Eric the Great
| Eric IV | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Eric IV after Segol Fredholm c. 1547-1550 | |
| King of Geatland | |
| Reign | 5 August 1545 – 28 August 1564 |
| Coronation | 21 August 1545 |
| Predecessor | disputed |
| Successor | Eric V |
| King of Eldmark | |
| Reign | 19 April 1550 – 28 August 1564 |
| Predecessor | position created |
| Successor | Eric V |
| Prince of Blåstad | |
| Reign | 23 July 1534 – 5 August 1545 |
| Predecessor | Johan Gormsson |
| Successor | himself as King of Geatland |
| Born | Erik "Longbeard" Johansson 2 June 1499 Blå Kronor, Blåstad, Principality of Blåstad |
| Died | 28 July 1564 (aged 64–65) Klaushaus, Tyr, Geatland |
| Burial | 12 October 1564 |
| Spouse |
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| Issue |
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| House | Karla |
| Father | Johan Gormsson |
| Mother | Marie of Verlois |
| Religion |
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Eric IV (Erik Johansson; 7 June 1499 – 28 August 1564) , more commonly known as Eric the Great (Geatish: Erik den store) or Erik Longbeard, was the King of Geatland from 1545 to 1564 and King of Eldmark from 1550 to 1564. Before his accession as king, he was prince of Blåstad from 1534 to 1545. Eric the Great is best known as the architect of the Unification of Geatland. During his nineteen-year-long reign, Eric sponsored the establishment of the Viceroyalty of Eldmark as a colony of Geatland, reformed local administration, and separated the Church of Geatland from papal authority. He was the first monarch of the House of Karla.
Eric the Great was born Erik Johansson, son of Johan Gormsson prince of Blåstad, in 1498. Eric's mother, Marie of Verlois, was a Gaullican princess and thus afforded Eric strong ties to the Euclean mainland. In his early youth, Eric was sent to Lavelle in the Gaullican Empire to study. Though he courted Gaullican nobility, Eric was married to Mildred, a Geatish princess, at the age of fourteen. Upon his father's death in 1534, Eric became prince of Blåstad. As the ruler of Blåstad, a prosperous port city, Eric realized ambitions to unite the whole of the Geatish Islands under his control. Geatland at this time was characterized by disunity and riven by civil strife. After three years of negotiations, Eric succeeded in convincing local lords, barons, and princes to unite under him in 1545. Eric was proclaimed King of Geatland upon the signing of the Treaty of Blåstad, which created the "Second Kingdom of Geatland".
Eric's early reign saw the restructuring of local administration, which had heretofore varied widely across the Geatish Islands, and the establishment of the Counties of Geatland, many of which still persist to this day. Eric sponsored Hans Hammar Adelström and his voyage into Asteria Superior. Adelström's voyage culminated in the colonization and establishment of the Viceroyalty of Eldmark in 1950 with Eric as its first king. The same year, Eric disolved the Second Kingdom and formally declared the "Geatish Realm" to express Geatish dominion over Eldmark.