slandering the king and his councillors – per nilsén 209 ously, the court did not make use of the opportunity to hand down a final sentence in the King’s absence. Immediately below Becchius’s original headline Gross speaking against the King and Government; punished by death, man as well as womana later annotation by another hand has stated Alius – pardoned by His Majesty; punished to run the gauntlet in three towns and eternal work in Marstrand. In 1687 – i.e., one year before the collection was presented to the Court of Appeal – the foreman Anders Biörck had expressed himself in an illicit way on the Evangelical-Lutheran religion, the Holy Supper and His Majesty the King. Somewhat strangely, the case was first heard by the King (Charles XI) who pardoned Biörck’s life on 18 April: instead of suffering the death penalty, Biörck was to be put in irons and then transported to the fortress of Marstrand. On his way there, he should be lashed by the hangman at the scaffolds of the towns Västerås, Köping and Arboga (thus, contrary to the headline, there was actually no reason to run the gauntlet). Arriving in Marstrand, he should work there as long as he lived. Two days later, the case was heard at the Court of Appeal with Biörck present. The Court found that the evidence was sufficient and that the regulations in the Book on the King chapter nine were applicable; of course, the King’s decision was taken to heart.580 From the perspective of the Becchius material, it seems that severe corporal punishment combined with life-time penal servitude became the normal sanction for more vicious slander of the King and councillors during the last decades of the seventeenth century. In a case referred to the King from the Court of Appeal in Åbo/Turku 1698, the peasant Johan Hindersson Nappa had his sentence commuted and was required to run the gauntlet nine times, then to be put in irons and be transported to the castle in Viborg where he should work all his life.581 The carpenter Sven Örling, who was sentenced to death by the Court of Admiralty, had his sentence commuted in 1700 by the King in a similar way: running the gauntlet nine times, public confession in church and transportation for life-time work in Marstrand.582 580 RA, RA:s ämnessamlingar, Juridica I: Becchius-Palmcrantz’ samlingar. Vol. 4. Cap. 2, causa 2. 581 RA, RA:s ämnessamlingar, Juridica I: Becchius-Palmcrantz’ samlingar, Vol. 4, Cap. 2, causa 2. 582 RA, RA:s ämnessamlingar, Juridica I: Becchius-Palmcrantz’ samlingar, Vol. 4, Cap. 2, causa 2.
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