The archbishop of Denmark, Birger Gunnersen, died in Lund in 1519. After his death, says Huitfeldt, things went badly with the see. “In seventeen years there were no less than five bishops … none chosen or confirmed by the Roman see.” According to canon law the cathedral chapter had the right to elect bishops and other prelates. Popes also claimed the right to make appointments, or, at any rate, to confirm bishops and archbishops, and collect annates. An agreement with Kaiser Friedrich III in Vienna in 1448 accepted the papal position, and the curia thereafter considered the agreement valid for the Nordic churches as well. The Oldenburgs accepted the papal claim; as long as they were willing to pay, they could have their way at the papal court. “Study of the Danish episcopate in the late Middle Ages,” says Troels Dahlerup, “shows that behind the strife of curia and cathedral chapters over competence, a king's wishes were so decisive, that sources (which build up around conflicts) are lacking, since everyone knew whom the king actually preferred.” Royal influence was so decisive that it makes sense to speak of an incipient state church.

The chapter in Lund elected one of its own, the dean, Aage Sparre, as Archbishop Birger's successor. Copenhagen, however, had another man in mind, Jørgen Skodborg, a commoner and archdeacon in Aarhus. Skodborg became the preferred candidate. His tenure was brief. The crown asked the archdiocese to hand over Bornholm and three districts in Skaane. Skodborg refused.