from well-travelled – marianne vasara-aaltonen 347 especially in the non-noble class, in the first decades of the seventeenth century? Whereas the Svea court was struggling to find a replacement for the learned Crusius in 1633, the Turku court could boast well-educated men in both classes of the court. Both the president of the Turku court and the King were hoping to staff the court with more capable and learned men.1033 Perhaps this is an illustration of how personal relations and power struggles were more important in Stockholm, the centre of royal and administrative life, than in Turku. It may be that sometimes having the right contacts and being trusted by the monarch was more important than having the best education. The Turku Court of Appeal was conceivably less affected by such intrigues and the president had more freedom in choosing his judges.1034 A further comparison with the Göta Court of Appeal would shed light on this matter. Examining the careers of the judges, we see that they begin to be more judicial in the late seventeenth century. As this was a slow and fluctuating process, one may assume that it had to do with a natural specialization that started to take place when the educational level of future civil servants rose. It is also worth noting that at the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there were many legislative initiatives afoot and the judges were often involved in law committees at some point during their careers.1035 This perhaps also influenced the fact that there were now more men who were specialised in legal affairs. But there is also the practical issue that a court being run by men busy with other tasks was becoming a burden, especially in the eighteenth century, and the judges needed to focus on the judiciary. During the Age of Liberty, we start to see men advancing within the court, which reflects the numerous statutes that were issued on the appointment and advancement of civil servants. This raises the question of whether the judges were actually more civil servants than lawyers. While the appointments followed the routine of the civil administration, it is clear that advancement took place within the court system, not the entire administration. The judges had distinctly judicial careers. 1032 Petrén, Sture 1964 pp. 57-58, 68-69; Vasara, Marianne 2007 pp. 58-60; Wrangel, E. 1897 p. 94. 1033 Vasara-Aaltonen, Marianne 2013 p. 613; Blomstedt, Yrjö 1973 p. 59. 1034 See Blomstedt, Yrjö 1973 p. 59. 1035 Nilsén, Per 2003 p. 311.
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