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Pete Hobbs (talk | contribs) Improved some wording. Added a citation from a 2024 journal article. |
Pete Hobbs (talk | contribs) Added date of death and citation from historian's journal article. |
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The '''False Olaf''' was a man executed on 28 October 1402<ref name="SS-Necklace">{{cite journal | last = Cole | first = Richard | title = The False King Olaf and His Necklace of Letters | journal = Scandinavian Studies | volume = 95 | issue = 1 | pages = 1-34 | publisher = [[University of Wisconsin Press]] | location = Madison | date = 20 March 2023 | url = https://sca.uwpress.org/content/95/1/1 | doi = 10.3368/sca.95.1.0001 | access-date = 8 October 2024}}</ref> for impersonating King [[Olaf II of Denmark]] and Norway, who had died as a teenager in 1387. Condemned for treason, he was sentenced to be burned wearing a necklace of his letters.<ref name="SS-Necklace"/>
The [[Prussia (region)|Prussian]] priest and [[chronicle]]r [[Johann von Posilge]] reported that, in 1402, a poor sick man came to the region and stayed near the village of Graudenz (now [[Grudziądz]] in Poland). A group of Danish merchants asked him if he was not well known in Denmark, since he looked very much like the late King Olaf. The merchants left to find another who had seen the real king and returned with him. When the newcomer saw the one they took for Olaf, he cried out, "My lord king!" There was already a popular belief, especially in Norway, that Olaf's mother, [[Margaret I of Denmark]], had poisoned him so that she could continue to rule as regent,<ref name="Vik&MedScan">{{cite journal| last = Cole | first = Richard | title = The False King Olaf, Queen Margaret, and the Prussian Hansa | journal = Viking and Medieval Scandinavia | volume = 20 | pages = 83-111 | publisher = [[Brepols]] | location = Turnhout | date = 2024 | url = https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/10.1484/J.VMS.5.132123 | issn = 1782-7183 | eissn = 2030-9902 | access-date = 8 October 2024}}</ref> and even a rumour that he had hid himself and escaped. News of the man in Graudenz reached another merchant, Tyme von der Nelow, who took the man to Danczik (now [[Gdańsk]]). The high born of the town welcomed Olaf as the rightful king of Denmark and Norway and gave him fine clothes and presents. A seal was made for him, and he wrote to Queen Margaret demanding the restoration of his lands and titles. Queen Margaret wrote back, saying that if he could prove himself her son, she would gladly accept him.<ref name="NarHande">Rosborn, Sven; Schimanski, Folke (1997). ''När hände vad i nordens historia''. p. 69. {{ISBN|91-7643-350-1}}.</ref><ref name = "SSandS">Williams, Gareth. ''Sagas, Saints, and Settlements''.</ref>
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