DNA test for King Magnus Ladulas.

This week the grave of Swedish king Magnus Ladulås in Riddarholmskyrkan will be opened, and its content examined.  

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  Magnus Ladulås grave being lifted up in Stockholm’s Riddarholmen Church.

• Researchers will perform DNA tests on the seven skeletons found in the grave, and the results will then be compared with the DNA from the opening of Birger Jarl’s grave, hopefully making it easier to identify the three bodies found there.

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  Magnus III of Sweden or Magnus Ladulås (1240-1290), was King of Sweden from 1275 until his death. He was the first Magnus to rule Sweden for any length of time, not generally regarded as a usurper or a pretender (but third Magnus to have been proclaimed Sweden's king and ruled there). Later historians ascribe his epithet "Ladulås" to a decree of 1279 or 1280 freeing the yeomanry from the duty to provide sustenance for traveling nobles and bishops ("Peasants! Lock your barns!"); another theory is that it's simply a corruption of Ladislaus, which could possibly have been his second name, considering his Slavic heritage. He was probably the second son of Birger Jarl and Princess Ingiburga.

• “There’s been a lot of speculations over who is buried in Magnus Ladulås grave,” says Maria Vretermark, who is responsible for the scientific part of the project.

• “We know that his wife, a grandchild and a daughter are there. But who the others are we are about to find out now.”

• Vretermark works as an archaeologist at Västergötlands Museum but will now spend three weeks with some 20 colleagues examining DNA tests.

• The result of the analysis may take up to 6 months. The grave of Magnus Ladulås has been opened once before, in 1915, when it was established that the king had sickly changes in his skeleton.

• “With the technique we have today,” says Cretermark, “we will be able to determine what disease he suffered from.”