Eric, the eldest son of the king, was elected by the states; and as he was only ten years of age at his father’s death, the regency devolved on his mother, Margaret, daughter of Sambir, duke of Pomerania. That princess had great courage and great prudence, and both were required in the peculiarly difficult circumstances in which she was placed. Some of the bishops were exiles, some in prison, but all protected by the pope, and venerated by the people. Eric, the son of Abel, supported by the counts of Holstein, by the prince of Rugen, and by the exiled prelates, aspired to the throne. The interdict still remained, and consequently the discontent of the people. And now Jaromir, prince of Rugen, and the duke of Sleswic, accompanied by the bishop of Roskild, made a descent on the coast of Zealand, with a formidable army. Margaret collected what troops she was able, and hastened to meet the enemy. The battle was disastrous to the royal party, 10,000 being left on the field. The consequences were still more disastrous—the occupation of Zealand, and the destruction of several towns, (among others Copenhagen, which had recently been invested with municipal rights,) by the victors. Bornholm was next reduced, then Scania, which remembered its primate with gratitude; and the whole kingdom must have been subjugated by the Slavonic prince, had not a tragical death arrested him in his career. This was a heavy loss to the ecclesiastical party; but the bishop of Roskild confirmed the censure, and denied Christian burial to the dead of the royal party. Jutland only remained faithful to the latter. Yet Margaret was not dismayed: notwithstanding the interdict and the absolute prohibition issued alike by the primate and the bishop of Roskild, she caused her son to be crowned. To soothe in some degree the animosity of the former, she released him and all the churchmen; but he would not compromise what he deemed his duty; he refused all overtures from her, and retired into Sweden to await the decision of Rome. For this conduct he has been much censured by modern historians. They should, however, remember that he could not do otherwise: the decision was no longer in his hands, but in those of the pope, to whom it had been carried by the appeal of both parties. Alexander IV. was dead; and Urban IV., who was raised to the dignity, took cognizance of the cause. He condemned the primate, and ordered him to resign his archbishopric into the hands of two ecclesiastical commissioners whom he nominated for that purpose. Erlandsen obeyed; but, hearing that Clement IV. had succeeded to Urban, he hastened to Rome to plead for himself. Clement did not confirm the judgment of his predecessor; he took up the case _de novo_, and sent a legate to examine on the spot into the circumstances of the dispute, and to decide according to justice. Erecting his tribunal at Sleswic, the papal functionary cited the king and the