summary. the open window were disadvantaged and the surviving spouse took precedence over heirs to the deceased. The surviving spouse could be an unrelated widow or widower and was given preference over the heirs of the deceased. The three situations presented above illustrate how the city departed or reinterpreted the provisions of Swedish town law. Burghers in Stockholm had created a “new” heir: the widow and widower. This conclusion can be said to be consistent with Godding’s claim that Northern European cities favored the surviving spouse at the expense of lineal heirs. In Stockholm, advance payments on inheritances were still practiced. This was fortunate for the intended beneficiaries because it could take a very long time before they could partake in the final distribution of inheritance. Sometimes they did not even receive it when both biological parents were dead, and in some instances not even when the stepparent died but only when the stepparent’s last wife or husband died. Parents had the right to live in their commonly owned homes; the only requirement was that the heirs’ inheritance rights to the immovable property be established and registered at the council house, which ensured that no problems would arise when the succession of inheritance was to be implemented. Finally, what will be considered is the struggle over property between younger and older burghers in Stockholm. This is best illustrated by studying the distribution of the inheritance after the death of a lineal beneficiary. If the beneficiary had no children, but had siblings and at least one living parent, according to Swedish town law, parents had inheritance succession precedence over the siblings of the deceased. In other cities, the opposite prevailed; siblings had succession precedence over their parents. According to the revised Swedish law of the realm from 1442, the decision makers had decided that parents and the deceased sibling would be equal inheritance beneficiaries. On the other hand, Swedish town law was concerned about the parents who gave their children advances on their inheritance. During the period under review, burghers in Stockholm were pragmatic because they seemed to have adapted their legal decisions according to the prevailing circumstances. The courts expressed a willingness to make parents and siblings equal 300
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