english summary 469 earliest and most completely in Norway. There was such an intensification of the characteristics of state power that we can safely say that royal power was transformed into state power during the High Middle Ages in all the Scandinavian countries. This study shows that, when viewed from the law texts, it was the expanding judicial powers and functions of the king that chiefly propelled the state formation process. That the military causes were of less significance is particularly clear from the fact that Norway shows the most extensive state formation process, while this was simultaneously the kingdom that was least affected by military development and inter-state military competition. The differences in law-regulated royal power as institutionalized in the Scandinavian countries in the High Middle Ages, were probably significant for the differences in political development during the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern times. In Denmark, for example, the opposition to royal legislation and administration of justice prevented judicial centralization up to the second half of the seventeenth century, while the strong power of the local community in Sweden shows continuity into the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period through the relatively strong position of the freemen or yeomen farmers (Sw. bönder). 2 Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist Kingship and Law: A Comparison between Denmark, Norway, and Sweden in the High Middle Ages
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