If the ascendancy of the cardinal had restored peace, his departure was immediately followed by new struggles between two of the brothers. Eystein had no share in them, because he absented himself on a piratical expedition. He is said to have ravaged the eastern coasts of our island, from the Orkneys to the Humber. Soon after his return, he entered into a plot with Sigurd to remove their brother Inge. In 1155, Sigurd and Inge met in the Thing held at Bergen, and though they could not fight for want of arms, both they and their followers regarded one another with deadly hatred. Scarcely was the assembly dissolved, when Inge, who had heard of the plot for removing him, determined to prevent it by assailing Sigurd, and after a sharp contest the latter fell. The following year Inge and Eystein, who were still hostile, met to agree on conditions of peace; but it was a truce rather than a peace, and in a few months it was broken by both parties. They marched towards each other with the resolution of deciding their quarrel by the sword; but Eystein, who was unpopular, was deserted by most of his followers, and compelled to seek an asylum in the mountains of Vikia. Thither he was pursued by Inge, was betrayed in a forest, and put to death by one of his brother’s myrmidons. By this deed therefore Inge was the monarch of the country. But he had soon a competitor in HAKO III., son of Sigurd II., whom the party of Eystein proclaimed king (1157). The four succeeding years were years of civil war. Hako, a mere child, was driven into Gothland. The following season he returned and besieged Konghella; but he was again defeated and forced to re-enter Sweden. Yet early in 1159 he arrived at Drontheim, where he found adherents. With thirty vessels he laid waste the coasts which held for Inge; but in a great naval battle he was defeated by that king, though not without considerable loss to the victor. Repairing into Drontheim where he passed the winter, he prepared for the next campaign. It was not decisive; but, in 1161, Inge, betrayed by his own followers, fell in battle with Hako. [Sidenote: 1161 to 1164.]