the svea court of appeal in the early modern period 368 The third difference is the arrangements within the shield. The three coronets have been removed, and the indistinct arrangement with the sword and pair of scales in saltire has been replaced by the partition of the shield with the sword in one part and the scales in the other. Thus, the shield has been tidied up. Without stretching the interpretation too far, this could be understood as representing the ambition to observe a more orderly administration of justice and application of law than had taken place in the time of and after the High Council. The similarities between the seals are enough to conclude that the designer of the 1614 seal must have known the seal of the 1560s, and the differences justify the conclusion that they cannot have been made randomly. All in all, the seal of the Svea Court of Appeal, lacking a royal crown and the three coronets taken out of the shield – is the seal of a court less attached to the king’s personal power and the central authority of the state than the seal of the High Council. This could make it seem more independent than the High Council, not, of course, fully in the modern meaning of the word but in the sense that the judges had permanent positions and that the King could not be expected to take a personal interest in the outcome of all cases. On the other hand, the lack of the royal crown above the shield gives the impression that it is not as closely attached to the sovereignty of the state as the seal of the High Council. The heraldic changes reflect the same shift in concept as was made explicit in the changes in the legend from the King’s judges to a law court of the kingdom. Even if the Svea Court of Appeal was in the same position as theHigh Council had been supposed to be, a fresh start was needed and was given an iconographical representation. The successive differences as regards the coronets and crowns indicate that the court must have realized that the ordinary way was to have a royal crown above the shield. The coronet above the shield was therefore changed into a royal crown, and the two remaining coronets – which were then without meaning – were changed into royal crowns. Since this was not very intelligible either, the reasonable solution was decided on and then What Significance Do the Changes in the Motif of the Seals Have?
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