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. [Sidenote: 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.