When Erik was fourteen years old, he was married to Margaret of Scotland, the daughter of his grandfather's enemy, King Alexander III. The young queen died, however, a year later, after having given birth to a daughter, who, on the death of King Alexander (1284), was acknowledged as the heir to the throne of Scotland. While yet a child (1290), the Maid of Norway, as she was called, embarked for the land which she was to rule, but died before reaching it. Her father then, as his daughter's heir, laid claim to the Scottish crown, but the armed interference of King Edward I. of England compelled him to abandon his candidacy. He had at that time another controversy on his hands, which threatened serious results. The queen-dowager, Ingeborg, was the daughter of the Danish king, Erik Plowpenny. His nephew, Erik Glipping, who succeeded his father, Christopher I., refused to surrender her inheritance, which consisted in landed estates in different parts of the kingdom. Magnus Law-Mender had vainly insisted upon the surrender of the property, and Erik, at the instigation of his mother, resumed negotiations, and, when these resulted in nothing, made threatening demonstrations. The Norse baron, Sir Alf Erlingsson, a special favorite of the queen, began to prey upon the shipping in the Sound, and by his recklessness and daring, made his name dreaded among seamen and merchants. He did, indeed, inflict much injury upon Danish commerce, and ravaged the coasts of Jutland and Halland; but the principal sufferers were the cities of the Hanseatic League, which, by the concessions of Magnus Law-Mender, had obtained a virtual monopoly of the foreign trade of Norway. Their ships were now seized without mercy by the noble pirate, who added insult to injury by once appearing incognito among them in an open boat, and bargaining with them about the price which they had set upon his head. It was of no use that the League sent out ships of war to capture him; he out-manoeuvred them, deceived them, sent them on a wild-goose chase, and ended by capturing his would-be captors. Though not officially authorized to carry on war in this fashion, Sir Alf perceived that his performances were winked at by the queen-dowager, who was actually so gratified at his success, that she had him created an earl, and induced the king to use him as his ambassador to England. As allies of the King of Denmark, the Hanseatic cities were, in the queen's opinion, entitled to no consideration, but she forgot in her blind hostility that they had it in their power to take revenge. Partly on account of the risk, partly as a measure of retaliation, the Hansa forbade the importation of grain and other staples of food to Norway, and the result was famine and misery. The hostilities with Denmark in the meanwhile continued, but were, after the death of Queen Ingeborg (1287), conducted, not by piracy, but by open warfare. A conspiracy was formed against the life of King Erik