ERIC

ERIC, the name of several of the kings of Denmark, and Sweden, and Norway, the most notorious being the son of the noble Swedish king GUSTAVUS VASA (1533-1577), who aspired to the hand of Elizabeth of England and challenged his rival Leicester to a duel; afterwards sought Mary of Scotland, but eventually married a peasant girl who had nursed him out of madness brought on by dissipation; was deposed after a State trial instigated by his own brothers, and ultimately poisoned himself in prison eight years later.