danish courts of appeal by the archbishop in Scania or by the local bishop in Jutland. Thus, the leader – and the rest of the noble participants – changed to include members familiar with the locality in which the court was held.39 In this way it was possible to base the decision on the provincial law according to the defendant in questionand to give the decision some kind of impact on the law in the province where the court took place. Although the Royal Court was increasingly located in Copenhagen in the sixteenth century, this practice of letting people who knew the provincial law and local customs pass the sentences does not seem to have been changed after the Reformation. At this time, after 1537, two “divisions” of the Royal Court had developed. One consisted of the king and his council, who together were the supreme court and legislators of the realm. The other was lead by therigskansler (justitiarius or justitiar, which was a common name for equivalent offices in other European countries) and dealt with the non-payment of fines, i.e. more executive matters. The office of rigskansler originated in the institutionalisation of the king’s court, which was signified by its use of its own seal from 1341. The introduction of its own seal meant that the king’s court was no longer dependent on the authority of the king or his chancellor (cancellarius) who – since the mid-thirteenth century – was the leader of the royal chancery. Just eight years later, in 1349, the office of justitiar was mentioned for the first time. The justitiar, who from time to time was also given other titles, was from thence on responsible for letters issued in connection with the activity of the king’s court, for which reason he was the one who kept the seal of the court and, in addition to that, he also notarised transcripts of court proceedings. He was the head of the secretariat of the king’s court, but it is clear that he also functioned as a judge equal to the king when he acted as leader of the king’s council and the councillors in the autonomous section of the king’s court that dealt with the non-payment of fines.40 39 Lerdam, Henrik 2001 pp. 91-94, 105-111 and 131-136. 40 Lerdam, Henrik 2001 pp. 21-31; Tamm, Ditlev 2003 p. 10; Tamm, Ditlev – Johansen, Jens Chr. V. 1992 pp. 78-79. 264
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