Queen
Märta and Birger grew up together, and their marriage is described as a happy one; she is also credited with a large influence over him and the affairs of state. In 1298, it was decided that it was time to celebrate their formal wedding. Their wedding was celebrated in Stockholm and was described as very grand, with processions of knights, theatre played by nobles, and the title of duke granted by her husband to his brothers. She herself asked for prisoners to be let free, which was granted. Martha was at her wedding awarded the city of Falköping and large territories as her personal fiefs.
Queen Martha had great political influence on her spouse and is described as politically active. In 1299, she gave birth to a son, who was proclaimed heir to the throne in 1304. Martha was crowned queen in 1302. In 1306, however, the brothers of the king took the actual power away from the royal couple in the famous Håtuna games. Märta sent her son and heir to her brother and her sister-in-law, her husband's sister, the king and queen of Denmark.
In Swedish history, queen Martha had a bloodthirsty reputation, given to her by the chronicles known as Erikskrönikan. In the second of her husband's great conflicts with his brothers, the dukes, the royal couple invited the dukes to great festivities. This was the famous Nyköping Banquet, during which the dukes were captured and imprisoned, and left to starve to death. Märta received her brothers-in-law with assurances that she loved them as if they were her brothers by blood. The festivities are described in the medieval Erikskrönikan: Everyone danced all the way from indoors to outdoors, the Queen had never looked so happy before. Her good mood was seen as a cruel sign of excitement that she and her husband were to have their revenge for the Håtuna games, as she was aware of the plan to capture the dukes in the middle of the festivities. Queen Martha is also suggested as the creator of the plan, together with minister Johann Brunkow.
Read more about this topic: Martha Of Denmark
Famous quotes containing the word queen:
“O Queen of air and darkness,
I think ‘tis truth you say,
And I shall die to-morrow;
But you will die to-day.”
—A.E. (Alfred Edward)
“And thus Snow White became the prince’s bride.
The wicked queen was invited to the wedding feast
and when she arrived there were
red-hot iron shoes,
in the manner of red-hot roller skates,
clamped upon her feet.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Queen Jane was in labor
Six weeks and some more;
The women grew wearied,
And the midwife gave o’er.”
—Unknown. The Death of Queen Jane (l. 1–4)