By this event, Hako, it might be expected, would be left undisputed sovereign of Norway. But the Norwegians at this period seem to have had little wish for a monarchy; and MAGNUS V. (1162–1186) was raised by the party of the deceased Inge to the throne of the North. Magnus was the grandson of Sigurd I., and one of his duties in the opinion of the times was to revenge the murder of his kindred. As, however, he was but a child, the government was administered by his father Erling. Erling was, by marriage, a kinsman of the Danish monarch, from whom he obtained aid to resist the hostility of Hako. Through that aid he was victor; Hako fell (1162), and consequently Magnus was the only king left. A rival indeed, Sigurd, a son of Sigurd II., was opposed to him; but in little more than a year that rival was crushed by the indefatigable Erling. To confirm the authority of his son by religious sanction, Erling requested the primate to crown him. The archbishop consented on the condition that Norway should be regarded as a fief of St. Olaf; that on the death of every monarch, the crown was to be formally offered to the saint in the cathedral; that the saint’s representative, the archbishop of the time, should receive it; that from each diocese the bishop, the abbots, and twelve chiefs, should assemble to nominate a successor, and that the sanction of the primate should be necessary before any one could be lawful king of Norway. That a considerable reduction in the number of electors was politic cannot be disputed; and probably this was one of the reasons that induced the archbishop to introduce so extraordinary an innovation. But a greater no doubt was the superiority which the church would thereby acquire over the state. The proposal was accepted; and Magnus, then only eight years of age, was solemnly crowned by Eystein in presence of the papal legate. [Sidenote: 1164 to 1170.] The aid furnished by the Danish king was not gratuitous. In return for it Erling had promised the province of Vikia (Vigen), and Valdemar (the first of that name) now demanded the fulfilment of that pledge. His position was a critical one. He had not power to transfer that province, and if he attempted that transfer, his own destruction and that of his son must be the result. Yet if he did nothing, he must expect an encounter with that formidable monarch. To escape from this dilemma, he convoked the states, and laid before them the proposition of Valdemar: they indignantly refused to receive the Danish yoke. Open war followed, but through the policy of Erling it was soon succeeded by peace. He secretly engaged to hold Vikia with the title of jarl as a fief of Denmark; and, in the event of a failure of issue in his son, to subject the whole kingdom to the same crown. [Sidenote: 1166 to 1169.]