Less Favored – More Favored: Queenship and the Special Case of Margrete of Denmark, 1353-1412

Abstract

Some ten years ago, the German historian Armin Wolf published an article on reigning queens, that is, queens ruling in their own right not as spouse or widow of a king in medieval Europe. Among the women, he dealt with, was the Danish queen Margrete whom he considered representative of a general European pattern according to which women could inherit the throne and under special circumstances remain there. Margrete, however, does not fit into this pattern. She was regent and for a brief period reigning queen of three countries with different traditions and legislation concerning royal succession. The legal foundation of her reign was not inheritance, but a combination of traditional regency for a minor king and exceptional regency for the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden in general. The career of Margrete was founded on a mixture of rules and practices for female exercise of power, which combined with her great political intelligence produced an unusual career. The history of Margrete illustrates well the legal conditions in which gender could offer women advantages as well as disadvantages.