1.
Bernt Notke
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Bernt Notke was a late Gothic artist, working in the Baltic region. He has been described as one of the foremost artists of his time in northern Europe, very little is known about the life of Bernt Notke. The Notke family came from Tallinn and his father was probably the trader and ship-owner Michel Notke and his mother was probably Michels second wife Gertraut, who was from Visby. Bernt Notke was born in the town of Lassan in Pomerania. He was married, but the name of his wife remains unknown, she died before he did and is not mentioned in his last will and testament. The couple is known to have had two daughters, one named Anneke and another whose name has not been preserved and who seems to have suffered from intellectual disability. He seems to have spent part of his youth in Flanders and he probably worked in the workshop of tapestry weaver Pasquier Grenier in Tournai, where he learnt to work on art objects of a large scale. He probably also learnt how to divide the labour in a workshop in a way there, as several of his own works were large. He is mentioned in sources for the first time by the city council of Lübeck on 14 April 1467. In 1479 he acquired a house on Breite Strasse, a prestigious address in Lübeck. After 1497 he lived in Lübeck until his death in 1509, in 1505 he acquired the title of Werkmeister at the Church of Saint Peter. This was also the case with Bernt Notke, who was the head of such a workshop, during renovation of the large triumphal cross made by Notke in 1470–77, a note signed by Notke and five co-workers was discovered in a hollow part of one of the sculptures. It lists, apart from Notke himself, a carpenter, a painter, the question whether Notke was first and foremost a painter, a woodworker or simply main organiser and entrepreneur is not clear. He was called painter by the city council of Lübeck in a document from 1467 and he and his workshop produced art in the form of tapestries, wooden sculptures, and paintings. The main type of artwork produced by the workshop of Bernt Notke was altarpieces, encyclopædia Britannica claims that he was also active as an engraver, but this claim is not found in other sources. It was lost or destroyed but survived in the form of a copy, made in 1701, until 1942, a second Danse Macabre, made at approximately the same time as the one in Lübeck, survives in part Tallinn, in St. Nicholas Church. It has been suggested that the fragment in Tallinn may have been a cut out from the Lübeck Danse Macabre. Regardless, both display the characteristic vivid expressionism that would become characteristic for Notke, in 1470 –1478, Notke executed a very large sculpture group, a so-called triumphal cross for display in Lübeck Cathedral
2.
Coronation
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The ceremony can also be conducted for the monarchs consort, either simultaneously with the monarch or as a separate event. A ceremony without the placement of a crown on the head is known as an enthronement. Coronations are still observed in the United Kingdom, Tonga, in addition to investing the monarch with symbols of state, Western-style coronations have often traditionally involve anointing with holy oil, or chrism as it is often called. Wherever a ruler is anointed in this way, as in Great Britain and Tonga, some other lands use bathing or cleansing rites, the drinking of a sacred beverage, or other religious practices to achieve a comparable effect. Such acts symbolise the granting of divine favour to the monarch within the relevant spiritual-religious paradigm of the country, in the past, concepts of royalty, coronation and deity were often inexorably linked. Rome promulgated the practice of worship, in Medieval Europe. Coronations were once a direct expression of these alleged connections. Thus, coronations have often been discarded altogether or altered to reflect the nature of the states in which they are held. However, some monarchies still choose to retain an overtly religious dimension to their accession rituals, others have adopted simpler enthronement or inauguration ceremonies, or even no ceremony at all. In non-Christian states, coronation rites evolved from a variety of sources, buddhism, for instance, influenced the coronation rituals of Thailand, Cambodia and Bhutan, while Hindu elements played a significant role in Nepalese rites. The ceremonies used in modern Egypt, Malaysia, Brunei and Iran were shaped by Islam, Coronations, in one form or another, have existed since ancient times. Egyptian records show coronation scenes, such as that of Seti I in 1290 BC, judeo-Christian scriptures testify to particular rites associated with the conferring of kingship, the most detailed accounts of which are found in II Kings 11,12 and II Chronicles 23,11. Following the assumption of the diadem by Constantine, Roman and Byzantine emperors continued to wear it as the symbol of their authority. Although no specific coronation ceremony was observed at first, one gradually evolved over the following century, the emperor Julian was hoisted upon a shield and crowned with a gold necklace provided by one of his standard-bearers, he later wore a jewel-studded diadem. Later emperors were crowned and acclaimed in a manner, until the momentous decision was taken to permit the Patriarch of Constantinople to physically place the crown on the emperors head. Historians debate when exactly this first took place, but the precedent was established by the reign of Leo II. This ritual included recitation of prayers by the Byzantine prelate over the crown, after this event, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the ecclesiastical element in the coronation ceremonial rapidly develop. This was usually performed three times, following this, the king was given a spear, and a diadem wrought of silk or linen was bound around his forehead as a token of regal authority
3.
Uppsala
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Uppsala is the capital of Uppsala County and the fourth largest city of Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. It had 149,245 inhabitants in 2015, located 71 km north of the capital Stockholm, it is also the seat of Uppsala Municipality. Since 1164, Uppsala has been the centre of Sweden. Uppsala is home to Scandinavias largest cathedral – Uppsala Cathedral, founded in 1477, Uppsala University is the oldest centre of higher education in Scandinavia. Among many achievements, the Celsius scale for temperature was invented there, Uppsala was originally located a few kilometres north of its current location at a place now known as Gamla Uppsala. Todays Uppsala was then called Östra Aros, Uppsala was, according to medieval writer Adam of Bremen, the main pagan centre of Sweden, and the Temple at Uppsala contained magnificent idols of the Norse gods. The Fyrisvellir plains along the south of Old Uppsala, in the area where the modern city is situated today, was the site of the Battle of Fyrisvellir in the 980s. The present-day Uppsala was at that time known as Östra Aros and was a town of Gamla Uppsala. In 1160, King Eric Jedvardsson was attacked and killed outside the church of Östra Aros, the cathedral is built in the Gothic style and is one of the largest in northern Europe, with towers reaching 118.70 metres. Uppsala is also the site of the 16th century Uppsala Castle, the city was severely damaged by a fire in 1702. The arms bearing the lion can be traced to 1737 and have been modernised several times, the meaning of the lion is uncertain but is likely connected to the royal lion, also depicted on the Coat of Arms of Sweden. Situated on the fertile Uppsala flatlands of muddy soil, the city features the small Fyris River flowing through the landscape surrounded by lush vegetation. Parallel to the runs the glacial ridge of Uppsalaåsen at an elevation of circa 30 metres. The central park Stadsskogen stretches from the south far into town, only some 70 kilometres or 40 minutes by train from the capital, many Uppsala residents work in Stockholm. The train to Stockholm-Arlanda Airport takes only 17 minutes, rendering the city accessible by air. The commercial centre of Uppsala is quite compact, during recent decades, a significant part of retail commercial activity has shifted to shopping malls and stores situated in the outskirts of the city. Meanwhile, the areas have expanded greatly, and some suburbanization has taken place. Uppsala lies on the 59th parallel north and has a continental climate, with cold winters
4.
Trondheim
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Trondheim, historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. It has a population of 187,353, and is the third most populous municipality in Norway and it is the third largest city in the country, with a population of 169,972 inhabitants within the city borders. The city functions as the centre of Sør-Trøndelag county. Trondheim lies on the shore of Trondheim Fjord at the mouth of the river Nidelva. The settlement was founded in 997 as a trading post, from 1152 to 1537, the city was the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nidaros, since then, it has remained the seat of the Lutheran Diocese of Nidaros and the Nidaros Cathedral. The current municipality dates from 1964, when Trondheim merged with Byneset, Leinstrand, Strinda, for the ecclesiastical history, see Archiepiscopate of Nidaros Trondheim was named Kaupangen by Viking King Olav Tryggvason in 997. Shortly thereafter it came to be called Nidaros, in the beginning it was frequently used as a military retainer of King Olav I. It was frequently used as the seat of the king, and was the capital of Norway until 1217, people have been living in the region for thousands of years as evidenced by the rock carvings in central Norway, the Nøstvet and Lihult cultures and the Corded Ware culture. In ancient times, the Kings of Norway were hailed at Øretinget in Trondheim, Harald Fairhair was hailed as the king here, as was his son, Haakon I, called the Good. The battle of Kalvskinnet took place in Trondheim in 1179, King Sverre Sigurdsson, some scholars believe that the famous Lewis chessmen, 12th-century chess pieces carved from walrus ivory found in the Hebrides and now at the British Museum, may have been made in Trondheim. Trondheim was the seat of the Archdiocese of Nidaros for Norway from 1152, due to the introduction of Lutheran Protestantism in 1537, the last Archbishop, Olav Engelbrektsson, had to flee from the city to the Netherlands, where he died in present-day Lier, Belgium. The city has experienced major fires. Since much of the city was made of wooden buildings, many of the fires caused severe damage. Great fires ravaged the city in 1598,1651,1681,1708, twice in 1717,1742,1788,1841 and 1842, however, the 1651 fire destroyed 90% of all buildings within the city limits. The fire in 1681 led to an almost total reconstruction of the city, overseen by General Johan Caspar von Cicignon, broad avenues like Munkegaten were created, with no regard for property rights, in order to stop the next fire. At the time, the city had a population of roughly 8000 inhabitants, after the Treaty of Roskilde on 26 February 1658, Trondheim and the rest of Trøndelag, became Swedish territory for a brief period, but the area was reconquered 10 months later. The conflict was settled by the Treaty of Copenhagen on 27 May 1660. During World War II, Trondheim was occupied by Nazi Germany from 9 April 1940, the home of the most notorious Norwegian Gestapo agent, Henry Rinnan, was in Trondheim
5.
Tre Kronor (castle)
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Tre Kronor was a castle located in Stockholm, Sweden, on the site where Stockholm Palace is today. It is believed to have been a citadel that Birger Jarl built into a castle in the middle of the 13th century. The name Tre Kronor is believed to have given to the castle during the reign of King Magnus IV in the middle of the 14th century. Most of Swedens national library and royal archives were destroyed when the castle burned down in 1697, when King Gustav Vasa broke Sweden free from the Kalmar Union and made Sweden independent again, Tre Kronor Castle became his most important royal seat. The keep may have existed previous to the 16th century, but in a smaller form than on the pictures from the beginning. The tower was then about the half of the height in the end of the 16th century, the castle consisted of two parts, the main castle and the walled in gardens surrounding it with the high tower in the middle. On May 7,1697 a large fire broke out in Tre Kronor that completely demolished the majority of this now more-than-400-year-old castle, the fire was discovered by the castles keeper, Georg Stiernhoff. The fire marshal, Sven Lindberg, informed the staff that he could not get to the fire extinguishing equipment because the fire blocked his access to it. The royal family and court were forced to evacuate the castle, the servants attempted to save as much as possible of the royal possessions. The fire spread quickly to all parts of the castle, since the castle was made out of wood and copper, the hot copper plates set the roof on fire. As mentioned, due to the fire most of Swedens national library, shortly after the fire died out, the investigation into why it was not discovered before it was too late got underway. A royal court found three possible culprits, Sven Lindberg – the fire marshal for the castle – and Anders Andersson and Mattias Hansson, soldiers on fire watch for the night, reporting to Sven Lindberg. It is revealed that Anders Andersson was running an errand for the fire marshals wife, Mattias Hansson had left his post, going into the kitchen to get some food. Mattias claimed that the fire marshals wife had given permission to do so – a statement she denied, the royal court concluded that the fire marshal had used the soldier for his and his wifes private errands. It was also found that he had accepted bribes in exchange for hiring people into certain positions at the castle, in February,1698 the sentences were handed out. Sven Lindberg and Mattias Hanson were sentenced to death since they had neglected their duty. Anders Andersson was sentenced to run the gauntlet, the death sentences were both later commuted to running the gauntlet and six years of forced labour at Carlsten fortress. Sven Lindberg died while running the gauntlet, plans were made to rebuild a new castle on the old foundation
6.
Stockholm
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The city is spread across 14 islands on the coast in the southeast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago and the Baltic Sea. The area has settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC. It is also the capital of Stockholm County, Stockholm is the cultural, media, political, and economic centre of Sweden. The Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the countrys GDP and it is an important global city, and the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region. The city is home to some of Europes top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and it hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the citys most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is known for its decoration of the stations. Swedens national football arena is located north of the city centre, Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city. The city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, and hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, and the official residencies of the Swedish monarch and the Prime Minister. The government has its seat in the Rosenbad building, the Riksdag is seated in the Parliament House, and the Prime Ministers residence is adjacent at the Sager House. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BCE, there were already a number of people living in the present-day Stockholm area. Thousands of years later, as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable, at the intersection of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren is an archipelago site where the Old Town of Stockholm was first built from about 1000 CE by Vikings. They had a positive impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholms location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, and in Heimskringla in connection with the legendary king Agne, the earliest written mention of the name Stockholm dates from 1252, by which time the mines in Bergslagen made it an important site in the iron trade. The first part of the name means log in Swedish, although it may also be connected to an old German word meaning fortification, the second part of the name means islet, and is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. Stockholms core, the present Old Town was built on the island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid 13th century onward. The city originally rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League, Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Hamburg, Gdańsk, Visby, Reval, and Riga during this time
7.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
8.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
9.
Charles IX of Sweden
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Charles IX, also Carl, was King of Sweden from 1604 until his death. He was the youngest son of King Gustav I and his wife, Margaret Leijonhufvud, brother of Eric XIV and John III. The Swedish kings Eric XIV and Charles IX took their numbers according to a fictitious History of Sweden and he was actually the third Swedish king called Charles. He came into the throne by championing the Protestant cause during the tense times of religious strife between competing sects of Christianity. In just over a decade, these would break out as the Thirty Years War and these conflicts had already caused the dynastic squabble rooted in religious freedom that deposed his nephew and brought him to rule as king of Sweden. His reign marked the start of the chapter of both the Reformation and Counter-reformation. With his brothers death in November 1592, the throne of Sweden went to his nephew and Habsburg ally, Sigismund of Poland, during these tense political times, Charles viewed the inheritance of the throne of Protestant Sweden by his devout Roman Catholic nephew with alarm. Thus, several years of controversy and discord followed. During the period, he and the Swedish privy council ruled in Sigismunds name while he stayed in Poland, after various preliminaries, the Riksens ständer forced Sigismund to abdicate the throne to Charles IX in 1595. In fact, it worsened European politics to the abandonment or prevention of settling events by diplomacy, in 1568 he was the real leader of the rebellion against Eric XIV. However, he took no part in the designs of his brother John III against the king after his deposition. Charless relations with John were always more or less strained and he had no sympathy with Johns High-Church tendencies on the one hand, and he sturdily resisted all the kings endeavours to restrict his authority as Duke of Södermanland on the other. The nobility and the majority of the Riksdag of the Estates supported John, however, in his endeavours to unify the realm, and Charles had consequently to resign his pretensions to autonomy within his duchy. But, steadfast Calvinist as he was, on the question he was immovable. The matter came to a crisis on the death of John III in 1592, the heir to the throne was Johns eldest son, Sigismund III Vasa, already king of Poland and a devoted Catholic. Under the agreement, Charles and the Swedish Privy Council shared power, in the ensuing years 1593—1595, Charless task was extraordinarily difficult. Finally, the Riksdag at Linköping,24 February 1604 declared that Sigismund abdicated the Swedish throne and he was declared king as Karl IX. Charless short reign was one of uninterrupted warfare, in all these struggles, he was more or less unsuccessful, owing partly to the fact that he and his forces had to oppose superior generals and partly to sheer ill-luck
10.
Vadstena Abbey
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The Abbey of Our Lady and of St. Bridget, more commonly referred to as Vadstena Abbey, situated on Lake Vättern, in the Diocese of Linköping, Sweden, was the motherhouse of the Bridgettine Order. The abbey started on one of the farms donated to it by the king and it was active from 1346 until 1595. The daughter of Saint Bridget, Saint Catherine, on arriving there in 1374 with the relics of her mother and they chose Catherine as their abbess. She died in 1381, and it was not until 1384 that the abbey was blessed by the Bishop of Linköping, the first recognized Abbess was Ingegerd Knutsdotter, granddaughter of Saint Bridget. The canonization of Saint Bridget in 1391 and the translation of her remains to the Abbey Church in 1394 added greatly to the fame, in 1400 Duke Eric of Pomerania was invested at Vadstena by his great-aunt, Queen Margaret, as King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The grave of his wife, Queen Philippa, and that of Catherine, bridgetine literature consisted mostly of translations into Swedish of portions of the Bible or of the legends of the saints. Such writings as are extant have been published for the most part by the Svenska fornskriftsällskapet of Stockholm, the manuscripts are held in the Royal Library, Stockholm, and at the University Libraries of Uppsala, and Lund. The abbey was a monastery, with both a male section of 25 monks and a female section of 60 nuns. The monks were organised under the General Confessor and the nuns under a prioress, while the abbey as a whole was organised under an Abbess, who was elected by both the monks and the nuns. The abbey was greatly favored by the house and nobility. The abbey was known to manage a hospital and retirement home, early on, Vadstena Abbey supported Beghards and Beguines, the latter often aristocratic women, who had a poor reputation among Church authorities. In 1412, the abbey was ordered to them. In 1436, the rebel Jösse Eriksson sought asylum in the abbey and it kept in contact with other monasteries, performed inspections of them and sent both nuns and monks to them when they were lacking in members. After the introduction of the Reformation in Sweden in 1527, monastic communities in Sweden were effectively ended by the ban against accepting new novices. The existing members were allowed to stay until their death, to be supported by an allowance from the property of the monastery. Vadstena Abbey, however, was exempted from this ban and allowed to accept novices even after the Reformation and this regulation was directed to Bishop Hans Brask by King Gustav Vasa in 1527 after an elopement by a novice the previous year. The Abbey had a position because of its international fame and because of its strong ties with the Swedish nobility. Many of the monks and nuns were from the nobility, including the Kings own sister and it also served as a burial ground for many noble families
11.
Lord High Constable of Sweden
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The Lord High Constable was a prominent and influential office in Sweden, from the 13th century until 1676, excluding periods when the office was out of use. The office holder was a member of the Swedish Privy Council and, from 1630 and on, from 1634, the Lord High Constable was one of five Great Officers of the Realm. In a letter from 1268, during the reign of Valdemar Birgersson, the holder of the prestigious title is a nobleman, but it is not possible to decide much about the assignments belonging to it. It is possible that the marsk, or the constable, replaced the stabularius that previously governed the kings mounted following, Constable Torgils Knutsson was the foremost among the powerful men that ruled Sweden during the childhood of king Birger Magnusson in the late 13th century. Later constables seem to only occasionally be called upon by the king, queen Margaret, who tried to reclaim power that previous kings had lost, chose to have neither a Lord High Constable nor a Lord High Steward. Her successor Eric of Pomerania was forced by the Swedish noblemen to appoint a constable, thus, in 1435, Karl Knutsson Bonde, a future Swedish king, became the first constable for quite some time. In a suggestion to a treaty of the Kalmar union from 1436, for most of the remaining part of the 15th century, the office was vacant. Lars Siggesson Sparre, long-time constable of Gustav I, was a significant figure during his kings reign, when something reminiscent of a council of war was founded in 1540, the constable was not included. King Gustavs successor, his oldest son Eric XIV, apparently had plans to modernize the office, as did the following rulers John III and Sigismund. The title meant no particular assignment until 1630, when constable Jacob De la Gardie became president of the Council of War. The Lord High Constable was second in rank of the five Great Officers of the Realm, established in 1634, when Carl Gustaf Wrangel died in 1676, the office was abolished. King Charles XI, who had come to age four years earlier, wanted to avoid appointing new holders of the high offices, the fodermarsk appeared in the late Middle Ages and was responsible for the foddering of the courts horses. The first hovmarskalk, Marshal of the Court, was appointed in c.1540, earlier, the office holder was supervising the economy of the court. Todays First Marshal of the Court is the head of the Office of the Marshal of the Court, göran Klasson Stjernsköld became the first riksmarskalk, Marshal of the Realm, in 1607. As such, he was the head of the court
12.
Eric of Pomerania
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Eric of Pomerania KG was King Eric III of Norway, King Eric VII of Denmark, and King Eric XIII of Sweden, in all three known mainly as Erik af/av Pommern. He was the first King of the Nordic Kalmar Union, succeeding his adoptive mother Margaret I of Denmark, and was also Duke Eric I of Pomerania. Referring to Eric of Pomerania as King Eric XIII of Sweden is an invention, counting backwards from Eric XIV. Going back into prehistory, it is not known how many Swedish monarchs were named Eric before this one, born Boguslaw, he was the son of Wartislaw VII, Duke of Pomerania, and Maria of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Erics paternal grandparents were Boguslaw V, Duke of Pomerania and his second wife Adelheid of Brunswick-Grubenhagen and his maternal grandparents were Henry III, Duke of Mecklenburg and Ingeborg of Denmark, Duchess of Mecklenburg. Their son Albert was a rival of Olaf Haakonsson in regard to the Danish succession in 1375, Ingeborg was a daughter of Valdemar IV of Denmark and his Queen consort Heilwig of Schleswig. Eric was born in 1382 in Rügenwalde, initially named Boguslaw, he was son to the only surviving grandson of Valdemar IV of Denmark and also a descendant of Magnus III of Sweden and Haakon V of Norway. On 2 August 1387, Olav Håkonsson, King of Denmark since he was five years old and King of Norway since the death of his father, died unexpectedly at seventeen years of age. His mother the Dowager Queen of Norway had added the phrase the true heir of Sweden to Boguslaws list of titles at his coronation, Boguslaws claim to the Swedish throne came through his great-granduncle, Magnus IV of Sweden, who was forced to abdicate by the Swedish nobles. After the abdication, the Swedish nobles, led by Bo Jonsson, had invited Duke Albert of Mecklenburg to take the Swedish throne, however, when Albert attempted to introduce reduction of their large estates, they quickly turned against him. The Rigsråd elected Queen Margaret as all powerful lady and mistress, just a year later, the Norwegians proclaimed Margaret the reigning queen and Albert of Sweden fought off an incursion from Norway. His respite was temporary — the Swedish nobility soon enlisted the Danish regents help to remove Albert from the Swedish throne, in 1388, several of the Swedish nobles wrote secretly to Margaret telling her that if she could rid them of Albert, they would make her Regent. Margaret lost no time and sent an army into Sweden to attack Albert while the Swedish nobles raised their own army to him out of the country. In 1389, Alberts forces were defeated at the Battle of Falköping in Västergötland, Albert and his son Erik were captured when their horses became mired in mud so deep they could not escape. They were put into chains and sent by Queen Margaret to Scania and it took until 1395 for Margaret to force Alberts supporters out of Stockholm. She made provisions for the three kingdoms in the event of her death and she wanted the kingdoms to be unified and peaceful and hence, chose the son of her fathers surviving granddaughter, Boguslaw, to be named heir. Young Boguslaw was the grandson of Margarets sister, in 1389 he was brought to Denmark to be brought up by Queen Margaret. His name was changed to the more Nordic-sounding Erik, on 8 September 1389, he was hailed as King of Norway at the Ting in Trondheim
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