"knyaz" (Russian for ruling prince) and bishop arrived in the Finnish Gulf with 60 boats in 1142, and made an abortive attack on a fleet of traders. The further circumstances of the expedition are entirely lacking; it may have aimed to subdue non-Christian peoples east of the Baltic Sea. A more serious confrontation took place in another direction in the 1150s. Sverker received his stepson, the Danish co-ruler Canute V when the latter was in trouble at home. This support was a threat to Canute's rival, Sweyn III of Denmark. Moreover, Sverker's son John abducted two noblewomen in Halland in Denmark "in order to satisfy his lust", although his father and the people forced him to eventually return the ladies. Nicholas Breakspear tried in vain to dissuade King Sweyn from invading Sweden, since "the land was difficult for waging warfare and the people were poor, so there was no advantage to seek there." However, Sweyn believed it was the right moment to strike, since Prince John had been slain by the peasantry at a Thing and, as a result, a conflict arose between them and Sverker. Moreover, Sverker was by now an old man with little taste for war. King Sweyn proceeded to lead an expedition into the forested province Småland in southern Sweden in 1153, with the professed aim to subjugate Sweden. Sverker kept passive and did not meet the invaders in open battle, but the local populations resisted furiously and ambushed the Danes where they could. The war was fought in the cold of the winter; a large part of the horses of the invaders died from exhaustion and lack of fodder. Although the inhabitants of Värend submitted, Sweyn was forced to sneak back to Denmark in early 1154. Part of the army returned via Finnveden whose peasantry invited the soldiers to a feast, then assaulted and massacred them. The incident might have inspired the 17th-century local legend of Blenda. The war thus abruptly came to an end, and did not stop Sverker's association with Canute V. Sweyn III had hitherto been closely allied with the other Danish pretender Valdemar, the future King Valdemar the Great, but the latter was now drawn to Canute's side. Realizing the adverse attitude of Sweyn, Canute and Valdemar visited Sverker in 1154 with an eye to a marriage alliance. According to the probably exaggerated account of Saxo, "Sverker received them so friendly,