Mysterious Death
Legend has it that several nobles swore an oath that they would murder Eric in revenge for personal slights or policies the king enforced that they didn't like. Chief among the conspirators was Marshal (Danish: marsk) Stig Andersen Hvide and Jacob Nielsen, Count of Halland. They paid Rane Jonsen, one of the king's companions, to keep them informed as to the king's activities, in order to fulfill their oath.
November 1286 found the king at Viborg, in central Jutland. After a long day's hunt in the countryside led by Rane Jonsen, the king and a few attendants couldn't find their way back to the king's farm at Viborg. Rane suggested that they take shelter for the night of 22 November 1286 in the church barn in the village of Finderup. The assassins, dressed as Franciscan monks, were kept informed as to the kings' whereabouts and waited for everyone to settle down for the night. Once the king fell asleep, they rushed from their hiding places and stabbed and hacked the king to death. Tradition has it that he received 56 stab wounds. The folktale that grew up around this event has Stig Andersen personally striking the first blows in revenge for King Eric's seduction of Stig's wife while Stig himself was off with the king's army. Eric's bloody corpse was discovered the next morning.
The court immediately blamed the nation's most powerful noblemen Marsk Stig Andersen Hvide and Count Jacob of Halland and outlawed them. Whether or not they actually had anything to do with the murder remains a mystery. Stig fled the country to take up piracy. Certainly Stig Andersen was not the only person who had reason to want to see King Eric eliminated. Duke Valdemar of southern Jutland, and Jakob Erlandsen's appointments to bishoprics were bitter enemies until the king's death. Eric's death meant that the rights and guarantees the 1282 charter lost their effectiveness, since the next king would not be bound by the same agreement.
Read more about this topic: Eric V Of Denmark
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