through his marriage policy. According to the hostile account of Saxo Grammaticus, "Niels [of Denmark] married Ulvhild from Norway ... Sverker sent envoys to her and asked for her love. Shortly afterwards, he clandestinely brought her from her husband and made her marry him". The outrageous behaviour of Sverker may be explained by the background of Ulvhild; she had previously been married to Inge II of Sweden, the last of the House of Stenkil, and therefore represented the influence and properties of the extinct dynasty. After the death of Ulvhild he married the widow of his old enemy Magnus the Strong, the Polish princess Richeza, presumably in an effort to bring over the last adherents of Magnus to his side. The marriage gave him control over Richeza's daughter Sophia of Minsk, who was engaged with the future king Valdemar the Great of Denmark in 1154, and married him after Sverker's death. Clerical policy Sverker based much of his royal authority on his patronage of the Church. The Cistercians were called in on the initiative of Queen Ulvhild and founded a number of abbeys: Alvastra in Östergötland, Varnhem in Västergötland, and Nydala in Småland. The king also strove to achieve Swedish ecclesiastic autonomy. The papal delegate Nicholas Breakspear toured Scandinavia in 1152 and was received by Sverker with great honours. During a meeting in Linköping, the installation of Peter's pence (papal tax) for Sweden was probably decided. However, the plans of installing a Swedish archbishopric were stalled, according to Saxo since "the Swedes and Geats could not agree what town and person was worthy of the dignity". Therefore, Nicholas Breakspear "refused the quarreling parts this honour and did not endow these still religiously ignorant barbarians the highest clerical dignity". When he later on visited Denmark, Breakspear promised the archbishop of Lund the primacy over any future Swedish archbishop. This was later confirmed when Breakspear became pope under the name Hadrianus IV. An archbishopric was only installed in 1164 in the reign of Sverker's son Charles VII. Foreign policy Swedish relations with the Russian principalities had been good for the past century or more, but in the reign of Sverker there was a turn towards enmity. According to a Russian chronicle, the newly founded Republic of Novgorod had its first confrontation with Sweden at this time, breaking a century-long peace that had been guaranteed by marriages between the ruling families. The Swedish