After the death of King Inge, the discord which had been fermenting began to show itself. The ambitious Earl Skule, while pretending to favor King Inge's young son, Guthorm, really considered himself the successor to the throne, while a few, who had been special friends of the late Earl Haakon Galen, favored the latter's son Knut, who was with his mother in Sweden. Earl Skule had the aid and sympathy of Archbishop Guthorm and the other dignitaries of the cathedral at Nidaros, and advocated a postponement of the election of a king, until the archbishop, who was absent on a journey, should return. In spite of all intriguing, however, the Birchlegs summoned the Oere-Thing and proclaimed Haakon Haakonson king of Norway, and he swore fidelity to the laws of the country, although he could not, according to usage, do so on the shrine of Saint Olaf, because the canons of the cathedral refused to allow the shrine to be taken out of the church and carried to the Thing. The next day all the court-men and the delegates present took the oath of allegiance to Haakon as king and to Skule as earl. The king and the earl now proceeded to Bergen, where the Gula-Thing was summoned, in order that Haakon might also be proclaimed king there. The day before the Thing a meeting was held by the king and the earl and their advisers. The king's advisers suggested that Earl Skule should swear an oath of allegiance to King Haakon; but this the earl bluntly refused to do, unless he was given in fief one-third of the kingdom and of its dependencies. As it was learned that the earl had been negotiating with the so-called Bagler king, Philip, in Viken, and the king's party was hardly strong enough to fight a combination of that kind, it was thought that there was nothing to do but to acquiesce in the earl's demands. The next day, at the Thing, King Haakon made his oath to uphold the laws, but the wily earl had made use of his position as the king's guardian to insert in the oath a pledge to keep the agreement already made between the king and the earl. Shortly after this, news was received that the Bagler king, Philip, was dead. King Haakon and Earl Skule immediately proceeded to Viken, where, at the suggestion of Bishop Nicholas, negotiations were opened with the Baglers. It was finally decided that the Baglers should retain, during the coming winter, one-half of the fiefs which Philip had held as earl, and that both parties should send men north to the archbishop to request him, next summer, to arrange a permanent peace. The other half of Viken was given up to King Haakon and Earl Skule, who appointed prefects there. Thereupon they summoned the Hauga-Thing, where Haakon was acknowledged as the rightful king.