Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/550

536 distinguished by the appellation of the Semiramis of the North.

In 1395 she associated with her in the three elective kingdoms her great nephew Eric, duke of Pomerania. She governed with absolute authority, and when reminded of her oaths, by the nobility, who added, "they had the records of it;" she replied, "I advise you to keep them carefully; as I shall keep the castles and cities of my kingdom, and all the rights belonging to my dignity."

"This queen," says a French author, "was magnificent in her pleasures, grand in her projects, brilliant in her court. She equalled, in the quickness and extent of her genius, the most famous politicians. The king Waldemar discovering in her, while yet a child, a surprising elevation of soul and mental resources, said that Nature had been deceived in forming her, and instead of a woman had made a hero."

Though merciful, she laid the wisest regulations for strict justice, and to prevent offenders being screened from punishment. Private oppressions and abuses she did away, and decreed that all manner of assistance should be given to those who were thrown on their coasts by shipwreck or misfortune; for which acts of humanity, rewards were provided by law.—She renewed the ancient laws which had slept, and exerted all her powers to suppress piracies, in her kingdoms, and made such regulations as laid the foundations for future commerce: it was in her reign that we first meet with the mention in history of the copper mines of Sweden.

At the treaty of Calmar, concluded in 1397, she endeavoured to make the union of the three kingdoms perpetual, and introduced Eric separately to all