queen-mother to appear before him; but they refused on the plea that Sleswic was unfavourable to them. The plea was a frivolous one, and devised only to cover their determination not to acknowledge the competency of the judges. Apprehensive for their safety in a city which depended on the king, the legate and the bishops repaired to Lubeck, whence they excommunicated Eric, his mother, and all who had refused to obey the citation. The primate retired to Rome, where he remained about seven years; and during that period, the interdict remained in full force. [Sidenote: 1261 to 1264.] While these events were passing, others occurred of still greater moment to the queen and her son. On the death of Valdemar (1257), eldest son of Abel, who had been transferred from the dungeons of Cologne to the ducal palace of Sleswic, and who left no issue, the succession was claimed by Eric, the next brother. Abel, who then reigned, had refused to invest him, and he had therefore thrown himself into the arms of his kinsmen, the counts of Holstein, and by their aid had entered on the administration of the duchy. Unable to dispossess him, Margaret proposed to recognise him, provided he would acknowledge that he held the fief by the pure favour of the crown, and not by any right of inheritance. But in every European country except Scandinavia fiefs had long been hereditary: they had become allodial property; and Eric refused to sanction a condition which must have proved fatal to the hopes of his family. To chastise him, the queen and her son marched towards the south; but on the plains of Sleswic they were signally defeated. Flight did not save them from the power of their enemies: they were overtaken and consigned to imprisonment—the former at Hamburg, in the charge of the counts of Holstein, the latter in the fortress of Norburg, subject to duke Eric. There both might have remained to the close of life (for the bishop and the people were equally disaffected), had not Albert of Anhalt, who had married the princess Mechtilda, sister of the king, interfered in their behalf. The queen was soon released (1263), and enabled to resume the administration: the king was confided to the guardianship of John, margrave of Brandenburg, also connected by the ties of blood with the royal family. It was at length agreed that he should be enlarged, on the condition of his marrying Agnes, daughter of the margrave, whose dowry, 6000 marks, was to be placed against his ransom. Returning to his capital (1264), he was now old enough to assume the reins of government. [Sidenote: 1272 to 1275.]