List of Greenlandic rulers

Greenland as an integral part of Norway under the Monarchy of Norway

From the 1260s, the Norse colony on Greenland recognised the King of Norway as their overlord. Norway entered into a personal union with Denmark in 1380 and from 1397 was part of the Kalmar Union. From 1536, after Sweden had broken out of the union, Norway entered into a closer dependency with Denmark in the kingdom of Denmark–Norway, which existed until 1814. From the Middle Ages up until 1814, official Danish documents made clear that Greenland was a part of Norway.

Greenland as a dependency of the Kingdom of Denmark

In 1814, Denmark-Norway found itself on the losing side of the Napoleonic Wars. In gratitude to Sweden for its assistance in defeating Napoleon (and as a consolation for the recent loss of Finland to Russia), mainland Norway and certain Norwegian territories were transferred to Sweden — thus, the personal union of Norway and Denmark ended. The dependencies of Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, however, remained part of the reorganised Kingdom of Denmark. Unlike Iceland, which was recognised as a sovereign monarchy united with Denmark under the same monarch in 1918, Greenland has remained a Danish dependency, currently under the reigning monarch Margrethe II of Denmark.