Editing Margaret I of Denmark (section)

===Kalmar Union and royal policy===
[[File:Kalmar Union ca. 1400.svg|thumb|right|220px|The geographical extent of the Kalmar Union in {{circa}} 1400]]
So long as the union was insecure, Margaret had tolerated the presence of the [[Riksråd]], but their influence was minor and the Royal authority remained supreme. The offices of High Constable and Earl Marshal were left vacant; the [[Danehof]] fell into ruin, and "the great Queen, an ideal despot",<ref>{{cite book|last1=Yust|first1=Walter|last2=University of Chicago|title=Encyclopædia Britannica: A New Survey of Universal Knowledge, Volume 14|date=1950|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica|page=876}}</ref> ruled through her court officials, who served as a superior kind of clerk. In any event, law and order were well maintained and the licence of the nobility was sternly repressed. The kingdoms of Sweden and Norway were treated as integral parts of the Danish State, and national aspirations were frowned upon or checked, though Norway, being more loyal, was treated more indulgently than Sweden.

In 1396, according to Grethe Jacobsen, she issued an ordinance that one should to a higher degree than hitherto respect and enforce peace towards church (''pax dei''), houses, farms, legal assemblies, workers in the fields – and women, expressed in the word "kvindefred". Jacobsen believes that as punishment for rape was normally not associated with the other forms for upholding peace in the tradition of pax dei, this may be an expression of Margrete's perception of women as being particularly vulnerable in times of unrest, and for her own interpretation of the ruler as protector of ''personae miserabiles'', which included maidens and widows. Another testament was her dispositions of 1411 through which she distributed the sum of 500 marcs among the women who had been 'violated and debased' during the wars between Sweden and Denmark 1388–1389.{{sfn|Jacobsen|pp=9-10}}
[[File:Royal Arms of Margaret I of Denmark.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Margaret's Royal Arms combined the arms of the three kingdoms, according to the [[Nationalmuseum]].]]
Margaret recovered for the Crown all the landed property that had been alienated in the troubled times before the reign of Valdemar IV. This so-called ''reduktion'', or land-recovery, was carried out with the utmost rigour, and hundreds of estates fell into the hands of the crown. She also reformed the Danish currency, substituting good silver coins for the old and worthless copper tokens, to the great advantage both of herself and of the state. She always had large sums of money at her disposal, and much of it was given to charity.

According to Thomas Kingston Derry, Margaret tried to provide the union with a sound economic basis. In the process, each of her measures (recovery of crown lands from nobility and the church, new taxes and new coins) hurt the interests of powerful classes, but she prevented them from having leadership by making little use of separate councils of her three kingdoms, relying on a body of civil and ecclesiastical officials she chose with great skills instead. She placed Danes in Swedish and Norwegian bishoprics, while royal estates and castles were managed by [[castellan]]s and bailiffs of foreign extraction. While this has been criticized as promoting Danes at the expense of Swedish and Norwegian people, Derry opines that considering she employed more Germans in her native Denmark than elsewhere, she was mainly interested in securing a loyal and efficient administration.{{sfn|Derry|2000|pp=73-74}}
[[File:Dronning Margareta PI XIX 2.jpg|thumb|right|Seal of Margaret, in known use 1381–1409.]]
She travelled much, in her later years is said to have spent more time in Sweden than in Denmark. She encouraged intermarriages among the nobility of three realms. Her piety is well-known, and she gave strong backing to the canonisation of [[Bridget of Sweden|St.Brigitta]], helped to make [[Vadstena]] into a strong cultural centre and encouraged the spread of "Brigittine language", which led to many Swedish expressions coming into use among Danes and Norwegians.{{sfn|Derry|2000|p=74}}

In contrast with the foreign policy of her venturesome father, Margaret's was circumspect and unswervingly neutral in the [[Hundred Years' War|bloody war between France and England]] as well as other European conflicts.{{sfn|Magill|2012|p=627}} However, she spared no pains to recover lost Danish territory. She purchased the island of [[Gotland]] from its actual possessors, [[Albert, King of Sweden|Albert of Mecklenburg]] and the [[Livonian Order]], and the greater part of Schleswig was regained in the same way.

In 1402 Margaret entered into negotiations with King [[Henry IV of England]] about the possibility of a double-wedding alliance between [[England]] and the Nordic Union. The proposal was for King Erik to marry Henry's daughter [[Philippa of England|Philippa]], and for Henry's son, the Prince of Wales and future [[Henry V of England]], to marry Erik's sister [[Catherine of Pomerania, Countess Palatine of Neumarkt|Catherine]]. According to Marc Shell, Margaret's vision was that one day, two unions would unite to recreate [[Cnut the Great]]'s [[North Sea Empire|Empire of the North]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Shell|first1=Marc|title=Islandology: Geography, Rhetoric, Politics|date=2014|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=9780804786294|page=131|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AxBXBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA131}}</ref> The English side wanted these weddings to seal an offensive alliance that could have led the Nordic kingdoms to become involved in the [[Hundred Years' War]] against [[France]]. Margaret followed a consistent policy of not becoming involved in binding alliances and foreign wars, and therefore rejected the English proposals. However, although there was no double wedding, Erik married the 13-year-old Philippa, daughter of Henry IV of England and [[Mary de Bohun]], at [[Lund]] on 26 October 1406, sealing a purely defensive alliance. For Erik's sister Catherine, a wedding was arranged with [[John, Count Palatine of Neumarkt]]. Margaret thus acquired a South German ally, who could be useful as a counterweight to the North German Princes and cities.