the court of appeal as legal transfer – heikki pihlajamäki 249 give in to demands of the high nobility. One of these demands was the privilege of holding court on their lands, which was the case in the European regions with longer feudal pasts, nearby Denmark included.680 It is probable that high nobility de facto kept holding court, even without express legitimation, except for a privilege by King Gustav Vasa from 1526, which guaranteed noblemen the right to their “law, privileges, freedoms, and good old customs.” In the Privilege Letter of 1590, King John III, however, expressly forbade nobles from holding courts on their manors in general, stating that legal cases having to do with the nobility’s personnel or peasants were to be decided in “lawful courts” and according to Swedish law.681 However, King ErikXIVhad already given the few barons and counts of the realm the right to hold patrimonial courts in 1569,682 and King JohnIII also consented to such patrimonial courts on these larger enfeoffments. He donated a county and six baronies mostly to his relatives, and the high nobility newly grafted onto these enfeoffments received the right to hold court.683 Thus, there was no general right for noblemen to patrimonial courts on their estates, but a right for counts and barons to courts of their own on their larger fiefs. During the early part of the seventeenth century the number of such fiefs to the high nobility rose steeply. By 1650, roughly 50 counties and baronies had been enfeoffed in Sweden (Finland included).684 All of these had the privilege of holding court. We do not know for certain whether they all actually did so, but it is probable, given the monetary incentive involved. The essential benefit that patrimonial court gave their lords was the right to keep part of the fines paid, which otherwise would have gone to the crown. Enough patrimonial court archives have been preserved, furthermore, to conclude that we are not dealing with an isolated phenomenon.685 Higher level patrimonial courts existed in Sweden proper as well in the form of ducal courts. These courts are important because they can be seen 680 Ferm, Olle 1983 p. 132. For Denmark, see Andersen, Per 2011. 681 See Nilsson, Sven 1952 p. 92; Ferm Olle, p. 135. 682 Swedlund, Robert 1936 p. 196. 683 Swedlund, Robert 1936 pp. 35-46; Jokipii, Mauno 1956 p. 26; and Jokipii, Mauno 1960 p. 32. See, however, Ferm, Olle 1983 p. 135, according to whom JohnIII expressly forbade noblemen to keep court on their lands. 684 Swedlund, Robert 1936 pp. 337-338. 685 For the Finnish part of the realm, see Jokipii1960 pp. 44-50.
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