Eric Christoffersen (c. 1307 – c. 1332) (Danish: Erik Christoffersen) was king of Denmark from 1321 until his death, jointly with his father, King Christopher II. He was a member of the House of Estridsen. In Danish, he is sometimes called "Erik, elected king."[1]
Eric was the eldest son of King Christopher II and
puppet monarch in 1329 through the help of his half-brother Count John III. Eric was released in 1330, on the condition he married Elizabeth of Holstein-Rendsburg, dowager duchess of Saxe-Lauenburg and sister of his father's enemy, Count Gerhard III, by whom he had no children.[citation needed] The marriage was dissolved the next year as war again erupted between his father and Count John III and his brother-in-law Gerhard III.[4]
He predeceased his father, fighting in the battles, which subsequently broke out between his father and Holstein. On 30 November 1331, Eric was defeated at the battle at
St. Bendt's Church. Upon his father's death in the same year, Denmark ceased being a formal kingdom, and for the next eight years it was subdued by various mortgagees to German military rule. His younger brother would later regain Denmark from the Holsteiners and succeed as Valdemar IV of Denmark
