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The yeoman and his
rights.
Newly added justiciaries are, in the Sudermanian
law, the Lawman of Vermeland, in the Land’s Law
those of Oeland, with North and South Finland 6.
Here also we find a more complete account of the
mode of election. This was held on the meadow of
Mora, one mile7 from Upsala, whence the assembly
itself was called the Mora Ting. The justiciaries
were to repair thither, everyone attended by twelve
men " discreet and well skilled," chosen with the
assent of all the resident inhabitants of the circuit
(lagsaga). The voices of these deputies and the
Lawman constituted the votes of the province. The
justiciary of Upland voted first, then the rest in
their order. Thereupon the king swore to the
people, " on the book with holy relics in his hands8,"
the oath embodied in the law, and lifting up his
hand, promised to keep to God and his people what
he had sworn, and by no means to break it, but
rather to augment it by every good work, and
especially by his royal love. In like manner the
justiciaries and the people took their oath to the
king, and by this were bound both young and old,
the living and the yet unborn, friend and unfriend,
the absent as well as the present. This was called to
swear by or at Mora Stone, and an old record states
that the king immediately after his election was
raised upon the stone 9. It was now incumbent on
the king to ride, in the manner before mentioned,
his Erics-gait, or as it is called in the Land’s Law,
" to ride round his realm with the sun (rattsyles)."
After the general code had replaced the provincial
laws, the demand for the individual confirmation of
these latter was no longer made, but the king on his
journey through the shires, gave instead and
received the same oath which had at first been
reciprocally sworn at the Mora Stone. Although
restricted in exercise, first by the power of the
magnates, and then during the Union by the
influence of foreigners, the old federative system legally
subsisted in this form, so long as a Swedish elective
diet was known, down to the days of Gustavus
Vasa.
If the law thus sedulously guarded ancient
liberty in matters of public right, we might
conclude beforehand that private right, from which
the former had emanated, was no less adequately
secured ; as the root of the tree is less exposed
than its crown to the storm. And so accordingly
we find the fact to be. The true prop and
life-spring of the Swedish constitution was the odalbond
Law of inheritance.
Birth-rights.
or yeoman, the " man for himself," freeholder of
his ground, responsible in the eye of the law for
his own, towards the authorities and his equals
acknowledging only reciprocal obligations, which
he had himself accepted, but otherwise naturally
respecting every hereditary rightsince upon that
principle his whole substance depended. To his
freedom he was born by his descent (tettborin), as
to his odal-ground, which therefore was called the
property he was born to as his old birth-right
(byrd), and as a family possession could not be
diminished or alienated without the consent of the
kindred. This held good of the king as of every
other person. " Now if the king will sell his own,
he shall offer it to his kinsmen, as well he, as the
peasant," says the Law of the East-Goths, which in
disputes as to property between the sovereign and
the peasant allows more weight to the word of the
latter, in order that the influence of the powerful
may not lessen the odal-ground. To this end
precautions so jealous were generally taken, that even
when landed property was taken in satisfaction of
a fine, a right was reserved to the relatives of the
father to redeem his heritage, to those of the
mother hers ; and the church, which introduced the
notion of testamentary bequests, could never with
all its influence procure that legacies for the soul’s
weal, when they affected the patrimonial ground,
should be unconditionally acknowledged valid
without the consent of the heirs. Only when the
kindred did not redeem the birth-ground upon
proffer made2, was the purchase open to every
man ; or as the Dale Law says, " then is the purse
Odalsman." That the daughter inherited, as was
at first the case, only when there was no son, or
(according to Earl Birger’s new law of inheritance)
received only half the brother’s share, was 110
doubt likewise an expedient to prevent the
subdivision of the family estate, and for the same end
the eldest son had also the privilege of redeeming
his brothers’portion of the heritage 3. It is said
indeed," it is best for brethren to dwell together ;"
yet any one who wished to part might enforce his
choice against the other ; in which point the law
of Upland so far favours the youngest, that he
might take his allotment " next to the sun," that
is, on the east and south, for every bye or hamlet
was to be sun-split (solskiftad), or laid out exactly
SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGE. 109
first laid by the careful and excellent editions of the old
laws by Collins and Sclilyter.
6 For Norrland, it was long subject to the Lawman of
Upland, while Dalecarlia and Westmanland had the same
judge. The Land’s Law of King Christopher adds, that in
case the sovereign could not himself go to Finland, the
steward or some other member of council, with the bishop
of Abo, might take and receive the oath in his stead.
1 Six English miles and a half. Tr.
8 The relics of saints.
9 See Attestation of a Notary Public as to the writing
which is found at the Mora Stone, touching the election of
Eric of Pomerania to be king of Sweden, dated May 21,
H34, in Hadorph’s Additions to the Rhyme Chronicle.
From this document we learn that for every new king a
new stone, with an inscription stating the time of the
election, was laid at or near the old Mora Stone. This,
according to the account of Olaus Magnus, was a large round stone,
so supported as to be raised a little above the ground.
Around were placed twelve smaller stones, whence it would
seem that the whole resembled the old judicial rings
(domare-ringar). Some of the smaller stones only, with the
inscriptions for the most part obliterated by the weather,
still remain on the spot. In the time of Gustavus I. the old
Mora Stone had already been removed, as we find by the
following note in the Palmskbld Collections: " Anders
Nilson of Edby, parish of Denmark, related, August 6, 1623,
that his father, who dwelt in the same grange, was one of
the soldiers who in the time of old king Gustavus searched
for the real Mora stone, but could not find it."
1 Hence the Land’s Law sanctions the old custom, that in
the election to the crown preference should be given to the
king’s sons.
2 Neither could the estate be mortgaged, which was
formerly regarded as a kind of conditional sale, before it had
been offered to the relatives. A man might alienate what
he had himself acquired, yet, according to the additions to
the law of the West-Goths (iii. 108), only a third even of
purchased ground, a right, however, which was afterwards
extended. One method of keeping property from the legal
heirs otherwise than by a testament, consisted in the person
giving himself to be the thrall of another, his property
following therewith. This was forbidden by Earl Birger.
3 Law of the East-Goths, Eghna Sal. f. 11.
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