Thus, the Svea Court of Appeal was the court of the nobility in many ways. It was the first instance for the nobility in a number of legal matters, and most of its judges were noblemen. The nobility also used the legal practice of the appeal court to influence the legal trends and legislation to favour the Estate. As mentioned above, the aim of this study is to investigate the extent of court cases with parties from the nobility where the Svea Court of Appeal was the first instance. How many disputes involving parties from the nobility were settled by the Svea Court of Appeal during the second half of the seventeenth century? What kinds of disputes were heard by the Court and did the types of disputes change over time? By the mid seventeenth century, the Svea Court of Appeal had been an appeal court for about thirty years. Routines for handling legal matters and passing sentences were in place. In 1650, the appeal court ruled in fifty-eight cases in total. By the end of the century, the number of judgements had increased markedly. Just during the ten-year period from 1680 to 1690, the total number of disputes settled by the court of appeal more than doubled. As to disputes with parties from the nobility, the number of disputes settled was almost five times higher in 1690 than in 1680.487 The proportion of disputes with parties from the nobility constituted approximately a quarter (twenty-four percent) of the judgements in the the svea court of appeal in the early modern period 176 487 The total number of judgements handed down in the Svea Court of Appeal increased from 60 in 1680 to 137 in 1690 (RA, SHA, B II a: 51 and 61). Disputes with Parties from the Nobility in the Svea Court of Appeal during the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century 58 39 99 60 137 1650 1660* 1670 1680 1690 In total: 393 Judgments from Svea Court of Appeal for the years 1650, 1660, 1670, 1680 and 1690 (RA, SH, HA, B II a:22, 32, 42, 51 and 61). * Only the record for the autumn session is preserved for the year 1660. 15 3 18 10 48 94 26% 8% 18% 17% 35% 24% Number of Settled Disputes with Parties from the Nobility (%) Number of Settled Disputes with Parties from the Nobility Number of Settled Disputes in total Year Table 1 Source:
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