kingship and law 460 with the law of the realm and the municipal law in the 1270s. The Swedish laws gave the king less responsibility for executing punishments, and the weaker executive power is particularly evident in the responsibility to help the defenceless. An important finding is that the king’s judicial power was established first, then his legislative power, and finally his executive power. This applies to all three Scandinavian countries. This is asignificant newobservation since it means that it is less likely that executive defects in the pre-state legal system were the reason why the king could successfully claim increasing judicial authority and functions, as Norwegian historians such as Jens Arup Seip and Knut Helle have claimed. Royal power seems to have been primarily geared to taking over more and more of the judicial and legislative functions exercised by the regional legal assemblies in the individual legal provinces instead of establishing more efficient executive power. this chapteris devoted to studying how the law regulated the king’s military authority and functions and how these changed over time in the Scandinavian kingdoms. This is done by examining the scope of the king’s right of command, his right of taxation, and his claim to a monopoly of military powers. The royal right of command is investigated in terms of the royal jurisdiction over military power and to what extent the king was able to dispose of the armed forces. The royal right of taxation is considered in relation to the king’s military powers since, in the Middle Ages, this was closely connected to the military system and the way it was financed. The extent of the king’s claim to sole right to the possession and use of military power is studied to determine the degree of royal monopoly of the legitimate use of force. Royal military powers have not previously been studied comparatively in the Scandinavian countries on the basis of the law material. Existing research on inter-Scandinavian military differences has focused on questions such as the size of the naval levy (Sw. ledung), the rise of a nobility (Sw. frälse) exempted from taxes in return for military service, and aspects of weapon technology. These studies have demonstrated inter-Scandinavian similarities and differences, such as that the naval levy was fundamentally the same in the Scandinavian kingdoms, that its military significance was greatest— and lasted longest—in Norway, and that the stipulations in the law indicate Chapter 4: The King and Military Power
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