ed him to the deputies, one by one, whom she requested to
confirm his election to the succession. The majesty of the Queen's
person, the strength of her arguments, and the sweetness of her
eloquence gained over the deputies, who, on July 22, 1396, elected him
at Morastone by Upsala, to succeed her also in Sweden. But Margaret,
soon discovering his inability and impetuousness, took pains to remedy
these defects, as much as possible, by procuring for him as a wife the
intelligent and virtuous princess Philippa, a daughter of Henry V of
England, and shortly after had got Catharine, her niece and Eric's
sister, married to Prince John, a son of the German emperor Ruprecht;
John being promised the Scandinavian crowns if Eric of Pomerania should
die childless. Thus having strengthened and consolidated her power by
influential connections and relationships, the Queen, upon whose head
the three northern crowns were actually united, now proceeded to realize
the great plan she had long cherished--to get a fundamental law
established for a perpetual union of the three large Scandinavian
kingdoms. The realization of this purpose immortalized her, securing for
her the admiration of the world, whose most eminent historians do not
hesitate to surname her the "Great," and to compare her with the
loftiest Greek and Roman heroes and statesmen.

On June 17, 1397, Margaret summoned to an assembly at Calmar, in the
province of Smaland, Sweden, the clergy and the nobility of Denmark,
Norway, and Sweden, and established, by their aid and consent, a
fundamental law. This was the law so celebrated in the North under the
name of the "Union of Calmar," and which afterward gave birth to wars
between Sweden and Denmark that lasted a whole century. It consisted of
three articles. The first provided that the three kingdoms should
thenceforward have but one and the same king, who was to be chosen
successively by each of the kingdoms. The second article imposed upon
the sovereign the obligation of dividing his time equally between the
three kingdoms. The third, and most important, decreed that each kingdom
should retain its own laws, customs, senate, and privileges of every
kind; that the highest officers should be natives; that any alliance
concluded with foreign potentates should be obligatory upon all three
kingdoms when approved by the council of one kingdom; and that, after
the death of the King, his eldest son, or, if the King died childless,
then