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HISTORY OF
of 1483 says, "that every good man, clerical or
laic, shall be king over his own dependents, except
in matters which by the law are committed to the
sovereign." By this, however, neither arbitrary
power nor private jurisdiction was meant, but only
the concession of right to levy the king’s share of
legal fines, a right also granted to the church, in the
widest sense, over its estates and tenants. As in
general the fiefs (lsenen) consisted simply in grants
of certain crown revenues to the royal governors in
the various districts, manifold abuses were thereby
created. For although the letter of the law did not
recognize the power of the magnates, yet history
shows all the more plainly that they felt themselves
to be raised above its behests ; since the justiciaries
had been seated in the king’s council, and the
affairs of the realm began to be managed at
baronial diets; since the old odal-class had lost, from
the extension of the privileges of nobility through
the equestrian tenure, its most substantial
members, and the burden of the taxes weighed more
oppressively on the rest; since armed bands of
their own retainers plundered throughout the
country with impunity. To these signs of their
potency it may be added, that the fraternal wars of
Earl Birger’s family had long converted the
kingdom into a field of battle, so that we may view it as
a kind of return to legal order when the councillors
of state, in the covenant made by them at Skara8,
in 1332, engaged to submit their individual
disputes to the decision of their colleagues. By
similar confederacies was Sweden governed for a
hundred years afterwards ; until Engelbert and
the Stures revived against these baronial leagues
the old associations of yeomanry, and thereby
restored the people to political influence.
For the towns, which in other countries of
Europe supplied a counterpoise to the power of
the nobility, were of small importance. In the
interior of the country, where they sprang up on the
sites of ancient fairs9, or at episcopal seats, many of
the conditions required for their prosperity were
wanting. Wisby.in Gottland,was for a long time rich
and powerful, but might rather have been called a
German than a Swedish town, and in all German
burghers were so numerous, that down to 1470 one
half of the town magistrates were taken from among
them. The borough law, formed on foreign models,
of which the oldest example in Sweden is the
so-called Biorkoaratt, followed in the time of Magnus
Ericson by one of greater detail, had little influence
beyond its own limits. Yet Eric Olaveson mentions,
that so early as 1319, when Magnus Ericson was
raised to the throne, burghers were summoned to
the elective diet; and in the writs issued during
the Union are mentioned " bishops, clerks, nobles,
and franklins (frtelsemen), burghers, and the
common yeomanry1," the elements whence, instead of
the old representation of the people by provinces,
the later plan of representation by estates, with
various changes of order and composition, was to
be developed.
The first Swedish taxes, originally voluntary
donations 2, arose from the custom of yearly
following the king on his warlike expeditions (ledung),
and of entertaining him with his train when he
made progress through the country to hold courts,
or to take his pleasure 3. By degrees it became
usual to pay the yearly contributions inquired for
these purposes when the king remained at home,
and in this way the payments became permanent.
Hence the names ledungslama (laming of the war)
and tingslama (laming of the court) for those taxes,
when any obstacle4 prevented the warlike or
peaceful assemblage from being held, but they appear
also under others. Contributions for the
maintenance of the king and his court, or the principal
spiritual and secular officers on their journeys, were
called gengiird (sustentation tax5). Tribute was
levied from all resident inhabitants, so that he
whose seed-corn and cattle reached a certain
amount paid the full tax, others with less land and
cattle only the half6. He who did not possess a
dwelling paid for his person ; at the age of twenty
a man became liable to all assessments 7. Certain
imposts were from the first of a personal kind ; one
" for every nose," in support of the sacrifices, is
mentioned under the heathendom ; and a so-called
nose-tax (Naefgjald) is mentioned in the testament
of Magnus Ladulas, perhaps the same with that
called in the Law of West-Gothland " all men’s
pence" and in the towns " all men’s tax 8."
Payments from certain forests 9 are also mentioned
among the royal revenues from the middle of the
thirteenth century, and as it is demonstrable that
the kings formerly possessed private woodlands,
and as the Land’s Law speaks of the " king’s parks"
(parker), the tax must have been paid for the use
of these by persons cutting timber or making
settlements. In like manner the community of
every hundred received from those who established
themselves on their commons, certain revenues, of
8 Pactum confoederationis et concordiae. Hadorph, in the
Rhyme Chronicle.
9 Hence the termination keeping, fair or market, lit. selling,
in the names of so many Swedish towns. T.
1 Especially under the Stures. Steno the elder is said to
have also given in 1470, the first example of including the
inferior clergy in the writ of convocation, which otherwise
during the Catholic period was confined to prelates.
2 Shattgiafr, tribute-gifts, they are called in the
Ynglinga-saga, c. 12.
3 Both objects were combined. Saga of St. Olave, c. 36.
4 Lama appears to mean hindrance, properly laming.
Tingslama, which in the Law of Westmanland, Tingm. B. f.
6, denotes a hindrance or interruption of the court, appears
in the Law of Upland, K. B. f. 11, with the meaning of tax.
That the ledungslama was paid when no expedition took
place, is manifest from the I,aw of Westmanland, K. B. f.
12, and from King Waldemar’s Account Book, where it is
rendered, redemtio expeditionis. An aid for provisioning
ships was called skeppsvist. According to the Law of Upland
a part was paid in money.
5 On the king’s first entry into a province during his
Eric’s-gait, this tax was called inlandning. East-Gothic Law,
D. B. f. 5. In the Law of Helsingland it is called vadsla
(veitzla), which properly means a feast. In the demand by
the nobles of such entertainment for themselves and their
train during their journeys, chiefly consisted the offence of
sorning by violence, forbidden by Magnus Ladulas, but
complained of long after his time.
6 See the king’s " receipts from the noble and good land of
the West-Goths," W. L. v.
7 Uplands L. K. B. f. 10.
8 Allmasnnings cere, allm»nningsgia’ld. Diplomat. Suec.
i. 507. (Nccfsjdld comes from »«?/, also rurbb, neb or nose,
and gjald, debt; the modern term used by Professor Geijer is
ndsskatt, nose-scot. T.)
9 Skogaskvld, opposed to land skyld. Compare Diplom.
Suec. i. 453
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