Queen Margarete of Sweden

Martha of Denmark was queen consort of Sweden by marriage to King Birger.

She was given the name Margaret (Danish: Margrete Eriksdatter upon her birth, but was in Sweden called Martha (Swedish: Märta), and has been known in history by that name. She was regarded as a politically influential queen and an important figure in the Håtuna games and the Nyköping Banquet.

Early life

Martha was born to King Eric V of Denmark and Agnes of Brandenburg and sister of King Eric VI. In 1282, peaceful relations was resumed between the kings of Denmark and Sweden, and it was agreed that Princess Martha should be married to Prince Birger, the heir to the Swedish throne. In 1284, the necessary papal dispensation for marriage between relations was obtained from the Pope. In 1288 in Helsinborg, further more, the dynastic marriage alliance between Denmark and Sweden was cemented by a marriage agreement between her brother King Eric VI of Denmark and her future sister-in-law Ingeborg Magnusdotter of Sweden; that marriage was celebrated in 1296.

According to the Erikskrönikan, Martha left Denmark already after her engagement was declared, and spent the rest of her childhood raised at the Swedish royal court until her wedding.[4] It is not known exactly when she left Denmark, but it is considered likely that she did so prior to the death of her father in 1286.

Queen

The wedding between Martha and Birger was celebrated in Stockholm 25 November 1298. The wedding celebrations is described as very elaborate, with a procession of knights, amateur theater by nobles and the king naming his brothers dukes. She was praised when she asked for no dower other than the freedom of Magnus Algotsson, a noble arrested for involvement in an abduction of a bride in 1288. Regardless, she was given a dower land consisting of Fjädrundaland (Western Uppland) and Enköping as her personal fief, which was granted to her in 1300. She was crowned Queen of Sweden in Söderköping 2 December 1302.

Märta and Birger grew up together; their marriage is described as a happy one, and she is credited with a large influence over him and the affairs of state and is described as politically active. In 1304, Queen Martha as well as her sister-in-law Queen Ingeborg attended the border meeting between King Birger and her brother King Eric at Knäred or Fagerdala. At this occasion, her eldest son Magnus was proclaimed heir to the throne.

In 29 September 1306, Martha and Birger were invited to festivities and then captured by the king's brothers Duke Eric and Duke Valdemar during the Håtuna games and held captive at the Nyköping Castle, while the dukes took power. Two of her sons and a daughter was imprisoned with them, while her eldest son and the declared son and heir managed to escape to Denmark. In the treaty between her brother the King of Denmark and the dukes the following year, her brothers-in-law guaranteed her possession of her dower, and in 1308, Martha and Birger were released.

Queen Martha reportedly played a significant part in the famous Nyköping Banquet in 1317, were the King and Queen retaliated to the Dukes and had the king's brothers invited to festivities, after which they were imprisoned and died in the dungeons, and she is in fact pointed out as the creator of the plot. According to Erikskrönikan, Queen Martha and the king's official Johan Brunkow initiated the arrest of the dukes, while the chronicle of Lübeck claim that she influenced Birger supported by her brother the King of Denmark. Erikskrönikan describe how the queen received her brothers-in-law with assurances that she loved them as if they were her brothers by blood. The chronicle mention her participating in the festivities: "Everyone danced all the way from indoors to outdoors, the Queen had never looked so happy before". Her good mood was seen as a cruel sign of excitement that she and her spouse were to have their revenge for the Håtuna games, as she was aware of the plan to capture the dukes in the middle of the festivities.

The murder of the Dukes, however, lead to a conflict with the forces of the widows of the two dukes, who defeated the king's forces in 1318, leading the King and Queen to flee to Gotland and from their to Själland in Denmark with their children, while the son of one of the dukes was proclaimed King of Sweden.[21]

Exile

On 4 September 1318, King Eric of Denmark granted Martha the manor Hjarup on Jylland for her income. The following year, her brother Eric died and was succeeded by her younger brother Christopher II of Denmark, with whom she was reportedly not on as good terms as with her elder brother, possibly because Christopher had earlier sided with Birger's brothers against Eric. Christopher II granted Martha and Birger the manor Spegerborg at Skälskör on Själland with two parishes.

Martha was widowed in 1321. Evidently, Martha was forced to accompany King Christopher when he was exiled to Germany in 1326, and was not able to return for three years. In 1329, she was guaranteed the return of her property. In 1332, Christopher II died and Denmark was dissolved in interregnum. Nothing is known of her during these years, but at some point during her later years, she retired to St. Peders Kloster in Naestved in Själland.

Her second son died in exile in 1319. In 1320, her eldest son Magnus returned to Sweden, where he was executed.[26] The chronicle therefore almost only mention the two daughters of the royal couple, Agnes and Catherine. Nothing is known of her youngest daughter Catherine, and the only thing known of her eldest daughter Agnes was that the King of Denmark donated lands to Slangerup Abbey for her upkeep in 1344. She was buried in the St. Bendt's Church in Ringsted.

Märta Eerikintytär oli tanskalainen prinsessa, josta tuli Birger Maununpojan puolisona Ruotsin kuningatar.

Kronikoiden mukaan avioliitosta sovittiin jo vuonna 1288, ja Märta kasvoi Ruotsissa erossa sisaruksistaan.

Hänen isänsä oli surmattu jo vuonna 1286, ja veljestä Eerik Menvedistä tuli kuningas jo 12-vuotiaana.

Märtan ja Birgerin häitä juhlittiin Tukholmassa vuonna 1298.

Pariskunnalle syntyi kolme poikaa ja kaksi tytärtä. Birger kuoli vuonna 1321, mutta Märta eli vielä 20 vuotta leskenä.

Viimeisinä vuosinaan hän asui luostarissa Næstvedissä, Sjællandin eteläosassa.

Märta av Danmark

Från Riksarkivet

http://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/artikel/8651

Från Wikipedia

http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A4rta_av_Danmark

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Kungaparets grav i Ringsted

Märta (Margrethe) av Danmark, född 1277, död 3 oktober 1341, var drottning av Sverige 1298–1318, gift med kung Birger Magnusson. Hennes ursprungliga namn var Margarethe, men hon blev i Sverige känd som drottning Märta.

Biografi [redigera]

Märta var dotter till kung Erik Klipping av Danmark och Agnes av Brandenburg. Hon trolovades med Birger redan som barn och tycks ha befunnit sig i Sverige sedan åtminstone år 1295. Hennes bror Erik Menved gifte sig med Birgers syster Ingeborg på samma sätt som Märta blev bortgift med kung Birger. De svenska och danska kungarna blev alltså gifta med varandras systrar och därmed svågrar till varandra. Bröllopet firades med torneringar 1298 och Märta fick Falköping och hela Fjädrundaland som morgongåva.

Märta blev sedan krönt 1302 och tillhör de mer betydelsefulla av Sveriges medeltida drottningar, eftersom hon, med rätt eller orätt, ryktas ha varit politiskt aktiv, ha haft inflytande över sin makes politik och själv deltagit i många politiska händelser. Hon har ibland, vare sig det är med sanningen överensstämmande eller inte, angetts som konstruktören av planen bakom Nyköpings gästabud 1317, där hennes makes bröder fängslades, och skildras som blodtörstig av Erikskrönikan. Då maken avsattes flydde hon 1318 med honom till Danmark. 1326-1329 befann hon sig i Tyskland och återvände sedan till Danmark. Hon tillbringade sina sista år som nunna i Sankt Peters kloster i Næstved och fick sin grav invid med makens stoft i Sankt Bendts kyrka i Ringsted på Själland.

Barn [redigera]

   * Magnus (avrättad i Stockholm år 1320)

   * Erik

   * Agnes

   * Katarina

Källor [redigera]

   * Herman Lindqvist : Historien om Sverige. Från islossning till kungarike

   * Svensk Upslagsbok. 1947 års Utgåva.

   * Märta av Danmark i Wilhelmina Stålberg, Anteckningar om svenska qvinnor (1864)

   * Åke Ohlmarks : Sveriges drottningar

   * Dick Harrison: Jarlens sekel

Sidan ändrades senast den 22 juli 2010 kl. 23.45.

Martha of Denmark

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Martha of Denmark

Queen consort of Sweden

Reign 1298-1318

Spouse Birger of Sweden

Father Eric V

Mother Agnes of Brandenburg

Born 1277

Denmark

Died 1341

convent of Saint Peter in Naestved, Denmark

Burial Ringsted, Denmark

Martha, Swedish: Märta, officially Margaret (originally Margrethe) Eriksdatter of Denmark, (1277-1341) was a Medieval Swedish Queen consort, spouse of king Birger of Sweden. She was a politically influential queen, and played a part in the Håtuna games and in the Nyköping Banquet.

Background

Märta was born the daughter of King Eric V of Denmark and Agnes of Brandenburg and sister of King Eric VI. Her father was murdered in 1286, and her mother, who was made regent, remarried in 1293. Märta was married to King Birger of Sweden in 1298; two years before, her brother had been married to her husband's sister, Princess Ingeborg of Sweden. The marriage was decided when she was a child - the dispensation from the Pope was obtained in 1284 - and she had in fact spent a lot of her childhood in Sweden; engaged to the Swedish crown prince as a child, she had been largely brought up at the Swedish court by her future mother-in-law, the queen dowager Helwig of Holstein. She is confirmed to have lived in Sweden permanently from at least 1295.

[edit]Queen

Märta and Birger grew up together, and their marriage was to become a happy one, which was perhaps the reason to why she was to have a such a large influence on him. In 1298, it was decided that it was time to celebrate their formal wedding, which is described as very grand, with processions of knights, theatre played by nobles, and the title of duke given by her husband to his brothers. She herself asked for prisoners to be let free, which was granted, and given the city of Falköping and large territories. She was crowned in 1302.

Queen Martha had great political influence on her husband and participated in many the intrigues of his court. In 1299, she gave birth to a son, who was proclaimed heir to the throne in 1304. In 1306, however, the brothers of the king took the actual power away from the royal couple in the famous Håtuna games. Märta sent her son and heir to her brother and her husband's sister, the king and queen of Denmark.

In Swedish history, queen Märta had a bloodthirsty reputation, given to her by the chronicles Erikskrönikan. In the second of her husband's controversies with his brothers the dukes - the king and Queen had, during the first one, the Håtuna games in 1306, been captured and imprisoned by them, and forced to hand over the real power to them - the royal couple invited the dukes to great festivities, during which the dukes vere captured and imprisoned, and left to starve to death. The festivitys is described in a famous medieval song: Everyone danced all the way from indoors to outdoors, the Queen had never looked so happy before, which was seen as a cruel sign of excitement, as she was aware of the plans on capturing them in the middle of the festivities, that she and her husband would now get their revenge. She is also suggested as the creator of the entire plan of event; she is mentioned as the creator of the Nyköping Banquet together with minister Johann Brunkow.

[edit]Exile

When her husband was deposed in 1318 and Nyköpingshus castle was taken, she fled to her brother in Denmark, were she spent the rest of her life. Her husband joined her, and she became a widow in 1321, after having witnessed her son's murder in 1320 and her brother's death in 1319. she arranged for the marriages of her daughters and spent 1326-1329 in Germany. The last years of her life was spent as a nun in the convent of Saint Peter in Naestved. She was buried in the church of Saint Bent in Ringsted.

[edit]Children

Prince Magnus Birgersson of Sweden (1300-1320)

Prince Eric Birgersson of Sweden

Princess Agnes Birgersdotter of Sweden

Princess Katarina Birgersdotter

[edit]References

Herman Lindqvist: Historien om Sverige. Från islossning till kungarike. (History of Sweden. From Ice break to kingdom) (1997) (Swedish)

Svensk Uppslagsbok, 1947 års utgåva. (Swedish dictionary, 1947 edition) (1947) (Swedish)

[1] Wilhelmina stålberg: Anteqningar om svenska qvinnor (Notes on Swedish women) (Swedish)

Ohlmarks, Åke: Alla Sveriges drottningar. (All the queens of Sweden) (Swedish)

Dick Harrison: Jarlens sekel. (The century of the jarl) (Swedish)

Christer Öhman: "Helgon, bönder och krigare. Berättelser ur den svenska historien" (Saints, peasants and warriors. Stories from the Swedish history) (1994)

http://runeberg.org/dbl/11/0124.html