because of his hard taxes on ploughs, among other things. The number of ploughs a man owned was used as a measure of his wealth. This gave the king the epithet "plough-penny" (Danish: Plovpenning).

Eric had only been king for about a year when he first came into conflict with his brother, Duke Abel of Schleswig, in 1242. The conflict lasted for three years before the brothers agreed on a truce in 1244 and made plans for a joint crusade to Estonia.At