the svea court of appeal in the early modern period 254 The founding of the royal court in the region surrounding the town of Pernau was not simple, for the Countess Magdalena Thurn bitterly opposed the foundation of a royal court on her lands. Governor-General Johan Skytte even issued an injunction prohibiting the Countess from complicating the establishment of the new royal land court. An edict of 1633 and the one of 1640 (mentioned above) declared that the free allodial goods of noblemen were excluded from the comital court’s jurisdiction, and thus pertained to that of the royal court.706 The comital court proved unreliable where its responsibility for sending its minutes to the Dorpat Court of Appeal for inspection was concerned. If the minutes did nevertheless arrive at the Court of Appeal, it was more “ad illusionem, als ad leuterationem,” as the Court’s President formulated it.707 In 1644, the Court of Appeal even summoned the Countess and her judges to respond to the charges that the comital court had imposed sentences without sending them to the Court of Appeal for approval. The Countess, however, appealed to the king and managed to have the summons annulled.708 The minutes of the Comital Land Court from 1632 speak for the rebellious attitude of the Countess. In the records, the court is not always called land court, but Gräffliches Pernouwsches Obergericht, Gräffliches Thurnisches Obergericht, Gräffliches Landgericht or Gräffliches Schlosgericht.709 Different names are sometimes used even in the same legal case. After the Thurn family became extinct in 1661, the county was enfeoffed to the Chancellor of the Realm (rikskansler) Magnus De la Gardie. The Pernau enfeoffment was now included in the jurisdiction of the comital court covering all De la Gardie’s Baltic possession. In 1681, the enfeoffments of both De la Gardie and Oxenstierna returned to the state as part of the Great Reduction. This meant that the two private land courts ceased to exist, and their jurisdictions were taken over by the royal courts.710 The patrimonial courts thus remained rather marginal, both in Sweden proper and Livonia. Although their number in Sweden was quite large, almost all were aligned with the system of royal judicial hierarchy from early on. The patrimonial judicial enclaves came under state control 706 Meurling, Anna Christina 1967 p. 91. 707 Meurling, Anna Christina 1967 pp. 91-92. 708 Meurling, Anna Christina 1967 p. 91. 709 EAA, 915/1/1, Pärnu maakohtu protokoll (kriminaal) 1632 –1643, fols. 6, 8 a, 22. 710 Meurling, Anna Christina 1967 p. 87.
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