Margrete: Queen of the North () is a 2021 Danish historical drama film, directed and co-written by Charlotte Sieling. The film is a fictionalised account of the 'False Oluf', an impostor who in 1402 claimed to be the deceased King Olaf II/Olav IV of Denmark-Norway, son of the title character Margrete I of Denmark.
It was one of the largest productions in the history of Danish cinema, enjoying the largest budget ever for a Danish-language feature film. It premiered on 16 September 2021.
Plot
The film begins with the young Princess Margrete of Denmark witnessing the horrific bloodshed following the victory of her father, King Valdemar IV Atterdag, at the 1361 Battle of Visby.
Forty years later, and Margrete, now queen, has successfully united Denmark, Norway and Sweden under her rule, thereby founding the Kalmar Union and bringing a decade of peace to a region hitherto wracked by constant warfare. However, she does not exercise power in her own right but on behalf of her great nephew and adopted son Erik, whom she has had crowned king in each of the three kingdoms, and even though he is now of age she continues to rule in his name, aided by her friend and advisor Peder Jensen Lodehat, the Bishop of Roskilde.
In 1402, Margrete summons the leading magnates of the three kingdoms to Kalmar Castle to witness Erik's betrothal to Philippa of England, the daughter of King Henry IV of England. Philippa is accompanied by an English lord, William Bourcier, who has been tasked with negotiating the financial and political terms of the marriage agreement. Margrete is especially keen to establish a strong military alliance with England in order to deter attacks by the Union's German enemies, in particular the Teutonic Order, which rules Prussia and has also recently seized the Swedish island of Gotland.
During the feast to welcome the English party to Kalmar, the Norwegian magnate Asle Jonsson tells Margrete that en route to Kalmar he met a man who had come from Graudenz (in Prussia) and claims to be Oluf, Margrete's son. Oluf had as a child been king of both Denmark and Norway, but had died suddenly at Falsterbo fifteen years previously (i.e. in 1387). At the time he had been seventeen years old, just about to come of age and take over rule of the two kingdoms from his mother, and ever since the queen's enemies have spread dark rumours that she had him murdered in order to retain power herself. Margrete assures Asle that her son is dead, but he insists that he recognises the man as Oluf. This incendiary news quickly spreads, and so Margrete orders Asle to bring the man to Kalmar so that the matter can be put to rest. Meanwhile, Margrete grows suspicious of Raberlin, a German merchant present at the feast, and orders her Swedish retainer Jakob Nilsson to follow him when he returns to Prussia.
The Man from Graudenz is brought to Kalmar and publicly interrogated by Margrete. He repeats his claim that he is King Oluf, and explains that in 1387 one of his retainers was ordered to kill him by persons unknown. The assassin could not bring himself to go through with the deed, and so instead kidnapped him and took him to Prussia, where he has been held captive by the Teutonic Order for the last fifteen years. A few weeks ago, he was suddenly released without explanation, and he has subsequently made his way back to Scandinavia to reclaim his rightful inheritance. The Danish & Swedish councillors are sceptical of this story, but their Norwegian counterparts are more willing to believe it (as Oluf's father was the previous Norwegian king, Håkon VI), and several of them, like Asle, claim to recognise the Man from Graudenz as Oluf. Margrete orders him to be confined to the dungeons while she decides what to do with him.
Over the following days, Margrete finds herself faced with a horrible dilemma. Erik - who would lose his legitimacy if the prisoner is recognised as Oluf - becomes increasingly agitated and unstable, while Bishop Peder urges her to have the Man from Graudenz executed immediately in order to prevent discord between the three realms, and Bourcier threatens to break off negotiations and return to England with Philippa unless the question of Erik's status is resolved quickly. On the other hand, Asle Jonsson and the Norwegian councillors are adamant that the Man from Graudenz is Oluf, and the more Margrete speaks to him, the more she starts to wonder if he really is her son. A further element of doubt is introduced when she discovers that none of her councillors saw Oluf's corpse after his supposed death, as they were all too afraid of infection from the plague to open his coffin.