ng except
that they had now but one king.

When King Magnus became old enough to act as monarch in reality, he took
the government of both countries into his hands. But he proved unfit to
govern either of them, being a weak and good-natured man, so anxious to
please everybody that he pleased nobody. Born and brought up in Sweden,
he knew little and cared less about affairs in Norway and the people of
that country grew much incensed at his neglect of their interests. They
made him promise, at a public meeting, to divide the two kingdoms between
his two sons; Erik, the elder, to succeed him in Sweden, and Haakon, the
younger, to be given the crown of Norway when he came of age. Events
happened, as will be seen, to prevent this taking place and to combine
all Scandinavia under one great queen.

This is how it came about. King Magnus made a visit to Denmark, where it
was arranged to marry Prince Haakon to Margaret, daughter and heir of the
Danish king, Valdemar. This marriage took place in due time, and not very
long afterwards both King Magnus and Prince Haakon died and Prince Erik
was poisoned by his mother, who was a wicked woman and was angry because
he opposed her in one of her base schemes.

Thus as the death of King Birger had left the crowns of Sweden and Norway
to a boy of three, the deaths here named left these crowns and that of
Denmark also to another child, the son of Haakon and Margaret. This
little fellow, Olaf by name, too young to appreciate how great he had
become, did not live to enjoy his greatness. He died at the age of
seventeen, leaving his royal rights to his mother Margaret.

It is interesting to learn that the turbulent kingdoms named, the land of
the sea-kings and the warlike barbarians of the north, each of which had
needed the hand of a strong man to control them, all now fell under the
sceptre of a woman, who at first reigned over Denmark and Norway and soon
added Sweden to her dominion.

But Queen Margaret was no weakling. She was a woman born to command,
strong in mind and body, and more like a man than a woman. In Sweden, to
which she quickly turned her attention, she had a bitter enemy in Duke
Albrecht of Mecklenburg, who had been declared king of that country after
the death of King Magnus, and who also claimed the crown of Norway, being
remotely related to its royal house.

He bitterly hated Margaret, whom he called "Queen Breechless," and by
other satirical and insulting names. Fin