Sweden to marry Hakon, heir to the Swedish and Norwegian crowns, and had kept her closely guarded in his own palace on pretence that her health would not allow her to cross the sea at that stormy season of the year.

Valdemar's real motive, however, had been to prevent the marriage of Elizabeth with the Swedish prince, as he had set his heart upon seeing his own little daughter Margaret married to the future king of Sweden and Norway. When therefore the ship in which Elizabeth was making the voyage ran ashore on the coast of Sjælland, he resolved not to lose so unlooked for a chance of carrying out this scheme. And sending an urgent message to the King and Queen of Sweden to beg that they would bring their son to spend the Yule-tide with him, he made all things ready, and when they arrived he persuaded them to consent to the marriage of Prince Hakon with his daughter Margaret, and let the wedding be celebrated at once. It is said that during this visit Valdemar induced his foolish royal guest to give up the bonds and charters by which he held in pawn Skaania and the other old Danish provinces, pledged to Sweden by King Christopher, and that he at once burnt the deeds. There was great rejoicing at Copenhagen on account of this event and of the marriage, and feasting and jousting went on day after day for the entertainment of the Swedish princes, but before the close of all this merry-making the Queen Blanka of Sweden was taken ill and died, and then her husband, King Magnus Smek offered to take the Holstein princess to be his second wife, if he could be sure of getting her large dowry. Poor Elizabeth felt that this was a cruel insult, and having refused with anger to listen to the king's offers, she sent trusted messengers to inform her brothers of the shameful manner in which she had been treated, and to entreat that they would avenge the wrongs she had suffered at King Valdemar's hands.

Valdemar in trouble.-These events had taken place soon after the Hansers' first defeat by the Danes, and when they heard of the close alliance that their enemy had formed with Sweden and Norway, they felt still more anxious in regard to themselves, and made such great efforts to raise forces and excite enemies against the king before he could find time to prepare another

expedition like the one he had carried on against Wisby, that he was soon beset on all sides. Valdemar did not see the full danger till it was too late, and when the Counts of Holstein, who were eager to avenge the insult offered to their sister, induced several German princes to join them and the Leaguers against the Danish king, he was forced, after a short but fierce war, to submit, and to secure terms of peace by giving up Skaania and the other old Danish provinces. These lands he had recovered, as we have seen, from Magnus Smek, and the Danes who had rejoiced at their restoration to the Danish monarchy were now equally mortified at their rapid loss, while the Council of State and all the richest nobles began openly to murmur at their king, and gladly made his conduct an excuse for refusing him help to carry on the war. these circumstances Valdemar could do nothing to defend himself, and in 1368 he left Denmark, carrying with him his family, and, according to some writers, all the gold and silver that he could collect, and went to seek help from his friends and kinsmen in Germany.

Under

For more than four years Denmark remained without a king, and her people, either from feebleness or indifference, allowed the Germans and Holsteiners to manage public affairs as they liked. So completely had the Hansers made themselves masters of the Danish kingdom, that Valdemar had to buy peace and secure the right of resuming the regal power at the terms offered by these traders. Before he could return to his own dominions, he was forced to promise for himself and all h's descendants that the traders of the German Hanse League should have a voice with the Danish nobles, prelates and burghers in the election of future kings of Denmark. Thus humbled, Valdemar came back to Denmark in 1372, and during the remaining three years of his life he had the good sense to refrain from all attempts to make war on his old enemies, and to devote himself to the good of his people. In spite, however, of all his efforts to benefit them, his subjects never liked him, and in the songs and tales invented about him, and repeated among the Danish peasants from one generation after the other, till almost our own times, he is always spoken of as a hard, crafty prince, ready to barter his very

soul for money, and willing to sell the lives and comfort of those nearest to him to gratify his own ambition. The superstitious country-people long continued to give proof of the fear and hatred in which this stern but able king had been held in his own times, for among all their national tales, "Valdemar the Bad" was made to play the part of Satan or one of his favourite spirits, and when in the winter night's storm they heard a sudden rush of wind and a howling of the tempest, they were wont to say that King Valdemar was driving his hounds with lash and spur through the air to the hunting grounds on lake Esrom in North Sjælland, near his palace at Gurre, which he was reported to have said would be dearer to him after death than heaven itself.

Valdemar was surnamed Atterdag, "Again a day," in allusion to his favourite maxim that men should bide their time, and hope that if one day brought trouble another day would come in which a lost chance might be recovered, and he certainly almost always acted up to this precept. The death in 1374 of Henry, Duke of Slesvig, the last direct descendant of King Abel, had given Valdemar the hope of bringing that muchcoveted province back to the crown; but before he could take formal possession of the duchy as a lapsed fief, he himself died suddenly at the age of sixty. With him ended the last direct male representative of the Valdemars, and thus the two main branches of the Svend Estridsen line of descent became extinct at the same time. Valdemar's only son had died some years earlier leaving no family, and his nearest male heirs were, therefore, the sons of his daughters Ingeborg and Margaret. The elder of these princesses had married Count Albert of Mecklenburg, and at her death she had left one son Albert. The younger of his daughters, Margaret, had been given in marriage when quite a child, as we have already seen, to Hakon King of Norway in his own right, and son of Magnus King of Sweden, and she too had one son, Olaf, who succeeded his grandfather Valdemar on the throne of Denmark.

Olaf, 1375-1387.-On the death of King Valdemar, the Council of State and the nobles were divided in their opinions in regard to the claims of his grandsons. Most persons felt that Albert of Mecklenburg, as the son of the late king's eldest

daughter, had the best right to the throne, but the Danes hated all Germans, and were just then especially distrustful of the Mecklenburg family, owing to the close alliance into which those princes had entered with Denmark's hereditary enemies, the Counts of Holstein. For these reasons, and because the Danes had strong feelings of loyalty and affection towards the young Queen Margaret of Norway, they passed over the elder branch and gave the crown to her son Olaf, who was proclaimed king in the same year, 1375. As the little prince was only five years old at the time, his parents, Hakon and Margaret, took the oaths for him, and signed in his name a charter which secured to the nobles the same rights which they had demanded from Christopher II.

King Hakon died in 1380, and was succeeded by young Olaf, who thus again united Denmark and Norway under one ruler, but the death of that prince at the age of seventeen in 1387, before he had exercised independent power, destroyed the hopes that had been raised by his early talents and good disposition. His mother Queen Margaret had ruled over both kingdoms in his name since the death of her father and husband, and by her tact and ability had succeeded in gaining the confidence of the Danish and Norwegian nobles, and in restoring some degree of order into the countries under her sway. The only act of her government which proved a source of future evil was her granting South Jutland, or Slesvig, as an hereditary fief to Count Gerhard VI. of Holstein in 1386. This step she had been unwillingly led to take in order to hinder the formation of an alliance then threatening against Denmark, between the Holstein princes and her enemies, the Counts of Mecklenburg, who were already supported by the Hanse League and other German powers. But in the end it brought troubles, which were far worse than any it prevented, both to Queen Margaret and to Denmark long after her time.

CHAPTER XI.

SWEDEN IN EARLY TIMES.

Sweden in early Christian times-Upsala-A hundred years of murder and trouble among the Swedish kings-Sverker Karlsson-Better timesErik the "Saint"; his laws in favour of women-Erik's crusades; his death; becomes patron Saint of Sweden-A century of troubles to the end of Bondar race of kings in 1250-Sweden less civilized than Denmark - Danish princess Rikissa-Swedish women refuse to follow Danish habits of luxury-Norway after the death of Magnus the Good in 1047-Harald Haardraade; his wish to invade Denmark; his adventures in the East; his escape from prison; his marriage; his invasion of England in 1066; his death-Olaf reigns in Norway; his son Magnus, the kilt-wearer-The three brother-kings-Sigurd goes to Jerusalem; gives away his ships and returns to Norway over-land-Murder and trouble-Norway's age of mis-rule-The Birch Legs" and the "Croziers" disturb the kingdom-Many claimants of the crown-Hakon IV. a great king who restores Norway to some credit, and begins a new course of order-Crown declared to be a Fief of St. Olaf-Increased influence of Church.

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PART I.

FIRST CHRISTIAN KINGS.

Sweden in early times.-WHILE the sons and direct descendants of King Svend Estridsen had continued to maintain the doctrines of the Church of Rome in Denmark, and almost without exception to favour the Romish clergy and enrich them at the expense of other orders of the state, Christianity was still struggling for tolerance, if not for existence in Sweden.