the svea court of appeal in the early modern period 190 cidor and accused him of defamation. Lucidor swore that he did not know that writing an unsolicited poem on somebody’s wedding was a crime. He also denied that the poem was a lampoon; he had only wanted to bring some happiness and joy to the wedding festivities.533 After spending several months under arrest, Lucidor was acquitted by the Svea Court of Appeal in June 1670.534 Sadly, Gyllenstierna’s marriage turned out to be short-lived. In February 1671, Märta died in childbirth, only sixteen years old. Lucidor wrote an epitaph for Märta’s funeral in August the same year, but this time he was asked to do so.535 It should be recalled that the judicial privileges did not exempt noblemen from being tried, but the nobility had the right to a trial by their peers and the right to use the court of appeal as the first instance. Sometimes the nobles also used other forms of settlement, including the duel, which gave them an opportunity for redress outside the courts. The medieval justice of trial by combat had evolved in the early modern period into the private duel by sword or pistol, with many noblemen facing each other ready to die in order to expunge an insult or just prove a point.536 Duelling was technically illegal, and the duels were banned by the Swedish government in the course of the seventeenth century,537 but those nobles who followed the elaborate codes of procedure were observing an old tradition, and were seldom prosecuted and rarely convicted. During the period, only one case about duelling was settled by the Svea Court of Appeal.538 Crimes of theft and violence were common during the early modern period, but the perpetrators often came from the lower strata of society.539 Violent crimes committed by noblemen were relatively few in the records of the Svea Court of Appeal. Most frequent were various forms of vandal533 Liber causarum1669 no. 120:2 (RA, SHA, E VI a 2 aa:249). 534 Judgement on 22 June 1670 (RA, SHA, B II a:42). 535 Lars Johansson(Lucidor): Samlade dikter p. 222. 536 For further reading on duels, see Holland, Barbara 2004. The duel in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Sweden has been investigated by Collstedt, Christopher 2007. 537 Kongl. May:tz Placat och Förbud angående allahanda Dueller, och otwunge Slagzmåhl, 23 December 1662, printed inKongl. stadgar, ed. Schmedeman, pp. 325-328. 538 Only one case concerning duels was found in this investigation; see judgement on 5 March 1690 (RA, SHA, B II a:61). 539 Ylikangas, Heikki and others 2000 p. 76. Disputes about Theft and Violence
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=