At the death of King Magnus only two of his children were alive, Erik, who had already been proclaimed king, and Haakon, who had been made duke at the same time. Erik was twelve, and Haakon ten years old. The royal counsellors, among whom were the barons Hallkell Agmundson, Audun Hugleikson, and Biarne Erlingson of Biarkoe and Giske, thought that King Magnus had made too great concessions to the church and attempted to curtail the power of the bishops. On account of their activity against the clergy they were put in the ban of the church; but they did not seem to pay much attention to this; and, as a result of the struggle, Archbishop Jon the Red and two other bishops were outlawed and compelled to leave the country (1282). The epithet "Priest-Hater," which, after this, was given King Erik, does not seem to have been well deserved; for he always sought to mediate in the conflicts with the archbishop, and he himself had no ill-feeling toward the bishops, but rather seemed to be too kindly disposed toward them. King Erik was only a very young man when he commenced a war with Denmark, which lasted for twenty years, and was not terminated until in the time of his successor. His mother, the queen-dowager Ingeborg, was the daughter of the Danish king, Erik Plowpenny, and as her inheritance, consisting of landed estates, had not been turned over to the Norwegian king according to agreement, she induced her son to make war on Denmark. The war was principally a naval war. One who especially distinguished himself was the Norwegian baron, Alf Erlingson of Tornberg (now Tanberg, Ringerike), a great favorite of the queen-dowager. He captured a number of the enemy's ships, and preyed upon the commerce in Danish waters. But the principal sufferers by this warfare were the Hanseatic League, whose members, by the concessions of King Magnus Lawmender, had practically a monopoly of the foreign trade of Norway. Many ditties were composed about Alf Erlingson, and one verse reads thus: Sailing Germans are northward bound Carrying malt and meal; But Alf is lying in Oere Sound And robs them of all their weal. The conflict with the Hanseatic towns came to an end, through the arbitration of the Swedish king, by the peace of Kalmar (1285), by which the privileges of the Hansa towns were considerably extended. The hostilities with Denmark were continued, and the queen-dowager was so well pleased with Alf Erlingson's piratical conduct of the war that she had him created an earl, and induced the king to send him as special ambassador to England. In 1286 a conspiracy was formed in Denmark against King Erik Glipping, and he was murdered during a hunting trip by Marshal Stig, Count Jacob of Halland and others. The murderers, who were outlawed in Denmark, were well received by the Norwegian king, and afterward accompanied him on his campaigns against Denmark.