swedish exports (notably iron) 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 in the 1430s, even to the point of armed rebellion (the Engelbrecht rebellion), leading to the expulsion of Danish forces from Sweden. Erik was deposed (1438–39) as the union king and was succeeded by the childless Christopher of Bavaria. In the power vacuum that arose following Christopher's death (1448), Sweden elected Charles VIII king with the intent to reestablish the union under a Swedish crown. 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 June 6, 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. The day Gustav Vasa was hailed as King (he was not crowned until 1528 though) would become, in 1983, the National Day of Sweden.

Final dissolution[link]

One of 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,^[6] without consulting their Norwegian colleagues.

Although the Norwegian council never recognized the declaration formally, and Norway kept some separate institutions and its legal system,^[6] 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 (the monarch lived in Denmark) this meant that they were henceforth 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.^{[citation needed]}

In fiction[link]

In the 1632 series of alternate history novels, the Union of Kalmar is reunited by Gustav Adolf, King of Sweden, in 1634.

See also[link]

• 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

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• The Kalmar Union - Maps of the Kalmar Union

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Coordinates: 55°40′N 12°34′E / 55.667°N 12.567°E / 55.667; 12.567

Kalmar
Storgatan in Kalmar
Coat of arms
Kalmar
Coordinates: 56°40′N 16°22′E / 56.667°N 16.367°E / 56.667; 16.367Coordinates: 56°40′N 16°22′E / 56.667°N 16.367°E / 56.667; 16.367
Country	Sweden
Province	Småland
County	Kalmar County
Municipality	Kalmar Municipality
Charter	1100
Area[1]
• Total	19.50 km2 (7.53 sq mi)
Population (31 December 2010)[1]
• Total	36,392
• Density	1,866/km2 (4,830/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Website	http://www.kalmar.se/

Kalmar is a city in Småland in the south-east of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 36,392 inhabitants in 2010^[1] and is the seat of Kalmar Municipality. It is also the capital of Kalmar County, which comprises 12 municipalities with a total of 233,090 inhabitants (2011).

From the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries, Kalmar was one of Sweden's most important cities. Between 1602 and 1913 it was the episcopal see of Kalmar Diocese, with a bishop, and the Kalmar Cathedral from 1702 is still a fine example of classicistic architecture. It became a fortified city, with the still mighty Kalmar Castle as the center. After the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, Kalmar's importance diminished, until the industry sector was initiated in the 19th century. The city is home to parts of Linnaeus University.

Geographically Kalmar is the main route to the island of Öland thanks to the Öland Bridge.

History[link]

The area around Kalmar has been inhabited since ancient times. Diggings have found traces of stone age gravefields. The oldest sources of there being a town are however from the 11th century. According to a medieval folk tale, the Norwegian patron Saint Olav had his ships moved to Kalmar. The oldest city seal of Kalmar is from somewhere between 1255–1267, making it the oldest known city seal in Scandinavia.

In the 12th century the first foundations of a castle were established, with the construction of a round tower for guard and lookout. The tower was continuously expanded on in 13th century, and as such, Queen Margaret called an assembly there between head of states of Sweden and Norway, and on July 13, 1397, the Kalmar Union treaty was signed, which would last until 1523. Kalmar's strategic location, near the Danish border (at the time the Scanian lands, i.e. the provinces of Blekinge, Halland and Scania, were part of Denmark), and its harbour and merchancy, also involved it into several feuds. There are two events independently labelled Kalmar bloodbath: The first in 1505, when King John of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden let execute the mayor and city council of Kalmar; the second in 1599 by command of Duke Charles, later to became King Charles IX of Sweden.

Kalmar Castle today

In the 1540s, first King Gustav Vasa, and later his sons Erik XIV of Sweden and John III of Sweden would organize a rebuilding of the castle into the magnificent Renaissance castle it is today.

Kalmar became a diocese in 1602, a position it held until 1903. In 1634, Kalmar County was founded, with Kalmar as the natural capital. In 1660, the Kalmar Cathedral was begun by drawings of Nicodemus Tessin the Elder. It would be inaugurated in 1703.

In 1611-1613, it suffered in the Kalmar War, which began with a Danish siege of Kalmar Castle. 1611 is mentioned as the darkest year of Kalmar's history, but by no means the only dark year; much blood has been shed in the vicinity of the castle. The last was during the Scanian War in the 1670s, leading its sieges to a total of 22—yet, the castle was never taken.

After the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, the strategical importance of Kalmar gradually diminished as the borders were drawn to a southern latitude. In 1689, the King established his main naval base south in Karlskrona and Kalmar lost its status as one of Sweden's main military outposts.

Kalmar Cathedral[link]

Kalmar Cathedral today

The new city of Kalmar built on Kvarnholmen around the mid-1600s. The transfer from the old town was largely completed 1658th The new, fortified town was planned after the current renaissance ideals. According to this pattern were placed church and town hall across from each other at a major square Stortorget Kalmar. The cathedral was built, designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder and is one of the foremost examples of barockklassicismens breakthrough in Sweden.Kalmar Cathedral drawing series reflects the complex interaction between the new style, liturgical considerations, tradition and the fortress-city requirements. The work began in 1660, but it was interrupted on several occasions, including when the Scanian War( Skånska kriget 1675-1679 ) raged. Construction resumed, and Kalmar Cathedral stood finished in 1703.

Today[link]

In more recent times, Kalmar has been an industrial city with Kalmar Verkstad making steam engines, trains and large machinery, later bought by Bombardier who closed the factory in 2005. A shipyard, Kalmar Varv, was founded in 1679 and closed 1981. Volvo opened their Kalmar factory for building cars i.e. 264, 740, 760, 960 in 1974, but closed it 1994 and due to further relocation of industry jobs in the 90s and 00s around 2000 industrial jobs were lost. Kalmar has a university with over 9,000 students and a research facility for Telia Sonera.

Kalmar has embarked on a comprehensive program to reduce fossil fuel use. A local trucking firm, which employs nearly 450 people, has installed computers that track fuel efficiency and have cut diesel use by 10 percent, paying off the cost of the devices in just a year. The company is now looking to fuel its future fleet with biodiesel.^[2]

A large wood pulp plant harnesses the steam and hot water it once released as waste to provide heating, through below-ground pipes, and generates enough electricity to power its own operations and 20,000 homes.^[2]

Bicycle lanes are common, and cars line up at Kalmar city's public biogas pump. Building codes now require thermal insulation and efficient windows for new construction or retrofits. Street lights use low-energy sodium bulbs, and car dealers promote fuel-efficient and hybrid vehicles.^[2]

In 2011 Guldfågeln Arena was intiated. It's the new stadium of the football team of the city, Kalmar FF. The capacity of the stadium is 12 000 people and it's currently one of the newest stadiums in Sweden. The stadium was also built to host concerts and did so in the summer of 2011 when Swedish artists Håkan Hellström and The Ark performed.

Gallery[link]

• KalmarCastle.JPG

  Scenic photograph of Kalmar Castle in the summer sun

• Kalmar Dahlberg.jpg

  Engraving from Suecia antiqua et hodierna, circa 1700

• 

  In 1972, the 6 km (4 mi) long Öland bridge was built from Kalmar to the town of Färjestaden on Öland

Sports[link]

The following sports clubs are located in Kalmar:

• Kalmar FF
• Lindsdals IF

Notable natives[link]

• Helena Josefsson - musician, lead singer in Sandy Mouche
• Ivar Kreuger
• Jenny Nyström
• Hans Villius

See also[link]

• Kalmar Municipality
• Kalmar Airport
• Kalmar Verkstad
• Spawn of Possession
• Linnaeus University
• Kalmar Nyckel, historical ship named after the city of Kalmar
• Kalmar FF, premier division football club from the city

References[link]

• (Swedish) article Kalmar, Nordisk familjebok, Kalmar domkyrkas historia

Notes

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kalmar

• Kalmar Municipality - Official site
• iKalmar - a social network for citizens of Kalmar
• Kalmar Castle
• Kalmar City - pictures from nightlife in Kalmar
• University of Kalmar
• CityRapporten - local publication about Kalmar
• Barometern Oskarshamns-Tidningen - daily newspaper from Kalmar and Oskarshamn

v t e Municipalities and seats of Kalmar County Municipalities Borgholm Emmaboda Högsby Hultsfred Kalmar Mönsterås Mörbylånga Nybro Oskarshamn Torsås Västervik Vimmerby Municipal seats Borgholm Emmaboda Högsby Hultsfred Kalmar Mönsterås Mörbylånga Nybro Oskarshamn Torsås Västervik Vimmerby Counties of Sweden Sweden