The Story of Norway by Hjalmar Hjorth Boysen

Duke Haakon, the second son of Magnus Law-Mender, succeeded his brother without opposition. He was then twenty-nine years old, tall and of stately appearance. He had not been long upon the throne, before he showed the haughty barons that he meant to have a reckoning with them. He first summoned Sir Audun Hugleiksson to meet him in Bergen, tried him for treason, and had him executed (1302). A woman from Luebeck had, two years before, appeared in Norway and created much excitement by claiming to be the Princess Margaret, "The Maid of Norway," who had died on the Orkneys. Her trial proved her to be an impostor, and she was burned at the stake. According to one conjecture, Sir Audun was in some way compromised by her trial, and it is not unlikely that he may have encouraged her pretensions. The legend, however, relates that Sir Audun suffered death for having insulted the king's bride, Countess Euphemia of Arnstein, whom, in 1295, he brought over from Germany.

It must have been an unpleasant surprise to the barons, who had had their own way so long, to find a stern and determined master in the new king, and it is the more to his credit that, in spite of their hostility, he induced them to consent to a change in the law of succession in favor of his daughter Ingeborg and her issue. As he was the only male descendant in the direct line of the old royal house, it was a source of uneasiness to him that he had no sons, and he foresaw that the only means of averting civil war, after his death, was to secure the succession to the prospective sons of his daughter, and in case she had none, to herself. Princess Ingeborg was, while a mere child, promised in marriage to the brilliant and ambitious Duke Erik, the second son of King Magnus Birgersson of Sweden. By this betrothal, King Haakon became involved in the quarrels of the dukes Erik and Valdemar with their brother, Birger Magnusson, whom they were endeavoring to dethrone.