Kalmar Union

Kalmar Union Kalmarunionen (Danish · Norwegian · Swedish) Kalmarin unioni (Finnish) Kalmarsambandið (Icelandic) Kalmar unioni (Greenlandic) Kalmarsamveldið (Faroese) Kalmara uniovdna (Northern Sami) Unio Calmariensis (Latin)
1397–1523
The Kalmar Union, c. 1400
Status	Personal union
Capital	None (de jure) Copenhagen (de facto) 55°40′N 12°34′E / 55.667°N 12.567°E / 55.667; 12.567
Common languages	Official use: Middle Danish, Old Swedish, Middle Norwegian, Renaissance Latin Also spoken: Middle Icelandic, Old Faroese, Norn, Greenlandic Norse, Middle Low German, Finnish, Sami, Greenlandic, Karelian
Religion	Catholicism
Government	Personal union
Monarch
• 1397–1442a	Eric of Pomerania (first)
• 1513–23b	Christian II (last)
Legislature	Riksråd and Herredag (one in each kingdom)
Historical era	Late Middle Ages
• Inception	17 June 1397
• Engelbrekt rebellion	1434–1436
• Stockholm Bloodbath	November 1520
• Gustav Vasa elected as King of Sweden	1523
• Denmark-Norway was established.	1523
Area
• Total	2,839,386 km2 (1,096,293 sq mi)
Currency	Mark, Örtug, Norwegian penning, Swedish penning
Preceded by Succeeded by Kingdom of Denmark Kingdom of Norway Kingdom of Sweden Denmark–Norway Kingdom of Sweden
Margaret I ruled Denmark 1387–1412, Norway 1388–1389, and Sweden 1389–1412 Christian II ruled Denmark and Norway 1513–1523; Sweden 1520–1521

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The Kalmar Union (Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish: Kalmarunionen; Finnish: Kalmarin unioni; Icelandic: Kalmarsambandið; Latin: Unio Calmariensis) was a personal union in Scandinavia, agreed at Kalmar in Sweden as designed by widowed Queen Margaret of Norway and Sweden. From 1397 to 1523,^[1] it joined under a single monarch the three kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden (then including much of present-day Finland), and Norway, together with Norway's overseas colonies^{[N 1]} (then including Iceland, Greenland,^{[N 2]} the Faroe Islands, and the Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland).

The union was not quite continuous; there were several short interruptions. Legally, the countries remained separate sovereign states. However, their domestic and foreign policies were directed by a common monarch. Gustav Vasa's election as King of Sweden on 6 June 1523, and his triumphant entry into Stockholm eleven days later, marked Sweden's final secession from the Kalmar Union.^[2] Formally, the Danish king acknowledged Sweden's independence in 1524 at the Treaty of Malmö.

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