But the English leaders were treated with politic clemency, and the Danish leader, Jarl Osbiorn, was bribed to withdraw his fleet.
The prime object of interest is the cathedral of St Magnus, a stately cruciform red sandstone structure in the severest Norman, with touches of Gothic. It was founded by Jarl Rognvald (Earl Ronald) in 1137 in memory of his uncle Jarl Magnus who was assassinated in the island of Egilshay in 1115, and afterwards canonized and adopted as the patron saint of the Orkneys.
There is a fine statue of the great jarl in the Riddarholm church at Stockholm, erected by Fogelberg at the expense of the Stockholm magistracy in 1884.
Its castle, erected by Birger Jarl in the 13th century, played an important part in the early annals of Sweden; and no fewer than twenty diets or important assemblies were held either in the castle or in the town.
The famous Birger Jarl undertook a crusade in Finland in 12 4 9, compelling the Tavastians, one of the subdivisions of the Finlanders proper, to accept Christianity, and building a castle at Tavestehus.