per andersen Thus, the development away from a horizontal system of courts found in the provincial laws towards a hierarchical system of courts including the Royal Court took a long time. It began with the increased use of king’s letters in the thirteenth century, developed increasing hierarchies during the fourteenth century – which required both parties’ agreement to transfer a case or to appeal a sentence to another court – and found its conclusion towards the end of the fifteenth century and the start of the sixteenth century when an appeal of a sentence or the transfer of a case that had been initiated but not concluded at a lower court only required the initiative of one party or a judge. However, even in the sixteenth century the system does not seem to have been so firmly established that it was known and accepted, or at least followed, by everyone since it was necessary time after time to reiterate the sequence of courts in many royal recesses and at the proclamation of the time and place for court sessions. This last fact gives the impression that the process of establishing these hierarchies was primarily a project initiated centrally, but the real explanation of this development is probably more complex. In the thirteenth century, when Danish kings laboured to gain more political and economic influence on society, one of the means at their disposal was to give their subjects the possibility of raising a case instantly at the king’s court, which thus came into direct competition with the local district court and regional provincial court. There was therefore a swift reaction both locally and regionally demanding that it should only be possibly to summon a party before the king by means of king’s letters when a sentence had been passed by one of the earlier legal institutions. In other words, the initiative for this increased stratification of the legal system came from local and regional magnates in order to prevent the king from becoming a major player in the administration of justice. There can be little doubt that, in its early stages, royal power sought to increase its role in the administration of justice as far as possible and for this reason we must interpret the many prohibitions against the issue of king’s letters as attempts to limit the king’s efforts to expand his power base. 22 Andersen, Per 2011 pp. 227-229. 257
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