Kalmar Union

Kalmar Union Kalmarunionen
1397–1523
The Kalmar Union, c. 1400
Status	Personal union
Capital	None (de jure) Copenhagen (de facto) 55°40′N 12°34′E
Common languages	Official use: Middle Danish, Old Swedish, Middle Norwegian, Renaissance Latin Also spoken: Middle Icelandic, Old Faroese, Norn, Greenlandic Norse, Middle Low German, Finnish, Sami, Greenlandic, Karelian
Government	Personal union
Monarch
• 1397–1442a	Eric of Pomerania (first)
• 1513–23b	Christian II (last)
Legislature	Riksråd and Herredag (one in each kingdom)
Historical era	Late Middle Ages
• Inception	17 June 1397
• Engelbrekt rebellion	1434–1436
• Stockholm Bloodbath	November 1520
• Gustav Vasa elected as King of Sweden	1523
• Denmark–Norway was established	1523
Currency	Mark, Örtug, Norwegian penning, Swedish penning
Preceded by Succeeded by Kingdom of Denmark Kingdom of Norway Kingdom of Sweden Denmark–Norway Kingdom of Sweden
Margaret I ruled Denmark 1387–1412, Norway 1388–1389, and Sweden 1389–1412 Christian II ruled Denmark and Norway 1513–1523; Sweden 1520–1521

The Kalmar Union was a personal union in Scandinavia, agreed at Kalmar in Sweden as designed by Queen Margaret of Denmark. From 1397 to 1523, it joined under a single monarch the three kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden (then including much of present-day Finland), and Norway, together with Norway's maritime colonies (then including Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and the Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland).

The union was not quite continuous; there were several short interruptions. Legally, the countries remained separate sovereign states, but their domestic and foreign policies were directed by a common monarch. Gustav Vasa's election as King of Sweden on 6 June 1523, and his triumphant entry into Stockholm 11 days later, marked Sweden's final secession from the Kalmar Union. Frederick I formally renounced his claim to Sweden in 1524 at the Treaty of Malmö.

The Kalmar Union: Denmark, Sweden, Norway. But also Finland, Iceland, the Åland Islands, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Svalbard, Jan Mayen, Orkney and Shetland. Along with Schleswig, Holstein, Lauenburg, Oldenburg, Pomerania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Königsberg