The joining together of the crowns of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Margaret I (1353–1412), daughter of the King of Denmark and wife of Haakon VI of Norway (died 1387), defeated (1389) the King of Sweden and persuaded the Diets of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden to accept Eric of Pomerania, her grandnephew, as king. He was crowned (1397), the beginning of the Union of Kalmar, though Margaret herself ruled the three kingdoms until her death. The union was dissolved by Gustavus I of Sweden in 1523.