[Sidenote: 1280 to 1289.] ERIC II., while yet a minor, succeeded his father without opposition; but his reign was not one of peace. His first disputes were with the church. At his coronation, he promised rather to amplify than to curtail its privileges. In virtue of this promise, the archbishop of Drontheim drew up a list of offences against the canon laws, and claimed for the clerical tribunals the pecuniary mulcts demanded on such occasions. These mulcts were considered the right of the crown, and as such were claimed by royal councillors, on behalf of the king. So far the conciliations were justifiable; but when they persuaded him to revoke all the privileges which his father had conceded, they wantonly perilled the tranquillity of the kingdom. They were excommunicated by the primate, who in his turn was banished. Both parties appealed to Rome; but the pope seems to have been a moderate man; and, though not disposed to surrender any right which the church universal possessed, he doubtless saw that the Norwegian branch of it had usurped some that were inconsistent with civil government. The successor of the primate consented to abandon one or two of the more obnoxious claims, and to become the liege vassal of Eric. The king too was embroiled with Denmark, through the protection which he afforded to the assassins of Eric Glipping.[167] Long and disastrous was the war which raged between the two countries. At length, both opened negotiations for peace; but it was not signed during the life of Eric. [Sidenote: 1289 to 1299.] These disputes with the church and his royal neighbour prevented Eric from engaging in another war, for which he might have urged a better reason. In conformity with the treaty between his father and Alexander III., he married Margaret of Scotland. The issue was a female, who, on the death of her grandfather in 1289 (her mother was no more), was undoubted heiress to the throne of that kingdom. The claims of the “Maid of Norway” were urged by her father; but she had a rival in our Edward I., who had determined to render the northern ruler his vassal. To unite the two crowns on the same brow was an object still more desirable; and in this view the English king proposed a marriage between his son and the Maid of Norway. The proposal was readily accepted by Eric; but before it could be carried into effect, the princess died in the Orkneys. If Eric exposed himself to ridicule in claiming the Scottish crown in her right, he had an indisputable claim to his queen’s dowry, most of which had never been paid. For this cause he might have troubled the kingdom; and he had another reason for interference. His second wife was Isabel, daughter or sister of Robert Bruce, whose pretensions he might have supported against those of Baliol. But he declared for neither party—a degree of moderation, as we have intimated, attributable rather to his disputes with the church and with Denmark, than to any other cause. [Sidenote: 1299 to 1319.]