general background – mia korpiola 39 Soldiers as well as the tenants and staff of the nobility caused more acute problems for law enforcement at the end of the sixteenth century. Soldiers were hard to discipline, and complaints were made to kings that it was difficult to get criminal soldiers to appear at court and have them convicted there. In addition, they evaded penalties by settling clandestinely with the injured parties, and thereby defrauding the king of his income in the form of fines and thus breaking the law.84 The estates of the nobility proved another obstacle for the administration of justice. When tenants of noblemen committed a crime, they immediately turned to their bailiff in order to settle with them. Consequently, both local judges and injured parties had difficulty in getting such tenants to court as they explained that their bailiff had forbidden them to appear there. Such practices prevented people from getting what law and justice entitled them to (kommer them huarken till lagh eller räth).85 Similar problems were also observable in ecclesiastical courts. Some nobles protected their staff and tenants from both secular and ecclesiastical justice.86 This was a problem even in the time of King JohnIII, who in 1578 issued a statute forbidding counts and barons from freeing their tenants from heinous and other capital crimes (högmåhls ärende, Edzöris brot och andra Lijfzsaker) by accepting fines (sakörer och böter) for their “many notorious offences and grave sins” (uppenbare laster och grofwe synder) without the knowledge and consent of the king. As members of the royal council, they had the right to have the king’s part of the amercements for fines paid by their own tenants, while ordinary noblemen did not have similar rights, despite their pretentions. The King observed that through this practice, sins and crimes were not punished according to the law (effter Synder och misgierninger icke blifwe lagligen straffadhe) as justice required. This also enStockholm, 10 March 1570, p. 76: “Till thet 15, schole borgemestere och rådh udi Stocholm, när någre saker for rätte komme, som icke finnes i lagen uthtrychte, ransake och dömme ther um effter theris bedzte samveth. Och schal then dom blifve så fast som någen annen, doch ath appellation altidh må ske under oss och vårt elschelige rikis rådh effter Sverigis lagh; och när någre främmende saker schole förhöres, ransakes och dömmes, dhå schal ther till brukes halffparten uthländske och halffparten inländske, på thet alle saker thäss schickeligere schole förhandlede varde, och ath the fremmende icke schole hafve sigh till ath beclage um någen orätt.” 84 E.g., General clagemål i Westergöthlandh, “Om k. Erik XIV:s förhållande”, ed. Ödberg, p. 80. 85 E.g., General clagemål i Westergöthlandh, “Om k. Erik XIV:s förhållande”, ed. Ödberg, p. 80. 86 E.g., Korpiola, Mia 2004 pp. 84-90.
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