trymen, and by their aid recovered a
large portion of his power. He then began distributing royal favors
among them with a lavish hand, to the detriment of the Swedish magnates.
These magnates therefore turned, in 1388, to Margaret, regent of Denmark
and Norway, and offered her the regency of Sweden, promising to
recognize as king whomever she should choose. In 1389 she entered Sweden
with her army, overthrew King Albert, and got possession of the throne.
In 1396 the Swedish Cabinet, at her desire, elected her nephew, Erik of
Pomerania, already king of Denmark and Norway, to be king of Sweden; and
on the 17th of June, 1397, he was crowned at Kalmar.[4] Thus began the
celebrated Kalmar Union, one of the greatest political blunders that a
nation ever made. It was the voluntary enslavement of a whole people to
suit the whims of a few disgruntled magnates.

The century following this catastrophe was marked by violence and
bloodshed. In all the setting up and pulling down of kings which ended
in the Kalmar Union, the Swedish peasantry, now the body of the nation,
had had no part. They had long watched in silence the overpowering
growth of the magnates and of the Church; they had seen their own rights
gradually, but surely, undermined; and they now beheld the whole nation
given into the hand of a foreign king. All this tyranny was beginning to
produce its natural effect. A spirit of rebellion was spreading fast.
However, open insurrection was for the moment averted by the prudence of
the regent; so long as she lived the people were tolerably content. She
ruled the Cabinet with an iron hand, and refused to appoint a
chancellor, the officer who had hitherto done much to bind the Cabinet
together. After her death Erik attempted to carry out a similar policy,
and introduced a number of foreigners into the Swedish Cabinet. But his
continual absence from the realm weakened his administration, and gave
great license to his officers, who by their cruelty won the hatred of
the people. At last, in 1433, the peasantry of Dalarne rebelled against
the tyranny of the steward whom their Danish ruler had put over them,
and in 1435, under the leadership of a courageous warrior, Engelbrekt
Engelbrektsson, compelled the king to call a general diet, the first
since 1359, consisting of all the people in the realm who cared to take
part. This diet, under the enthusiasm of the moment, elected Engelbrekt
commander of the kingdom. But the hopes of the