He fled into Scania; implored the aid of Valdemar; and in return ceded that province to the Danish crown.[177] He was enabled by this means and by the support of a party (for what king was ever without one?) to carry on a war with Eric. Its ravages were deeply felt; its issue was dubious; and a diet was convoked at Jenkoping to avert by a pacification the ruin of the monarchy. Under the mediation of two princes connected with the royal family, it was decreed that the country should be divided between the father and the son: to the former were assigned Upland, the two Gothias, Vermeland, Dalecarlia, with the northern portion of Halland, and the isle of Oeland; to the latter, Finland, Smaland, the southern portion of Halland, and Scania. [Sidenote: 1354 to 1357.] The indiscretions of Magnus had lost him the hearts of his people, which turned with ardour to ERIC IV. This circumstance roused the jealousy of him and his queen, who are said to have conspired against the life of Eric. Whether he was removed by poison administered to him by his mother, or by the violence of conspirators, or by lawless banditti, or, finally, by natural causes, must for ever rest unknown, since ancient annals say nothing on the subject. The majority of historians, native and foreign, concur in fixing the guilt on queen Blanche; but until some better evidence than any they have adduced be brought to establish so unnatural a crime, the common feeling of mankind must compel them to doubt it. The only fact that is certain is that Eric died, and that Magnus profited by the event, since it restored him to the monarchy. [Sidenote: 1357 to 1363.] It was impossible for this weak and unscrupulous prince to win the esteem of the Swedes. He hated them because they had deposed him; and to be revenged on them, he entered into a close alliance with Valdemar of Denmark. Valdemar, to whom he ceded Scania, became, as we have before related, the willing instrument of that vengeance in the sack of Wisby and in other depredations.[178] This was not the way to acquire popularity: he and the whole Danish nation were soon detested; nor was the feeling diminished when the secret transpired of a projected union between the king’s son, Hako of Norway, and Margaret, the daughter of Valdemar. To prevent this obnoxious alliance, the nobles arose, imprisoned Magnus in the fortress of Calmar, called on Hako to assume the administration, and made him promise not only that he would renounce all connection with Denmark, but marry Elizabeth, sister of Henry count of Holstein. Though HAKO II. (the sixth of Norway) engaged to fulfil the wishes of the diet, neither he nor his father, who was soon enlarged, had the least intention to do so. On the contrary, they renewed their connection still more closely with the obnoxious Valdemar. The manner in which Elizabeth was deluded by that monarch until the marriage of his daughter with Hako was celebrated, has been already described. [Sidenote: 1363.]