the svea court of appeal in the early modern period 40 abled people to lead wicked and ungodly lives. All this was against “God’s Commandments” (Gudz budh), which the King feared would provoke the wrath of God (Gudz Förtörnelse), as well as against the law of Sweden and the privileges of the nobility confirmed by the king. Anyone disregarding this royal prohibition was threatened with the substantial fine of 100 Hungarian gulders or confiscation of land of for each offence.87 Naturally, the administration of justice was not merely the onerous duty of the king towards the people, but also a source of power and revenue. As has been seen above, there had been attempts to organize the king’s judicial power in different ways. But even the Swedish medieval laws contained features from many different layers and sorely needed unifying. The Swedish medieval laws (provincial and royal laws for towns and the country) exist in about 400 copies from the late thirteenth century to the early seventeenth. The provincial laws have only survived in some dozens of copies which indicate that they were largely replaced by the royal laws after the mid-fourteenth century. There are about a hundred copies of both of the laws of King Magnus (II) Eriksson (r. 1319 – 1363), the Town Law and the Law of the Realm, while the later version of the latter, the 1442 law of King Christopher of Bavaria, exists in more than 150 copies.88 Only some dozen manuscripts of the law of Christopher of Bavaria exist before the mid-sixteenth century. Thus, it is hypothesized that the production and dissemination of this law replacing the older version of Magnus Eriksson has its background “in a renaissance [...] in the royal Chancery in the mid-sixteenth century.” Thus there may have been some standardization of law manuscripts even if the old ones, including those of Magnus Eriksson’s Law, continued to be used at least until the printed version achieved an authoritative position.89 But basically, each law manuscript was individual and unique, as were the additions to it. These addi87 King Johan III’s prohibition on the receiving of fines, 20 April 1578, Kongl. stadgar, ed. Schmedeman, pp 68-70. 88 Gödel, Vilhelm 1916 p. 67. For a concise account of Swedish medieval laws in English, see Lindkvist, Thomas 1997 pp. 213-216. 89 Åström, Patrik 2003 p. 177. Attempts at Unification of Laws and Reforming the Royal Judicial Powers
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