At this point our trip to Norway back in June seems like a distant memory, and some of the stories I planned to share with you seem equally vague. But one story resonated with me too strongly to ignore: Queen Margrethe (1353-1412), the first great ruling queen in European history.

Like many ruling queens in medieval Europe, Margrethe came to power as a queen regent not a queen regnant.

The daughter of the the King of Denmark, she was betrothed to Haakon, the king of Norway, when she was six years old for dynastic reasons. (They were married when she was ten. Being a medieval princess was not an easy gig.) By the time their only son, Olaf, was born in 1370,* Margrethe had already demonstrated talent as a ruler.

In the coming years, Margarthe proved to be a master of dynastic chess. Here are the highpoints:

• When her father died in 1375, she succeeded in getting her five-year-old son elected to the Danish throne.
• When her husband died in 1380, she became regent of both Denmark and Norway in her son’s name.
• Olaf came of age in 1385, but Margrethe continued to rule along side him. Together they prepared to go to war against Sweden to claim the Swedish crown—Olaf’s grandfather had been the king of Sweden for a time.
• Olaf died suddenly in 1387. Margrethe adopted her six-year-old nephew, Eric of Pomerania, as her heir and continued to rule Denmark and Norway as regent.
• She then went after Sweden, though the claim to the throne had died with Olaf. By 1389 she was the undisputed ruler of the three Scandinavian states, though still officially as regent.

Even after Eric’s coronation in 1396, Margrethe remained Scandinavia’s actual ruler until her death.
Margrethe’s reign shaped Scandinavia for centuries. The three Scandinavian states were united in 1397 under the Kalmar Union, which united Denmark, Norway and Sweden until 1523 and Denmark and Norway until 1814.

Mighty important for someone who didn’t show up in any of my world history classes–or in either of the two books I own titled Medieval People.

*You do the math.