the court of appeal as legal transfer – heikki pihlajamäki 221 into effect through the Capitulation of Estonia and Livonia in 1710, and was finalized through the Treaty of Nystad in 1721. King Sigismund of Poland had confirmed the Livonian nobility’s right to a diet in the Privileges of 1561. The Livonian Diet (Landtag) remained a major legislative and administrative organ all through the Swedish period. Not being represented in the Swedish Diet and having a diet of its own instead was important for the Livonian noblemen, being an important indication that Livonia was not wholly incorporated into Sweden.602 It was, however, not self-evident what strategy the Swedes would choose in relation to the conquered Livonia. The first Governor-general, Johan Skytte, was for thoroughgoing incorporation, whereas King Gustav II Adolf and his chancellor Axel Oxenstierna were politically more realist.603 In order to avoid irritating the Livonian estates, they thought it politically wise to let Livonia remain relatively detached from the Swedish rike. After the initial uncertainly, this was the view that gained the upper hand. From the social and political viewpoint, Livonia was markedly distinct from Sweden proper. Livonia was a feudal societypar excellence, a land with mighty land-owning magnates and a peasantry tied to the soil. Basing his studies on the Swedish land registers, the Latvian historian Edgar Dundorfs has estimated the population of Livonia in 1688 as 152,000, including soldiers and their families in the province. In the same year, there were 537 manorial estates and 12,272 peasant houses.604 Sweden, in turn, was late to develop feudal structures. Sweden was almost completely agrarian, other estates than peasantry representing only a few percent of the population at the beginning of the seventeenth. Practically all of the other estates were in one way or another engaged in agriculture as well.605 Although they reached their zenith around the midseventeenth century, feudal features in Sweden never developed as far as they did in Livonia. Thus, the Livonian serf was not nearly as free as a Swedish peasant. A telling example of what this meant in practice is that the Swedish peasantry was represented in the Estate Diet as an estate of its own and could have its voice heard. The weight of the peasant estate at the Diet should not, of course, be overestimated or romanticized. Neverthe602 Larsson, Lars-Olof 1975 pp. 49-65. 603 On the differing views of Skytte and Oxenstierna, see Larsson, Lars-Olof 1975. 604 Dundorfs, Edgars 1950 p. 187. 605 Runeby, Nils 1978 pp. 38-44.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=