suum cuique tribuere – elsa trolle önnerfors 185 that the Estate should be judged in accordance with the law of the countryside as far as possible. This enabled the nobility to keep their landed property within the family to a greater extent since their sons could inherit twice as much as their daughters. The members of the nobility could enhance and develop their wealth more easily in this way.516 The nobility was not particularly interested in expanding the right of inheritance, as this could give rise to a greater risk of the division of properties. For the same reason, the nobility was also anxious to control the marriage of children and to limit the rights of ownership of daughters. A will could provide an opportunity to modify the rules governing the rights of inheritance without the need to change the law. The rules governing the rights of inheritance could be circumvented by referring to the ideas of equity and fairness derived from natural law, and by stressing the principle of the freedom of contract. By making a contract in the form of a will, testators were able to dispose of their property in accordance with their own wishes.517 In the early modern period, disposing of an estate was often complicated. Among the nobility, as well within the other Estates, mortality rates were high and remarriages frequent. The tendency to remarry also resulted in a large number of stepchildren. All of these factors contributed to an increasing demand during the seventeenth century for the opportunity to make a legally valid disposition before death such as the will. One of the most common reasons for drawing up a will was a wish to avoid unnecessary conflict among the children and the widow on the disposition of the estate. The will could also be used to ensure an inheritance for illegitimate children. Such children had no right to inherit according to the law of inheritance, but a will provided a solution which enabled even these children to be awarded a part of the assets.518 Since inheritance was a greater source of income than earned income in the early modern period, inheritance was a highly important legal field. As a result, there was an increase in the number of wills and a resulting increase in the number of cases of disputed wills in the courts, especially the courts of appeal. The Swedish Law of the Countryside (first enacted during the mid-fourteenth century) regulated all central aspects of life such 516 Trolle Önnerfors, Elsa 2014 p. 210; Ågren, Maria 2009 p. 28. 517 Trolle Önnerfors, Elsa 2014 p. 176. 518 Trolle Önnerfors, Elsa 2014 pp. 35-36; Ågren, Maria 2000 pp. 197-218.
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