Kalmar Union
Personal union in Scandinavia / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Kalmar Union (Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish: Kalmarunionen; Finnish: Kalmarin unioni; Icelandic: Kalmarsambandið; Latin: Unio Calmariensis) was a personal union in Scandinavia, agreed at Kalmar in Sweden as designed by widowed Queen Margaret of Norway and Sweden. From 1397 to 1523,[1] 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 overseas colonies[N 1] (then including Iceland, Greenland,[N 2] the Faroe Islands, and the Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland).
Kalmar Union Kalmarunionen
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1397–1523 | |||||||||||||||
Status | Personal union | ||||||||||||||
Capital |
55°40′N 12°34′E | ||||||||||||||
Common languages |
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Religion | Catholicism | ||||||||||||||
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 | ||||||||||||||
1434–1436 | |||||||||||||||
November 1520 | |||||||||||||||
1523 | |||||||||||||||
• Denmark-Norway was established. | 1523 | ||||||||||||||
Area | |||||||||||||||
• Total | 2,839,386 km2 (1,096,293 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
Currency | Mark, Örtug, Norwegian penning, Swedish penning | ||||||||||||||
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The union was not quite continuous; there were several short interruptions. Legally, the countries remained separate sovereign states. However, 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 eleven days later, marked Sweden's final secession from the Kalmar Union.[2] Formally, the Danish king acknowledged Sweden's independence in 1524 at the Treaty of Malmö.