Eric of Pomerania Eric of Pomerania KG ( 1381 or 1382 – 3 May 1459 ) was King Eric ( " Eirik " ) III of Norway ( 1389 – 1442 ) , King Eric VII of Denmark ( 1396 – 1439 ) , and King Eric ( " Ericus " ) of Sweden ( 1396 – 1439 ; known there in history mainly as " Erik av Pommern " ) . He was the first King of the Nordic Kalmar Union , succeeding his adoptive mother Margaret I of Denmark . Referring to Eric of Pomerania as King Eric XIII of Sweden is a later invention , counting backwards from Eric XIV ( 1560 – 1568 ) , who adopted his numeral according to a fictitious history of Sweden . Going back into prehistory , it is not known how many Swedish monarchs were named Eric before this one ( at least six were ) , so it would be speculative to try to affix a mathematically accurate one here . Family . Born Boguslaw , the son of Polish Duke of Pomerania Wartislaw VII and Mary of Mecklenburg - Schwerin , Eric ' s paternal grandparents were Boguslaw V , Duke of Pomerania and his second wife Adelheid of Brunswick - Grubenhagen . His maternal grandparents were Henry III , Duke of Mecklenburg and Ingeborg of Denmark , Duchess of Mecklenburg . Their son Albert was a rival of Olaf Haakonsson in regard to the Danish succession in 1375 . Ingeborg was a daughter of Valdemar IV of Denmark and his Queen consort Heilwig of Schleswig . Her maternal grandparents were Eric II , Duke of Schleswig ( reigned 1312 – 1325 ) and Adelaide of Holstein - Rendsburg . Claim to the throne . Eric was born in 1382 in Rügenwalde ( Darłowo ) . Initially named Boguslaw , he was son to the only surviving granddaughter of Valdemar IV of Denmark and also a descendant of Magnus III of Sweden and Haakon V of Norway . On 2 August 1387 , Olav Håkonsson , King of Denmark since he was five years old and King of Norway since the death of his father , died unexpectedly at seventeen years of age . His mother the Dowager Queen of Norway had added the phrase " the true heir of Sweden " to Boguslaw ' s list of titles at his coronation . Boguslaw ' s claim to the Swedish throne came through his great - granduncle , Magnus IV of Sweden , who was forced to abdicate by the Swedish nobles . After the abdication , the Swedish nobles , led by Bo Jonsson ( Grip ) , had invited Count Albert of Mecklenburg to take the Swedish throne . However , when Albert attempted to introduce reduction of their large estates , they quickly turned against him . The nobles , including his former supporter Bo Jonsson Grip , Sweden ' s largest landowner who controlled a third of the entirety of the Swedish territory and had the largest non - royal wealth in the country , soon conspired to get rid of him , resenting his attempts to restrict the traditional privileges of the nobility , as well as his use of German officials to fill important administrative positions in the Swedish provinces . The Rigsråd ( Danish Thing ) elected Queen Margaret as " all powerful lady and mistress and the Kingdom of Denmark ' s Regent " . Just a year later , the Norwegians proclaimed Margaret the " reigning queen " and Albert of Sweden fought off an incursion from Norway . His respite was temporary — the Swedish nobility soon enlisted the Danish regent ' s help to remove Albert from the Swedish throne . In 1388 , several of the Swedish nobles wrote secretly to Margaret telling her that if she could rid them of Albert , they would make her Regent . Margaret lost no time and sent an army into Sweden to attack Albert while the Swedish nobles raised their own army to drive him out of the country . In 1389 , Albert ' s forces were defeated at the Battle of Falköping in Västergötland . Albert and his son Erik were captured when their horses became mired in mud so deep they could not escape . They were put into chains and sent by Queen Margaret to Scania , where Albert was imprisoned in Lindholmen Castle . It took until 1395 for Margaret to force Albert ' s supporters out of Stockholm . She made provisions for the three kingdoms in the event of her death . She wanted the kingdoms to be unified and peaceful and hence , chose the son of her father ' s surviving granddaughter , Boguslaw , to be named heir . Young Boguslaw was the grandson of Margaret ' s sister . In 1389 he was brought to Denmark to be brought up by Queen Margaret . His name was changed to the more Nordic - sounding " Erik " . On 8 September 1389 , he was hailed as King of Norway at the Ting in Trondheim . He may have been crowned King of Norway in Oslo in 1392 , but this is disputed . In 1396 he was proclaimed as king in Denmark and then in Sweden . On 17 June 1397 , he was crowned a king of the three Nordic countries in the cathedral of Kalmar . At the same time , a union treaty was drafted , declaring the establishment of what has become known as the Kalmar Union . Queen Margaret , however , remained the " de facto " ruler of the three kingdoms until her death in 1412 . Marriage . In 1402 , Queen Margaret entered into negotiations with King Henry IV of England about the possibility of an alliance between the Kingdom of England and the Nordic union . The proposal was for a double wedding , whereby Eric would marry Henry ' s daughter , Philippa , and Henry ' s son , the Prince of Wales and future King Henry V , would marry Eric ' s sister , Katarzyna . The English side wanted these weddings to seal an offensive alliance between the Nordic kingdoms and England , which could have led to the involvement of the Nordic union on the English side in the ongoing Hundred Years ' War against the Kingdom of France . Queen Margaret led a consistent foreign policy of not getting entangled in binding alliances and foreign wars . She therefore rejected the English proposals . The double wedding did not come off , but Eric ' s wedding to Philippa was successfully negotiated . On 26 October 1406 , Eric married the 13 - year - old Philippa at Lund . The wedding was accompanied by a purely defensive alliance with England . After Philippa ' s death in 1430 , he replaced her with her former lady in waiting Cecilia . King Eric was described by the future Pope Pius II as having " a beautiful body , reddish yellow hair , a ruddy face and a long narrow neck . . . alone , without assistance and without touching the stirrups , he jumped upon a horse , and all women were drawn to him , especially the Empress , in a feeling of longing for love " . Reign . From contemporary sources , Eric appears as intelligent , visionary , energetic and a firm character . That he was also a charming and well - spoken man of the world was shown by a great European tour of the 1420s . Negatively , he seems to have had a hot temper , a lack of diplomatic sense , and an obstinacy that bordered on mulishness . Almost the whole of Eric ’ s sole rule was affected by his long - standing conflict with the Counts of Schauenburg and Holstein . He tried to regain South Jutland ( Schleswig ) which Margaret had been winning but he chose a policy of warfare instead of negotiations . The result was a devastating war that not only ended without conquests but also led to the loss of the South Jutlandic areas that he had already obtained . During this war he showed much energy and steadiness , but also a remarkable lack of adroitness . In 1424 , a verdict of the Holy Roman Empire by Sigismund , King of Germany , recognising Eric as the legal ruler of South Jutland , was ignored by the Holsteiners . The long war was a strain on the Danish economy as well as on the unity of the north . Perhaps Eric ' s most far - ranging act was the introduction of the Sound Dues ( " Øresundtolden " ) in 1429 , which was to last until 1857 . By this he secured a large stable income for his kingdom that made it relatively rich and which made the town of Elsinore flowering . It showed his interest in Danish trade and naval power , but also permanently challenged the other Baltic powers , especially the Hanseatic cities against which he also fought . Another important event was his making Copenhagen a royal possession in 1417 , thereby assuring its status as the capital of Denmark . During the 1430s the policy of the king fell apart . In 1434 the farmers and mine workers of Sweden began a national and social rebellion which was soon used by the Swedish nobility in order to weaken the power of the king . He had to yield to the demands of both the Holsteiners and the Hanseatic League . In Norway , a peasant rebellion led by ( 1400 – 1465 ) , rebelled against King Erik and his officials , besieging Oslo and Akershus Castle . When the Danish nobility opposed his rule and refused to ratify his choice of Bogislaw IX , Duke of Pomerania as the next King of Denmark , he left Denmark and settled at his castle Visborg in Gotland , apparently a kind of a “ royal strike ” which led to his deposition by the National Councils of Denmark and Sweden in 1439 . The Norwegian nobility remained loyal to King Erik , and in 1439 he gave Sigurd Jonsson the title of " drottsete " , under which he was to rule Norway in King Erik ' s name . But with the King isolated in Gotland , the Norwegian nobility also felt compelled to depose him in 1440 . For ten years Erik lived on Gotland and made his living by piracy against the merchant trade in the Baltic . Eventually he returned to Pomerania , where he died in 1459 . Duke of Pomerania . In 1440 , Eric , having been deposed in Denmark and Sweden , was succeeded by his nephew , Christopher of Bavaria , who had been chosen for the thrones . After he had been deposed as king in Sweden and Denmark , the Norwegian Riksråd remained loyal to him , and wanted him to remain king of Norway only . He reputedly refused the offer . Christopher , his successor , died in 1448 , long before Eric himself . The next monarch ( reigned 1448 – 81 ) was Eric ' s kinsman , Christian I of Denmark , who was the son of Eric ' s earlier rival , Count Theodoric of Oldenburg . To him Eric handed over Gotland in return for the permission to leave for Pomerania . From 1449 – 59 , Eric succeeded Bogislaw IX , as Duke of Pomerania and ruled Pomerania - Rügenwalde , a small partition of the Duchy of Pomerania - Stolp ( Polish : Księstwo Słupskie ) , as Eric I . He died in 1459 at Darłowo ( German : Rügenwalde ) Castle and is buried in Church of St . Mary ' s in Darłowo in Pomerania . Full title . Eric ' s full title was : King of Denmark , Sweden and Norway , the Wends and the Goths , Duke of Pomerania