But if Eric was thus at peace with his spiritual, he was often in disputes with his temporal, barons, on whose rights he was always ready to encroach. Notwithstanding his treaty with the counts of Holstein, he endeavoured to evade the investiture of Sleswic in favour of Valdemar. Both parties, however, were equally to blame; for when Valdemar was invested, he claimed other domains in Frisia, on the plea that they belonged to his paternal uncle. When this was refused, he leagued himself with the enemies of Denmark: the plot was discovered, and he was imprisoned while at Eric’s court. But his detention was of short duration; and at the intercession of his allies, he was enlarged, after subscribing some conditions which more clearly established the authority of the crown over the fief. Still, if one enemy was vanquished, others remained, and to some of them, or rather to his own vices, the king fell a victim. To the count of Halland he had been oppressive: he had deprived him of his domains, and if report were true, dishonoured the wife during the husband’s absence. Revenge was sworn, and the oath was kept. One night, after hunting, he was murdered asleep at a rural village in Jutland. The king’s chamberlain was privy to the design: it was he who guided the assassins (all in masks) to the bed. They subsequently fled to Norway, by the king of which they were protected against the vengeance of Eric’s family.
Thus ended a reign of troubles, most of which cannot with any justice be imputed to the monarch. Yet his own vices added greatly to his misfortunes. After his peace with the church, when moderation might have been expected from him, he frequently seized the church tithes, and applied to his own use the produce arising from the monastic domains. With his nobles he was no less severe; and more than once (especially in 1262) he was in danger of being driven from the realm by their united arms. Eric promulgated the code, called Birkerett, to the provisions of which we shall allude on a future occasion.
ERIC VIII.
SURNAMED MŒNVED.[[156]]
1286–1319.
|1286 to 1308.|
At his father’s death Eric was only twelve years of age. A guardian and regent was therefore necessary; and the post was demanded by Valdemar, duke of Sleswic, the nearest male kinsman of Eric. The queen-mother, Agnes of Brandenburg, willing but afraid to refuse, at length recognised his claim. There could not have been a better choice: he forgot the wrongs of his family in his new duties. In the first assembly which he convoked, he called for vengeance on the murderers of the late king. They were in alarm; and to escape the consequence, they entered into a plot, the object of which was to seize the young king, and detain him as a hostage, until their pardon should be declared by the states. That plot did not escape the vigilance of the regent, who took measures to disconcert it; and also, at the same time, caused a commission to be appointed, with power to inquire into the circumstances of Eric Glipping’s death. That commission consisted of Otho of Brandenburg, brother of the queen-mother; of Vicislas, prince of Rugen; of the counts of Holstein, and of twenty-seven Danish nobles. The result was a verdict of wilful murder against James, count of Halland, Stig, marshal of the court, and seven others. Condemned to perpetual banishment, they repaired to the court of the Norwegian king, then at war with Denmark, by whom they were hospitably received. Assisted by him they were enabled to visit the northern parts of their fief, and to commit, during many years, considerable depredations. That the Norwegian monarch should thus become the ally of murderers—the murderers, too, of a brother king—might surprise us, if we did not remember that he and his father had long applied, but applied in vain, for satisfaction on points, the justice of which had never been denied. One of them was, that the dowry of his mother, Ingeburga, a Danish princess, had never been paid. At the head of a considerable fleet, he himself soon followed the regicides, and devastated the coasts. To no proposals of peace would he listen, unless the regicides were pardoned—for such was his engagement with them. This war raged until 1308, when peace was restored in the treaty of Copenhagen. The chief condition was, that in compensation for his mother’s dowry, the Norwegian monarch should hold northern Halland as a fief from Eric of Denmark. In regard to the regicides, it was stipulated, that some should be allowed to return and enjoy their property, but that the more guilty should never revisit the realm. Yet, even to them a permission during three years was given to dispose of their lands and personal substance.
|1292 to 1299.|
This long war was not the only trouble of Eric. Like his two predecessors, he was embroiled with the church. To Grandt, a dignitary of Roskild, he was hostile, for reasons apparently which had no foundation. When that dignitary was elected to the see of Lund, he refused, like Erlandsen, either to solicit or to accept the royal confirmation; and he hastened to Rome to obtain that of the pope. On his return, he was arrested by Christopher, the king’s brother, and treated with remarkable severity. His property was seized; he was made to exchange his pontifical robes for the meanest rags; he was fastened to the back of a worn-out horse; and in this state led, amidst the jeers of the royal dependants, to the fortress of Helsinburg. He was soon transferred to the castle of Soeburg, where an unwholesome dungeon, heavy fetters, and meagre fare awaited him. The same treatment was inflicted on Lange, another dignitary of Lund; but he had the good fortune to escape and to reach Boniface VIII. at Avignon (1295). Some time afterwards, Grandt himself was so lucky as to escape, and repair to Bornholm, where he was received as a martyr. He too arrived at Avignon, and was welcomed by the pope, who observed, with much truth, that there were many saints that had suffered less for the church than archbishop Grandt. The dispute between the king and the church was examined at Rome, by a commission of cardinals. The award was a severe one for the king; it sentenced him to pay the archbishop, by way of indemnification, 49,000 silver marks; and until the money was paid, not only was his kingdom to remain under an interdict (it had been subject to one ever since the archbishop was seized), but he himself was to be excommunicated, and also his brother Christopher, the instrument of that arrest. When the king evinced no disposition to pay the money, the papal legate who had been dispatched to Denmark for the occasion, sequestered a portion of the royal revenues in Scania. This measure Eric could feel; and he threw himself on the mercy of the pope. Boniface so far relaxed from his severity as to allow the archbishop to resign his see of Lund, and to abate the indemnification to 10,000 marks. Grandt subsequently became archbishop of Bremen, while the papal legate succeeded to the primacy of Denmark.
|1299 to 1319.|