Summary According to the earliest documents and the 13th century laws of the Scandinavian countries fleet-organizations existed in Sweden, Norway and Denmark which originally went under the name of leidang in all three countries but were later called ledung in Sweden and leding in Norway and Denmark. As the materials available for research do not give an exact picture of how the ledung-fleets were organized, there have been ample discussions among historians over all the features of the ledung, its origins, development, details of organization etc. The general picture of the ledung that emerges from materials available in the three countries, is one of a fleet dominated by the king w’ith the peasants owing service in the fleet: the peasants had to row the ships at the king’s command and to supply the food necessary for the crews during the ledung-expeditions. These elements of compulsory military service due by the peasants are vital to the later development of the ledung. If the king did not want to use the ledung for expeditions during a certain year, the peasants nevertheless as the laws stipulated had to put up the foodrations at the king’s disposition. These obligations owed by the peasants, formed the origin of the later tax-systems of the Scandinavian countries, created towards the end of the 12th century when the ledung had lost its importance as a military factor in all the countries. This later phase of the ledung period is known as taxledung contrary to the earlier phases of war-ledung. The existing mediaeval laws show first and foremost the tax-ledung system but can still give a picture of how the war-ledung was in fact organized. The opinions of historians have been divided most on the question of establishing the age of the ledung. In Swedish research the opinion of G. Hafström is that the Swedish ledung was brought about in the Svea parts of the country during the 5th century, while in Norway the predominating view is that the ledung in this country was first organized by king Hakon the Good in about 955. In Danish research opinions concerning the age of the ledung were originally widely divided, ranging from the 6th to the 8th century, but lately some prominent historians have
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