Eric

the name of several Danish and Swedish kings. Brie VIII., the Saint, became King of Sweden in 1155, did much to extend Christianity in his dominions, and to improve the laws, and fell in battle with the Danes in 1160. Eric XIYV., the last of the name who reigned in Sweden, succeeded in 1560 to the throne of his father, the great Gustavus Vasa, and at once began to exhibit the folly that disgraced his reign. His flighty matrimonial schemes reached even Elizabeth of England and Mary of Scotland, till at length (1567) his roving fancy found rest in the love of a Swedish peasant-girl, who acquired an influence over him which was ascribed by the. superstitious to witchcraft; she alone was able to control him in the violent paroxysms of blind fury to which he was subject. His capricious cruelties and the disastrous wars that followed on his follies at length alienated the minds of his subjects, who threw off their allegiance in 1568 and elected his brother John to the throne. In 1577 he ended his miserable life half voluntarily by a cup of poison. This crazy, madman had a genuine love of letters, and solaced his captivity with music and the composition of psalms, ea Erichsen, Sir John Eric, a British my oe born July 19, 1818, his father being a Copenhagen merchant. In 1887 he was appointed president of University College. In 1875 he served on the a.