Drottning Margaretas dröm review

In the final chapter, Petersson envisions Margaret seeing the Kalmar Union as a practical, political solution that would produce peace and stability in a time where both were lacking. Margaret’s own practical, political skills are greatly in evidence. The crowning of her great-nephew and adopted son Erik of Pomerania, his name changed from Bogislaw to something more appealingly Nordic with historic echoes, was a hugely symbolic event, setting a ceremonial stamp on what the author describes as a coup.

350 pages and a hundred years of history are impossible to summarise in a review. However, we come away with a picture of Queen Margaret as a ruler skilled in political manoeuvring to hold onto power, ruling Denmark and Norway after the death of her husband and her son Olaf, negotiating with the Hanseatic League, and doing battle with King Albert of Sweden for control of Stockholm, with the Swedish nobles on her side. Along the way, she frequently uses delaying tactics, and in an ‘instruction manual’ tells her heir not to make promises and, if he must, to write them on paper rather than official parchment. Yet she is not loath to go to war when necessary, capturing and imprisoning Albert in 1389 and then using his release as a bargaining tool. In the medieval world, we must not forget the importance of religion either. Margaret petitions the Pope (and choosing which of two popes to support is another act of diplomacy) to canonise Saint Bridget, bringing power, wealth and tourism to the Bridgettine Order at Vadstena.  

Petersson skilfully interweaves a narrative history, following the course of Queen Margaret’s life, with the detail of the sources we have available to us today, showing his evidence from documents, papers, inventories and contemporary or later chronicles, and examining the different interpretations that have arisen in the absence of solid historical source material. He engages with the historiography, discussing the cultural setting in which past historians of the Kalmar Union were writing. This is a scholarly work, provided with detailed references for each chapter and a list of document sources and further reading at the end, as well as an index, but Petersson’s writing style is anything but dry. The return of Margaret’s son Olaf from the dead in the form of a German pretender who is burnt at the stake, for example, is a tense read. 

History is a popular non-fiction genre but the Scandinavian history that can be found on bookshop shelves in English tends to solely focus on the Vikings. The book would spark the interest of readers looking to expand their knowledge of European history and medieval history in particular. It does not assume existing knowledge of the historical figures that people the narrative. It would especially appeal to readers of popular medieval historians such as Dan Jones or Alison Weir, and also to players of the historical strategy video game Crusader Kings, inspired to read more about the real political machinations, dynastic marriages and succession crises behind the characters they play.