10 Facts About Birger Jarl

Birger Jarl led the Second Swedish Crusade, which established Swedish rule in Finland.

Birger Jarl, likely born around the time of the Battle of Gestilren in 1210, spent his childhood and adolescence in Bjalbo, Ostergotland.

Birger Jarl's mother Ingrid Ylva was, according to Olaus Petri, a daughter of Sune Sik and the granddaughter of King Sverker I of Sweden.

Birger Jarl married Ingeborg Eriksdotter, the sister of King Erik Eriksson in the mid-1230s, following intense competition with other suitors, as chronicled in Erik's Chronicle.

In 1249, Birger Jarl succeeded in ending a decades-long period of hostilities with Norway.

In 1252, a year after another victory over the folkungs at the Battle of Herrevadsbro, Birger Jarl wrote two carefully dated letters, the first mention of Stockholm interpreted as the foundation of the city or at least some sort of special interest in the location.

In 1261, Birger Jarl married Queen Mechtilde of Holstein, the widow of the Danish king Abel, who had allied herself with the Archbishop Jakob Erlandsen to protect her sons' interitance against King Christopher I of Denmark.

The Hotel Birger Jarl is located in Stockholm's Norrmalm neighborhood.

Birger Jarl is the central figure of Brollopet pa Ulvasa by Frans Hedberg.

Birger Jarl had an illegitimate son, Gregers, whose mother is unknown.