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$ 12. THE FOLKUNGAR. COUNCIL OF TELJE. 117
in France taking the place of the Merovingian kings ; some
thing like that of the House of Lancaster in England in the
fifteenth century. Only it was a rule of Swedish law up to
the sixteenth century that the monarchy was elective, not
hereditary, and hereditary right has never had so many
votaries as in France and England. The Folkunga
period was favourable to the growth of the immunities and
privileges of the Church, and at the same time to the
establishment of better laws. Jarl Birger is remembered as
the founder of Stockholm, which, from its splendid posi
tion, was as important a move for Sweden as the founda
tion of Constantinople by Constantine, or of Petersburg
by Peter the Great, to their dominions. It was also in his
time (1258) that Pope Alexander IV. gave leave for the
removal of the archiepiscopal see from Old Upsala, to the
more convenient site near Ostra-aros, or East-mouth, about
three English miles distant, while it retained the name be
longing to the old city. This was as important for the
Swedish Church as (to compare small things with great)
the movement from old Sarum on the hill to new Sarum in
the valley, thirty years before, was to the diocese of Salis
bury. The transfer at Upsala was not, however, complete
till about I273.
7
The Jarl is also remembered for his legal reforms, and as
substituting as far as possible process in the courts for
private revenge. He proclaimed four laws for peace the
first protecting the church and churchyard; the second
forbidding the forcible abduction of women ;
the third
establishing a man s rights to personal security in his own
house and on his land; and, lastly, when travelling to the
Ting, or assize. He also did his best to stop trial by ordeal
or wager of battle, and, in other ways, improved the posi
tion of women, slaves and shipwrecked mariners. In all
this he naturally had the help and encouragement of the
clergy.
His son, Magnus Ladulas, or Barn-lock, whom the Jarl
7
See E. Benzelius fil. :
Monumenta, pp. 20-1, and Celsii :
Bullarium, s. annis., 1258, 1259.
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