When Magnus, in 1042, had become King of Denmark, his ambition led him as the heir of Harthaknut, also to assert his claim to the crown of England. Edward the Confessor, who was called to the throne at the death of Harthaknut, was in honor bound to disregard such a claim; but it compelled him to keep a fleet in readiness to repel an expected Norse invasion. There is little doubt but that Magnus would have made the attempt to oust him, if the events in Denmark had not taken a turn which obliged him to abandon, for a time, all thought of conquest. Among the Danes who swore allegiance to Magnus and endeavored to win his favor was Sweyn Estridsson, the son of Earl Ulf and Estrid, the sister of Knut the Mighty. He was both on his father's and his mother's side descended from the race of Ragnar Lodbrok, and was therefore better entitled to the Danish throne than the King of Norway. Sweyn was like his father Ulf, a shrewd intriguer, smooth of speech, and fair of face, but false and treacherous. He was loud in protestations of devotion to Magnus and succeeded in gaining his confidence. Contrary to the advice of his friends, Magnus made him his vassal and appointed him his earl, giving him the same fiefs that his father had had before him. It was to be his special duty to defend Jutland against the Wends and the Saxons. When the ceremony of investiture took place, Einar Thambarskelver cried out to the king: "Too great earl, foster-son; too great earl!" to which the king replied angrily: "You do not credit me with any judgment or knowledge of men. I do not know what you mean by regarding some earls as too great, and some as nothing at all."