Word with a Past: Quisling
In her April 9 report on the German invasion of Norway, Sigrid Schultz reported that Major Vidkun Quisling, the Norwegian Nazi leader, had taken power as premier and foreign minister only hours after Oslo surrendered. In a radio proclamation that evening, he “called upon the people to cease resistance to the German army and avoid ‘criminal destruction of property’ and demanded that the Norwegian army obey his ‘national government.’ Quisling said he had taken over to ‘protect Norway’.”
Her use of quotation marks in reporting Quisling’s power grab proved to be prescient. The King Haakon refused to accept a Quisling government. In fact, so few Norwegians supported Quisling that the Germans immediately realized that keeping him in power as their proxy was fanning the flames of Norwegian resistance. On April 15, he was forced to resign in favor of German Reichskomissar, Josef Terboven He continued to serve as a cabinet minister in the occupation government, and was appointed “Minister President” on February 1, 1942. It was a relatively meaningless title since the real power remained in the hands of Terboven.
He was arrested after the liberation of Norway in May 1945, tried for treason, and executed.
Quisling entered English as a synonym for traitor almost immediately.
The Oxford English dictionary reports first use of the term as a general noun rather than a proper name only days after the Nazis invaded Norway. On April 15, the Times of London reported comments in the Swedish press urging “there should be unremitting vigilance also against possible ‘Quislings’ inside the country.” A year later, in a speech at St. James Palace, Winston Churchill described the term as “a new word which will carry the scorn of mankind down the centuries.”
Quisling: A person cooperating with an occupying enemy force; a collaborator; a traitor. Also used as an adjective for someone who does the same., for example”quisling newspapers”
Queen Magrethe I, Pt. 2
One of my favorite things about writing this blog is the conversations I have with my readers about the subjects of my posts, or in fact about history in general.
This morning I got a sidebar to the life of Queen Margrethe I from textile maven Julie Holyoke, who is my cousin by marriage and by choice. I thought it was absolutely fascinating. And, as you know, when I find a fascinating historical tidbit, I like to share.*
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- Original gown, Cathedral Museum, Uppsala
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- Reconstructed gown. @Laila Duran
As I learned from Kelcey Wilson-Lee’s Daughters of Chivalry, many of our historical sources for the lives of medieval royal women include descriptions of real-life “princess dresses.” But few of those gown survive. A major exception is a gold brocade gown traditionally believed to have belonged to Queen Margrethe I of Norway, Denmark and Sweden(1353-1412) .
The gown was long believed to be the gown Margrethe wore when she married King Haakon VI of Norway in 1363. It’s a romantic story for a gorgeous gown, but modern science has debunked it. Carbon-dating places the dress between 1400 and 1439. Some scholars suggest that it may have belonged to Phillipa of England (1394-1430), who was married by proxy to Margrethe’s adopted nephew and heir when she was eleven.**
Regardless of which Scandinavian queen wore the gown, it is fabulous. Made of gold brocade with a pomegranate pattern on a red silk background, it may well have cost more than Margrethe’s crown.
*Here’s the link to article that sent me down the rabbit hole: https://www.medieval.eu/royal-golden-dress-from-ca-1400-returns-to-denmark/ Julie tells me that a friend of hers created the museum reconstruction. Julie herself reconstucted materials for another of Margrethe’s gowns, now on permanent display in Copenhagen.
**Reminding you once again, that medieval princesses did not have much romance in their lives.
Queen Margrethe I and the Kalmar Union
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.