ally he took the bold step to
call himself king of Denmark and Norway, a baseless claim which he
proposed to enforce. He made a vow never to use a hat until he had driven
out Margaret, and sent her a whetstone several yards long, advising her
to use it to sharpen her scissors and needles instead of using a sceptre.
He was much too hasty, as he had only a weak hold upon Sweden even, whose
nobles did not like his habit of bringing in Germans to fill the posts of
honor and were anxious to get rid of him.

Therefore it came about that he found himself confronted by an army of
Danes, Norsemen, and Swedes, and a battle followed in which Albrecht
riding with his heavy cavalry upon a frozen marsh, broke through the ice
and was taken prisoner. He was now in the power of Queen Margaret, who
had at length the opportunity to repay him for his insults. To replace
the crowns of Norway and Denmark, which he had sought to wear, she put
upon his head a fool's cap, with a tail twenty-eight feet long, and
repaid him for his insults and jests in other ways. After she had done
her best to make him an object of laughter and ridicule she locked him up
in a strong prison cell, where he was given six years to reflect on his
folly.

It took these six years for Margaret's army to subdue the city of
Stockholm, which held out stoutly for Albrecht. She won it at last by
setting him free with the proviso that he should pay a ransom of sixty
thousand marks. In ease he could not provide it within three years he was
to return to prison or surrender Stockholm. He did the latter and
Margaret became mistress of Sweden.

This able woman had now won a proud position, reached by none of the
kings before her. She was ruler of the whole of Scandinavia, with its
three ancient kingdoms. The triple crown was hers for the lifting, but
she was not ambitious to wear it, and preferred to put it on the head of
her grand-nephew, Erik of Pomerania, though she retained the power in her
hands until her death in 1412. Representatives of the three kingdoms were
summoned by her to a meeting at Calmar, where, in July, 1397, a compact
uniting the three kingdoms under one ruler was drawn up and signed.

This was the famous Calmar Union, which held Norway captive for more than
four hundred years. From that time until the present century Norway had
no separate history, though her people vigorously resisted any measures
of oppression. In 1536 this ancient kingdom was declared to