suum cuique tribuere – elsa trolle önnerfors 187 certainly the fact that the legal system in the seventeenth century did not allow wives to inherit from their husbands. There were many occasions on which widows were forced to gain whatever they could from the disposition of an estate. The proportion of female parties to cases of disputed wills is also greater than that of female parties to other cases heard in the courts of appeal.521 The legal position regarding the law of wills was clarified in 1686, when the Statute of Wills was enacted. The Statute of Wills was largely based on precedents from the courts of appeal, the regulations having been drafted on the basis of the replies by the Courts of Appeal in Stockholm, Turku and Jönköping to a questionnaire sent out by the Crown. The enactment of the 1686 Statute of Wills also coincided with a period of intense legislation, and in the same year a major law reform was initiated which eventually resulted in the new Swedish Code of the Realm in 1734.522 A person’s honour was immensely important during the seventeenth century; one’s honour was equivalent to one’s life. This applied to all groups in society in the early modern period, but it was especially important for the nobility, noblemen being men of honour. The Estate emphasized that the fact that nobles were particularly honourable was one of the things that made them a class of their own in society. Thus, honour reinforced the foundations of the class society. Again, this was not a specific Swedish phenomenon, similar views on the nobility’s honour being found all over Europe.523 Maintaining one’s honour and reputation was equivalent to maintaining one’s credit rating and status in society. In early modern Sweden, the honour pertained to the individual, and not to the family or kin. If a person had been insulted and not defended his honour and reputation, he had lost all his dignity and was an object of contempt in the eyes of others. A violation of a nobleman’s honour implied a fundamental questioning of his noble identity, and anyone daring to insult a nobleman in public ran the risk of being challenged to a duel. Honour had an absolute 521 Trolle Önnerfors, Elsa 2014 pp. 38 and 58-60. 522 Trolle Önnerfors, Elsa 2014 pp. 211-227. 523 Persson, Fabian 1999 p. 22. Disputes about Defamation
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=