the tale of two courts in one town – marko lamberg 111 295 Einonen, Piia 2005 pp. 36, 156. Although the Court of Appeal was not assembled the whole year round, its sessions took eight weeks twice a year and its core group also sat between these two periods; see Petrén, Sture 1964 pp. 50-51. 296 Ericson, Lars 1988 p. 331. Influences from German-speaking areas can be traced in the administrative system in medieval and early modern Swedish towns, but recent research has questioned the traditional interpretation of the administrative and judicial system in Lübeck and other Hanseatic towns as the main models for emerging towns in medieval Sweden. See Gustafsson, Sofia 2006 pp. 210-211. he foundation of theSvea Court of Appeal in 1614 empow- Tered all subjects of the Swedish Crown with a new means to promote their interests against the decisions and sentences handed down by the local courts. Naturally, it had been possible to appeal to the King even before the establishing of the Court of Appeal, but after 1614, local courts were targets of intensified supervision from above. It was not only a matter of how justice was administered and maintained in local communities but also how far local elites could control their communities and act as their leaders. Even foreigners could now take advantage of the new opportunity if they were dissatisfied with the decisions made by the local courts. The autonomy and influence of the local courts diminished in Stockholm particularly – after all, the Court of Appeal resided within the same community as the burgomasters and the councillors – in fact, quite near the Town Hall, because at that time the Court of Appeal still held its sessions at the royal castle. Moreover, the foundation of the Court of Appeal ended the era during which the Stockholm Town Court had had judicial power even beyond the administrative boundaries of the town.295 In the early seventeenth century, the Stockholm Town Court was still consisted mostly of members of the local burgher elite as had been the case in the Middle Ages, when the Swedish town administration system had been created under Hanseatic influence.296 The urban community of Stockholm was led by a specified number of burgomasters (borgmästare) and councillors (rådmän) who formed the Town Council (stadens råd). The Introduction
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