After the fall of Magnus Erlingson, King Sverre brought the whole country under his control, and no one dared to refuse him obedience. The same sagacity that he had shown in his struggles to gain the power, he also used in his efforts to maintain and strengthen it. He knew that he could expect nothing from the magnates of the powerful families, who resided on the largest estates throughout the country, and who looked with contempt upon the poor and lowly people that had constituted his following and helped him into power. He had to try to weaken the influence of this higher class and to look to the common people for his main support. The changes which King Sverre introduced in the domestic conditions of the country were in close coherence with the development of the country since the time of Harald the Fairhaired and Olaf the Saint. The kingdom of his predecessor had been upheld by the clergy and the aristocracy, the latter endeavoring to strengthen its power and dignity by united action, while the clergy tried to enforce the hierarchical principles of the time in the Church of Norway. King Sverre, on the other hand, depended upon the masses of the people, with their traditions and customs. For their benefit King Sverre appointed a new class of officers, who were called lawmen. They were to be learned in the law, and their duty was to see that the law was justly administered at the Things, and to aid the peasants in all legal matters. There had been a similar class of officers before, bearing the same title, but they had been elected at the Things, while from now on they were appointed by the king, especially for the benefit of the poorer classes, who themselves had little knowledge of the law, and often needed protection against the rich and powerful. Another class of officers whose functions were changed in such a manner as to greatly strengthen the king's power were the prefects (_Sysselmen_), whom the king appointed throughout the country. These prefects did not have the inherited dignity of the liegemen (_lendermen_), who were royal vassals and exercised independent authority, but were servants of the king and the representatives of his power. They supplanted the liegemen in their executive and judicial functions, and gradually transferred to the crown a great part of the power of the aristocracy.