Dating from property disputes, Ingerd Ottesdatter had become an enemy of the Olav Engelbrektsson, the powerful Archbishop of Nidaros.
In 1533, the election of King Christian III as King of Denmark, triggered the Count's Feud (Grevefeiden), a civil war that raged from 1534–1536 pitting Roman Catholic forces against the Protestant Reformation movement within Denmark and Norway.
In 1535, Lunge traveled to Trondheim to negotiate peace in the conflict and to make the northern branch of the Riksråd to accept and elect Christian III as King of Norway.
As described in the Diplomatarium Norvegicum,[6] the actual murder of the earl was said to have taken place at the hands of Archbishop Engelbrektsson's cousin, Kristoffer Trondson.
[7] This dramatic events surrounding the death of Vincens Lunge are memorialized today in an annual opera sponsored by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture, titled Olav Engelbrektsson, which takes place at Steinvikholm Castle outside of Trondheim.