the svea court of appeal in the early modern period 48 When the Dutch ambassadors were received by King Gustav II Adolf in the summer of 1616, they observed his bravery as a soldier and successful campaign against the Muscovites and past wars against the Danes and Poles. The diplomats remarked that the king “is not inclined to take revenge, but is a very merciful lord, wise, industrious and alert, and specially very amiable and kind when interacting with everyone. As His Majesty is only 21 or 22 years old, one can – if he continues as he has begun – expect great things of him in the future.”122 This prophetic prognostic may ring true as far as the administration of justice was concerned. After all, the courts of appeal came to find their place in the remodeling of the central administration of the seventeenth century and as important tools of the legal revolution in Sweden. Nevertheless, it is obvious that there had been many different attempts to subjugate the lower courts to the control of royal officials. Similarly, ever since the 1540s various experiments had been made to organize the royal jurisdiction on a more or less permanent basis. Indeed, as has been pointed out, during King Gustav Vasa’s rule, “a profound and politically conscious transformation towards a more organized and a more effective state took place.” While a reform of the administration of highest justice was on the agenda, no wholesale remodelling was achieved until 1614. Yet, these early “structural changes of the state […] paved the way for the even more effective and controlling state of the seventeenth century, when Sweden expanded – albeit transiently – as a great power.”123 During the period of the legal revolution, practically all local courts and judges were submitted to the effective annual control of the royal administration through the surveillance of the royal courts of appeal ever since the establishment of the first of these, the Svea Court of Appeal, in Stockholm in 1614. But what made the courts of appeal a success story when all previous attempts to organize the highest royal judicial powers when so many pre122 “Anthonis Goeteeris’ journal över den holländska beskickningens reda till de svenskryska fredsunderhandlingarna i Diderina 1615 –1616,” En holländsk beskicknings resor, ed. and trans. Hildebrand, p. 165: “Han är inte hämndslysten, utan en mycket nådig herre, klok till förståndet, företagsam och vaken, och i synnerhet mycket älskvärd och vänlig i umgänget med var man. Då Hans Maj:t f. n. är endast 21 eller 22 år gammal, så kan man om han fortsätter som han börjat, framdeles vänta sig stora ting av honom.” 123 Lindkvist, Thomas 1997 p. 212. Conclusion
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