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Eric Læspe, though respected by his subjects, was a weak
prince. Long before his time the Folkungar, a wealthy family of
Östef-Götland, had gradually attained to great power, and Birger
Brosa[å. 120*2), a member of the family, had obtained the title
of Jarl or Duke of the Swedes and Götlanders. From an early
period, moreover, intermarriages had taken place between the
Folkungar and the royal families of Sweden, Norway, and
Denmark. In 1230 an attempt to dethrone Eric was made by Knut
Jonsson, a distant cousin of llirger, but Knut was defeated and
slain in 1234, and his son was executed as a rebel in 1248. The
position of the family, however, remained unaffected. Birger Jarl,
a nephew of Birger Brosa, married Ingeborg, the king’s sister,
while Eric himself married a member of the Folkungar family
(1*243). Birger now became tbe real ruler of Sweden, the
territory of which he extended by new conquests in Finland. On the
death of Eric, the last scion of the house of St. Eric, without
issue in 1250, Valdemar, Birger’s son, was proclaimed the
successor of his uncle. During Birger’s regency the country prospered,
but on his death in 1266 hostilities broke out between his sons.
The weak and incapable Valdemar was dethroned by his brother
Magnus (1275), whose vigorous administration resembled that of
his father, and who maintained friendly relations with the
Hanseatic League. He also distinguished himself as a lawgiver and an
upholder of order and justice, and earned for himself the surname
of Ladulås (‘barn-lock’, /. e. vindicator of the rights of the
peasantry).
In 1290 Magnus was succeeded by his son Birger Magnusson,
during whose minority the government was ably conducted by
Marshal Thorgils Knutsson, but serious quarrels afterwards broke
out between Magnus and his brothers, the dukes Eric and
Valdemar. In 1304 the dukes were banished, and in 1306 the faithful
marshal was executed by the king’s order. Soon afterwards,
however, the dukes returned and obtained possession of the king’s
person. After several vicissitudes, peace was declared and the
kingdom divided among the brothers in 1310 and again in 1313. In
1318, however, the dukes were arrested, imprisoned, and cruelly
put to death by their brother’s order, whereupon Birger himself
was dethroned and banished to Denmark (d. 1321). The following
year Magnus, the infant son of Duke Eric, was elected king
at the Mora Stones of Upsala (p, 356), while Magnus, Birger’s
son, was taken prisoner and executed. The first attempts to unite
the Scandinavian kingdoms were made in the reign of Magnus
Eriksson.
The Constitution of Sweden at first resembled that of Norway.
The country was divided into districts, called Land, Folkland. or
Landskap, each of which was subdivided into Hundari
(‘hundreds’), called in Gotland Hiirath. Each ‘Land’ had its diet or
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