Riddarfjärden
Riddarfjärden (, "The Knight Firth") is the easternmost bay of Lake Mälaren in central Stockholm. Stockholm was founded in 1252 on an island in the stream where Lake Mälaren (from the west) drains into the Baltic Sea (to the east); today the island is called Stadsholmen and constitutes Stockholm's Old Town.
History of Sweden (800–1521)
The greatest medieval statesman of Sweden, and one of the principal architects of its rise as a nation – Birger Jarl the Regent – practically ruled the land from 1248 to 1266. He is today revered as the founder of Stockholm and as the creator of national legislations. His reforms paved the way for the abolition of serfdom. The increased respect and power which later royals owed to Birger Jarl were further extended by his son, King Magnus Ladulås (1275–90). Both these rulers, by the institution of separate and almost independent duchies, attempted to introduce into Sweden a feudal system similar to that already established in continental Europe; the danger of thus weakening the realm by partition was averted, though not without violent and tragic complications by the opponents, the Folkung party. (The term "Folkung" also later referred to Earl Birger's descendants, forming the royal Folkunge of Bjelbo dynasty.) Finally, in 1319, the severed portions of Sweden were once more reunited.