Erik VII (Denmark)

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Erich von Pommern, oil painting in Gripsholm Castle .
Erich I of Pomerania, from the family tree of the Griffins by Cornelius Krommeny , 1598.
Erich von Pomerania, portrait around 1424
Seal of King Eric
Sarcophagus of Duke Eric I

Erich von Pommern (actually Bogislaw ; * around 1382 in Rügenwalde , Pommern-Stolp ; † 1459 there ) was the sole king of the Kalmar Union from 1412 to 1439 .

Life

Family and youth

His parents were Duke Wartislaw VII of Pomerania and his wife Maria, daughter of Duke Heinrich III. von Mecklenburg and his wife Ingeborg, daughter of King Waldemar Atterdag of Denmark.

Erich was the great-nephew and heir of the Danish-Norwegian regent Margaret I , whose favorite he was to succeed her. So he came into a great inheritance. He was married to Philippa (1394–1430), daughter of Henry IV of England.

He was crowned as a youth - but adult according to Scandinavian inheritance law - in Kalmar , Sweden as early as 1397 and was at the same time Erik VII of Denmark , Erik III. (Eirik III.) Of Norway and Erik XIII. of Sweden .

After the death of her son Olav in 1387, Queen Margarethe chose the six-year-old grandson of her sister Ingeborg as king of the three Scandinavian states. As early as 1388 she had the boy's right of inheritance as King of Norway recognized by the Norwegian estates. When he was accepted as King of Norway, he was given the more appropriate name Erik for a Scandinavian ruler. A year later Margarethe brought him to Copenhagen . Shortly afterwards he was also elected King of Denmark. The coronation for the entire Kalmar Union took place on June 17, 1397. Margarethe prepared him for his later office and worked as the actual ruler of the imperial union until her death in 1412

Rule and politics

In 1406 Erich married Philippa , a daughter of the English King Henry IV. This connection should help him to stabilize his northern European empire. His government was marked by conflicts with the Hanseatic League , the Teutonic Order and the Schauenburg Counts of Holstein . Sweden in particular had to pay for this.

Erich strengthened the Danish power over the strategically important Oresund . In 1429 he introduced the Sundzoll (Öresundzoll), which exacerbated the conflict with the Hanseatic League and existed in a modified form until 1857. In order to collect the sound tariff from the ships, he had built the Krogen fortress , later Kronborg Castle , in Helsingør . He also founded the city of Landskrona on the Oresund and made Copenhagen the royal seat of the king. In Malmö he also built the Malmöhus fortress ; the city of Malmö has had the Pomeranian griffin in its coat of arms since Erik's time .

The peace of Vordingborg of 1435, which was disadvantageous for Denmark after the defeat in the war against the Hanseatic League , made him vulnerable to the Danish Imperial Council - combined with the Engelbrekt uprising in Sweden .

Deposition and final years

In 1439 Erich was deposed first by the Danish and then by the other imperial councils after he had retired to Gotland . In Denmark he was followed by his nephew Christoph III. , Son of his sister Katharina (1390–1426), after. When the Swedish imperial administrator Karl Bonde was elected King of Sweden as Charles VIII in 1448 and attacked Gotland, Erich went to Rügenwalde in Pomerania . After the death of his cousin Bogislaw IX. 1446 he took over as Erich I. the Duchy of Pomerania-Stolp .

Erich von Pommern died in 1459 and was buried in the parish church in Rügenwalde / Pomerania. Since he had no offspring of his own, only the daughter of his cousin Bogislaw IX. von Pommern-Stargard (1418–1446) named Sophia as heir, a dispute broke out between the other dukes of Pomerania over his not inconsiderable fortune as well as over his domain. The niece married Duke Erich II of Pommern-Wolgast . His brother Wartislaw X and the Szczecin Duke Otto III opposed him . A son from Sophia's marriage to Erich II was Pomerania's most important Duke Bogislaw X.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Erik VII.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Bohn: Danish history. Verlag CH Beck, 2001, ISBN 3-406-44762-7 .
  2. ↑ Mimmi Tegnér: Erik av Pommern 1382-1459. ( Memento of August 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Malmö museer, November 5, 2010; Retrieved June 19, 2013 (Swedish).
predecessor Office successor
Margarethe I. King of Denmark
1412–1439 		Christopher III.
Margarethe I. King of Norway
1412–1441 		Christopher III.
Margarethe I. King of Sweden
1412–1442 		Christopher III.
Bogislaw IX. Duke of Pomerania-Stolp
1446–1459 		Eric II.
personal data
SURNAME Erik VII.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bogislaw (real name); Erich of Pomerania; Erik of Pomerania; Erik III. from Norway; Erik XIII. of Sweden
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of the Kalmar Union, Duke of Pomerania-Stolp
DATE OF BIRTH around 1382
PLACE OF BIRTH Rügenwalde , Pomerania-Stolp
DATE OF DEATH 1459
Place of death Rügenwalde , Pomerania-Stolp