Margaret of Sweden (, ; c. 1155 – 1209) was Queen of Norway as the spouse of King

Sverre of Norway Sverre Sigurdsson () (c. 1145/1151 – 9 March 1202) was the king of Norway from 1184 to 1202. Many consider him one of the most important rulers in Norwegian history. He assumed power as the leader of the rebel party known as the Birkebeiner i ...

Biography

Margaret was the daughter of King Erik Jedvardsson "the Saint" and his Danish Queen Christina. In 1189, she married the Norwegian King

Sverre Sverre, Sverrir or Sverri is a Nordic name from the Old Norse ''Sverrir'', meaning "wild, swinging, spinning". It is a common name in Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands; it is less common in Denmark and Sweden. It can also be a surname. Sverre ma ...

. She is only sporadically mentioned in history during her tenure as queen; primarily in connection with an attempt by Nikolas Arnesson to become Bishop of Stavanger. In the sagas, Queen Margaret is portrayed as suspect and intrigant She became a widow in 1202, returned to her native Sweden, and retired to her estates in

Västergötland Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden. Vä ...

and

Värmland Värmland () is a ''Provinces of Sweden, landskap'' (historical province) in west-central Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Dalsland, Dalarna, Västmanland, and Närke, and is bounded by Norway in the west. Name Several Latinized version ...

. Departing

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, she had to leave her daughter Kristina Sverresdotter behind against her will. She spent two years in Sweden and returned to Norway in 1204. On 1 January 1204, two days after she had returned to Norway, her stepson, King

Haakon III of Norway Haakon III Sverresson ( Norwegian: ''Håkon Sverresson'', Old Norse: ''Hákon Sverrisson''; c. 1183 – 1 January 1204) was King of Norway from 1202 to 1204. Biography Haakon was born as the second illegitimate son of the future King Sverre, then ...

, died with obvious symptoms of

poison A poison is any chemical substance that is harmful or lethal to living organisms. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figurati ...

ing. Margaret became a suspect of the crime, and one of her servants tried to prove her innocence in a

trial by ordeal Trial by ordeal was an ancient judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused (called a "proband") was determined by subjecting them to a painful, or at least an unpleasant, usually dangerous experience. In medieval Europe, like ...

which failed. The servant was drowned and Margareta fled back to Sweden. Margaret returned to Norway in 1209 for her daughter's wedding. Her daughter married co-regent Filip Simonsson, the Bagler party candidate to the throne of Norway. Margaret took part in the wedding. Immediately after the wedding she became ill, and died a few weeks later.''Margrete Eriksdotter – utdypning'' (Store norske leksikon)
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In popular culture

Lia Boysen portrays a fictionalized Margaret in the 2016 film The Last King. Margaret is portrayed as having an affair with a fictional

Bagler The Bagli Party or Bagler (Old Norse: ''Baglarr'', Norwegian Bokmål: ''Bagler'', Norwegian Nynorsk: ''Baglar'') was a faction or party during the Norwegian Civil Wars. The Bagler faction was made up principally of the Norwegian aristocracy, cle ...

aristocrat and poisons Haakon in a conspiracy to become queen again.

Biography

In popular culture

References

Further reading