prolonged noble property disputes – anu lahtinen 151 considered (as binding as) a law (thet konung medh skälomwil, thet reknas för lagh).424 Appealing to the King for help was a strategy used by many contemporaries. In this case, it seems to have been a way to challenge the authority of a guardian or a mighty male relative who seemed to neglect his duties. For an unmarried woman, such as Filippa Fleming, the possible way out of the conflict with a guardian was to find a mightier male protector as an ally.425 As was shown in the case Planting vs. Uggla, a bequest could also be a good idea for a nobleman, if he wished to evade the law of inheritance. Filippa’s last will was well-founded, and at first the King followed her wishes. Later on, however, Klas Fleming managed to get hold of most of the property as a donation from that very king, JohnIII. Moreover, since the orphaned Anna was under the guardianship of the Klas, she had little chance of challenging him and claiming her portion of the inheritance. It would later turn out that during the more than fifteen years of guardianship, Klas neglected his legal duty to keep accounts of the property and annual rent belonging to Anna. It may have been that Klas was also unwilling to accept Anna’s marriage as he would then lose control over her landed property. Only after long debates and negotiations in the early 1590s was Anna betrothed to a German newcomer and a nobleman, Hieronymus Birckholtz (senior, d. 1618). However, Hieronymus reportedly failed to pay the amount of money demanded by Klas Fleming as her morning-gift, so the guardian kept postponing the wedding plans.What was evenworse, Hieronymus became a trusted servant of Duke Charles (the future Charles IXof Sweden), Klas’s worst enemy, who supported the rule of the crowned King Sigismund. The Duke began to put pressure on the guardian, and as a result, personal 424 Last will of Filippa Fleming, RA, Biografica. For more about Filippa Fleming and her relations with her brother, see Lahtinen, Anu 2009a pp. 145-153. In the last will, the King’s will as a law is referred to as a principle pronounced in the Konungsbalkenin the Law of the Countryside; however, to put it more precisely, this principle is made explicit in the abovementioned judge’s rules, better known as Domare embete by Olavus Petri. (See http://runeberg.org/opetri/domregl.html, visited on 4 July 2014). Apart from a slip of the memory, this error may be explained such that that Filippa and her helpers were using a law manuscript in which the judge’s rules had been copied in connection to Konungsbalken. I would like to thank Mia Korpiola for bringing my attention to this possible interpretation. For the role of the king and the individual traits of various law manuscripts, see also Mia Korpiola’s article in this volume. 425 Lahtinen, Anu 2009a pp. 169-190.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=