a safe haven in the shadow of war? – mia korpiola 101 vantage, the Crown was indeed demonstrating that it provided “a foundation for a good and laudable policy” for the people of Sweden. In Sweden, the courts of appeal not only came to fulfil the judicial tasks of tribunals, but also to oversee all the justice-related affairs of the state during the king’s absence abroad during various campaigns in the 1610s, 1620s and 1630s, apart from thebeneficium revisionis and the royal prerogative of pardon. During the king’s absence, the courts of appeal were to do their duty even “more diligently rather than more negligently” (flijtigare och eij försummeligare i H. Kongl. Maij:tz frånvaru än närvaru) in accordance with the Ordinance in order to ensure that “nobody will have reason to complain because of a lack of justice.”289 In guaranteeing that the King’s Justice would prevail even in his absence and in attempting to monitor the royal administration, the Svea Court of Appeal and, later, the other appellate courts based on its model became a factor facilitating the temporary rise of Sweden as a European great power. Practical considerations – such as raising money for the treasury effectively, largely freeing the king from the burden of justice administration and delegating his judicial powers to a specialized institution when he was abroad on the battlefield for many months – also played a major role in the timing. In addition, crown officials could not be perceived to be making personal gains through abusing their position in an era when the Swedish population was haemorrhaging heavily through the wars. Necessity was made into a virtue and a lastingPRvictory. While theReichskammergericht was established against the wishes of Maximilian I, King of the Romans (r. 1486 –1519) and future Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and is an indication of his weakness, King GustavIIAdolf had important incentives for the establishment of the Svea Court of Appeal which rather increased his powers and became a monument of his image as a just and good ruler. As has been indicated above, the early history of the Svea Court of Appeal indicates that the court was established in some haste. Many important things relating to its activity, such as court procedure, the upkeep and salary of its staff and its seal, had been left unregulated or undetermined by the time it started its work. In fact, they were only finally resolved after 289 “[A]tt ingen må hafva skähl att sigh at beklaga för rättlösa skuld,” Instructions for the Council of the Realm during the king’s absence abroad (1625), Svenska riksrådets protokoll I, 1621–1629, ed. Kullberg, p. xiv. See also ibid. (1621, 1627), pp. x, xxi.
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