summary 377 Through its participation in regency governments and its strong economic position the nobility exercised major political influence during the greater part of the 17th century, but towards the end of the century conditions changed. To a large extent the power of the nobility, particularly the titled nobility, was based on their ownership of land, in many cases large areas of land. This meant that questions of inheritance, ownership and other aspects of property became both more important and more sensitive. Reductions (the return to the Crown of fiefs that had been granted to the Swedish nobility) greatly reduced the landownership of the nobility and their power was weakened. In the 1680s, the new families that had been raised to the aristocracy began accumulating land and the sale and purchase of land became more intensive. The importance of inheriting an estate declined and landownership took new forms. However, the nobility was still far from in agreement on matters both legal and political. Seen as a single unit the nobility exercised major political influence, but the various groups within the nobility pulled in different directions. The 1680s were an eventful decade for both the nobility and the law on wills. The emphasis on Swedish law in relation to the legal culture of other countries was conspicuous in the cases that followed in the wake of the return of Crown fiefs. The emphasis on Swedish law in relation to the legal culture of other countries recurs in Charles XI’s royal ordinances from the 1670s and 1680s, which were used as a means of introducing an absolute monarchy. With these ordinances, Charles XI limited the right of the courts of appeal to arbitrate and to make use of sources of law other than statutory law. From now on, the only the Crown had the right to deviate from the wording of the law. Furthermore, it was decided that the court of appeal should not make use of legal sources from other countries or to use foreign languages in its judgments. The application of the law by the courts of appeal had played a vital role in law-making in the 17th century. The altered attitude to and use of wills came from below rather than from above. Legal representatives in cases heard in the courts of appeal and the judges in the courts of appeal were active inmoving developments forward. Because of their legal training and the extensive jurisprudence on sources of law, professional lawyers were able to introduce new legal elements and new approaches into the Swedish legal system. The legal position regarding the law of wills was clarified in 1686, when the Statute of Wills was enacted. The Statute of Wills was lar-
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