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Coronation.
Hereditary nobility.
stipulation, that if the dukes, without the king’s
consent, by purchase, hypothec, exchange, or
otherwise, acquired for themselves and heirs any estates,
they should forfeit, therefore, to the crown double
the value out of their own patrimonial properties.
We might thus be led to suppose that a partition
of the royal heritage had actually been made; but
this was not the case. All of the church, crown,
or assessable estates, which king Gustavus had
appropriated in fee to himself and heirs beyond the
Recess of Westeras, was to revert to the crown.
That which concerned the nobility in this ordinance
was the addition, that the noble families should
resume all such of their estates as had been
sequestered and annexed to the royal heritage, in
reference to which this proceeding could not legally be
defended. King Eric’s new supreme court supplies
us, in the first years of his reign, with several
instances of this restitution of property. Howbeit,
Eric in 1563 turned this principle against the
nobility themselves, by the new inquisition relative to
those estates which they had illegally usurped from
the church; and we find that on this occasion he
caused the estates of Gustavus to be re-entered as
hereditary in the ground-rent books of the crown1.
The ordinance of revocation was an act of justice;
and its benefits were extended in part, owing to
John’s poverty, to the people which had suffered in
the same fashion,—since in 1582 he gave permission
to all peasants upon crown, church, and hereditary
estates to re-purchase their right of property in
those tenements upon which they could establish
a claim2.
In general king Eric sought, at the outset of his
reign, to link the nobility to his interests. At his
coronation, which was celebrated in Upsala upon
the 29th June, 1561, with a pomp never heretofore
seen in Sweden, he nominated, after the dukes had
taken their oath of homage to him, counts and free
barons3, as if he were resolved to diminish the
distance between the princes and the nobility, and
because " in a hereditary kingdom dignities
descending to the heirs are also in order." Therewith
counties and free baronies were erected, hereditary
in the eldest son, and consisting in infeudations of
entire hundreds, parishes, or determinate estates,
with special jurisdiction annexed, and the right to
levy the rents of the crown within the barony.
Suanto Sture, Peter Brahe, and Gustave Johanson
Roos were elevated to the dignity of counts. The
king himself set coronets upon their heads, touched
their left shoulders with the sword of state, and
repeated the words, " Fight manfully for your king
and fatherland." The rank of free barons was
conferred on nine lords, and first among them on Steno
Ericson Lejonhufvud, to whom when he had bent
the knee the king said, "Stand up, lord Steno, free
baron," setting a smaller coronet upon his head.
In the proclamation of the herald was remarked
this sentence : " One is the king of the Swedes,
Goths, and Vandals 4, and albeit many are the crowns
which glitter before your eyes, let no one so take it
as were there more than one royal diadem." The
allusion aimed really at the dukes was too clear to
New supreme court
established.
be misunderstood. Thereupon the king dubbed
twenty knights, saying as he imparted the stroke,
" First wast thou a heathen, then a Christian,
now-art thou become a knight." In the following year
the horse-service of the nobility was determined,
and the rate lowered. In the valuation a count
was allowed to except therefrom three manors, a
baron two, and a nobleman the one which he
himself inhabited. The free estates of the nobility were
thereby ascertained; as by the regulation that a
nobleman might except, together with his seat, the
tenement of his nearest socman, was laid the ground
for the privileges of the farms, or ladugardar
(barnyards), as they are called.
To the confusion in which Sweden emerged out
of the times of the Union, so far as relates to all the
forms of law, it is almost impossible to find a parallel,
and this lasted for a longer time than one would be
apt to imagine, especially as the letter of the law
seems to attest the contrary. The history of
Sweden is not to be written from edicts. Perhaps
in no country has there been a greater amount of
legislation on the surface, while nature and
manners have made its actual internal condition at all
times well-nigh alike. A high degree of individual
freedom is the leading feature of this condition ;
but this, which has sufficed commonly to avert
oppression, arose but slowly out of the primary
elements of civic liberty. If any great source of
discord sprang up, shaking the pillars of this freedom,
such as a government tyrannical or grossly
unintelligent, or what Gustavus Vasa calls the heavy
domination of the nobles, a violent breach opens a
path for the disturbing force,and turns away themost
imminent calamity. If, perchance, we are prompted
to imagine that some great change has been
effected, experience soon shows that ancient things
and principles have not yet lost vitality and sway.
The reign of Gustavus Vasa, in many respects
arbitrary, did little for the development of legal
procedure, if we except the so-called form of
government for West-Gothland by his German
chancellor, of which however no grain struck root
in Swedish soil. We find only that in his time the
" king’s inquest" (rafst) was sometimes held in the
provinces, chiefly where some exorbitant abuse had
called for remedy, or occasionally also for political
objects ; since the visit of Gustavus to the Dales,
with an armed force, in order to chastise the
revolt, is also called a king’s inquest. Eric made
the first attempt to found a perpetual supreme
court. This is styled the king’s ncemnd, an
appellation which shows that the notions of jury and
court had already become intermixed. The
ordinary number of the members appears to have been
twelve, though all of them were not in permanent
office. The nobles were in a minority, yet on the
more weighty occasions we find the court
strengthened with noblemen, military commanders,
burgesses, and sometimes even with priests. The
trusted men of the royal court were at certain
periods every third year to make circuits to the
principal towns, especially to the great fairs, and
thex-e pronounce the king’s judgment5, "in ox-der
eric and his brothers.
1 Ornhielra, Relation of the Church Estates.
2 " Bordsratt," jus retractus (the right of re-purchase
reserved to the nearest relation ; also birth-right).
3 Hertigar ; Grefvar ; Friherrar.
* Sveriges, Gotes, och Vendes Konung.
5 " To hear all causes which could not be adjusted before
the lawman," it is said in the royal instruction of November
1, 1563, whence we nevertheless should not conclude that
such causes only were tried there. The greatest number,
both in the first and last instance, were there disposed of.
The court was held in several towns, as Upsala, Strengness,
Westeras, Orebro, Yadstena, and chiefly Stockholm.
L 2
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