His mother, an important heiress, descended from Jarl Karl the Deaf and consequently from some ancient Folkunge earls of Sweden, as well as from Ingegerd Knutsdotter, a daughter of Canute IV of Denmark and Adela of Flanders.

Eric of Pomerania was forced to step down from the throne and in 1440 Christopher of Bavaria, was elected king of Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

At the coronation of Christopher in September 1441, Karl was dubbed a knight and appointed Lord High Justiciar of Sweden, or Riksdrots.

Karl's next seat was the castle of Viborg, on Finland's eastern border, where he kept an independent court, taking no heed of Christopher and exercising his own foreign policy in relation to such powers in the region as the Hanseatic League, the Russian city of Novgorod and the Teutonic Knights in what are today Estonia and Latvia.

A rivalry ensued between Karl and Christian for the throne of Norway, which had also been ruled by Christopher, with both kings gaining support from various factions in the Norwegian Council of the realm.

In 1449, a portion of the Norwegian council elected Karl as king of Norway, and he was crowned in Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim on 20 November.

Though she was recognized as queen, the Swedish government did not allow the suddenly legitimized boy to succeed him, but appointed one of their number, Sten Sture the Elder (who was Karl's nephew), as regent.

Six others before Charles VII are unknown to any sources before Johannes Magnus's 16th century book Historia de omnibus gothorum sueonumque regibus, and are considered his invention.

[3] Karl represented a growing nationalist tendency among the Swedish aristocracy which tried first to subjugate the other Scandinavian countries under Sweden but soon focused on dissolving the Kalmar Union.

[4]Karl's great-granddaughter Christina Nilsdotter Gyllenstierna was married to Sten Sture the Younger whose regentship represented similar values: nationalism and Swedish independence.

Karl's descendants have since ascended the thrones of Norway, Greece and Great Britain, Brunswick, Luxembourg, Belgium, Spain, Romania and Russia Empire together with Grand Duchy of Finland.