The surname of this king will sufficiently explain his character. He was indeed one of the most pacific of men. Yet he was compelled to fight for his crown; for Olaf, the only son of Harald that had escaped the bloody proscriptions of Eric Emund, appeared at the head of a considerable force, and claimed it. That if hereditary right only was to be consulted, the claim was a valid one, is certain, for he was the only representative of his father, the eldest son of Eric the Good. But the Danish throne was elective; and though the claim was confined to one family, little regard was paid to primogeniture. After many alternations of fortune, Olaf was vanquished and slain (1143). But Eric himself was conquered by the Slavonic pirates of the Baltic, who, though so frequently humbled (if any credit is to be placed in the national historians), soon re-appeared in numbers formidable enough to alarm the kingdom. This check, and the consequent decline of his reputation in the eyes of a warlike people, induced him soon afterwards to resign the crown, and to profess as monk in the cloister of Odinsey. [Sidenote: 1147.] On the retirement of Eric the Lamb, the three princes who had before been rejected on account of their youth were again candidates. Valdemar being deemed still too young, the choice was restricted to the other two. Unfortunately for the interests of order both were elected,—Sweyn by the Lands Thing of Scania and Zealand, Canute by the people of Jutland. CANUTE V. SWEYN III. 1147–1156. 1147–1157. [Sidenote: 1147 to 1157.]