Some time after this the queen herself dispatched some vessels to Greenland; but of which no tidings were ever received; and they must consequently have perished. This disastrous expedition contributed to put an end to the intercourse with Greenland; and the queen having her attention occupied by her hostilities with Sweden, lost sight of this remote colony, or left it to its fate.
The Danish Chronicle relates, that in the year 1406, Eskild, Archbishop of Drontheim, wishing to exercise the same ecclesiastical authority over Greenland, which his predecessors had done, sent a prelate named Andrew, in order to succeed Henry, in the see of Garde, if he were dead, or to convey some intelligence concerning him if he were living. Nothing more was ever heard of Bishop Andrew, after his embarkation for Greenland; nor were any farther tidings ever received of Henry, Bishop of Garde. After this, the intercourse between Norway or Denmark and Greenland, suffered an interruption from that period to the present; nor is there much probability that it will ever be renewed.
Queen Margaret was succeeded, upon the throne of Denmark, by Erick, of Pomerania, who gave himself little trouble about a settlement so remote as that of Greenland. His successor, Christopher of Bavaria, was employed during his whole reign in making war upon the Pomeranians.
The house of Oldenburg began its reign in Denmark in the year 1448. Christian, who was the first sovereign of that race, and of that name, neglected his dominions in the North in order to turn his attention to the South. He made a pilgrimage to Rome, where he obtained from the Pope a grant of the country of Ditmarsh, and permission to establish an academy at Copenhagen.
Christian I was succeeded by Christian II, who, at the period of his coronation, bound himself by a solemn promise to make every possible exertion to restore the intercourse between Denmark and Greenland, and to recover that settlement. But this monarch, instead of recovering what his predecessors had lost, himself lost part of what they had possessed. His tyrannical barbarities caused him to be expelled from Sweden, which Queen Margaret had united with the Danish and Norwegian crown. From Sweden Christian II retired into Denmark; but the same conduct which had occasioned his expulsion by the Swedes, soon led to his deposition by the Danes. It is on this account that he is represented with a shivered sceptre amongst the Danish kings.