the svea court of appeal in the early modern period 116 “without cause and contrary customs carried out an action” (oskäligen och osedwanligen tagith sigh före een action) against them.314 Thus, despite social and hierarchical differences, one may sense some professional bonding between the judges of both courts. Documents – inquiries, answers and reports – were also the main form of that direct communication which occurred between the Svea Court of Appeal and the Stockholm Town Court. The surviving protocols from the both courts contain numerous examples of how the two courts communicated regularly with each other in writing. The tone was always polite, in the letters from the Town Court naturally very polite, as was customary in conventional early modern letter-writing between two participants of which the one ranked socially higher than the other.315 Occasionally, however, the two courts also exchanged information orally – either using messengers (consisting one or more members of the courts) or by inviting the whole Town Council to the session of the Court of Appeal. The latter occurred from time to time during the early phase of the history of the Svea Court of Appeal, but then seems to have become infrequent. In June 1614, the president of the Court of Appeal asked the invited burgomasters and councillors why they had not imposed any sentence in a matter dealing with a slain a guardsman of the King’s Guard (drabant). It was thus a matter of life and death and the slain party was one of king’s servants – that is, not a person belonging to the burgher families or their households. The answer of the Town Court, most likely delivered by one or more of the burgomasters, perhaps reflected an attempt to avoid overly complex cases and decisions. The conscience of the members of the Town Court did not allow them to do more in this case, but instead “the noble and good men who form the highly laudable royal Court of Appeal” (dhe welborne herrar och godhe Männ som then högloflige konungzlige hoffrätten beklädha) were entitled to hear the case as they esteemed was right and good. The answer reflects conventional politeness to superiors.316 Again in 1614, the Court of Appeal wanted to hear the whole Town Court because the inn-keeper Hans Everdtson had accused it of giving 314 Stb 1619, p. 125 (25 Sep. 1619); Riksarkivet (hereafter RA, Swedish National Archives), Svea hovrättens huvudarkiv (hereafter SHA, Main archive of the Svea Court of Appeal), B II a 2, Dombok 1617 – 1624, no. 115 (14 Oct. 1619), 157 (4 Nov. 1620). 315 Harnesk, Börje 2003 pp. 42-74; Koskinen, Ulla – Lahtinen, Anu 2011 pp. 83-112. 316 RA, SHA, A I a 1:1, Renskrivna protokoll 1614, fol. 54v (25 June 1614).
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=