64 THE KING'S MIRROR 



of the duke proclaimed him king: like Adonijah of old 

 he tried to displace the Lord's anointed.* But after a 

 few months came the surprise of Skule's forces in 

 Trondhjem and the duke's own tragic end in Elgesseter 

 convent.f It will be recalled that the author defends 

 King Solomon's dealings with Joab and lays down the 

 principle that the right of sanctuary will not hold 

 against a king.f The rebellion of the Norwegian Ado- 

 nijah was in 1239; he died the death of Joab in 1240. 

 Three years later the believers in a strong monarchy 

 were disturbed by the news that the bishops had revived 

 the old claim to supremacy in the state. Soon after this 

 series of events the political chapters of the King's Mir- 

 ror must have been composed. 



In 1247, the year of Hakon's coronation, the hierarchy 

 was once more reconciled to the monarchy, and nothing 

 more is heard of ecclesiastical pretensions during the re- 

 mainder of the reign. It would seem that after this recon- 

 ciliation, no churchman, at least not one of the younger 

 generation, would care to send such a challenge as the 

 King's Mirror out into the world. One of the older men, 

 one who had suffered with Sverre and his impoverished 

 Birchshanks, might have wished to write such a work 

 even after 1247; but after that date the surviving fol- 

 lowers of the eloquent king must have been very few 

 indeed, seeing that Sverre had now lain forty-five years in 

 the grave. It is therefore the writer's opinion, though it 

 cannot be regarded as a demonstrated fact, that the clos- 

 ing chapters of the King's Mirror were written after 

 1240, the year when Duke Skule was slain, perhaps after 



* C. Ixvi. f See above, p. 48. } C. Ixix. 



