servants in medieval swedish testaments vants’ conditions appears in testaments, where they seem to have been liked, respected, and greatly cared for by their masters and mistresses. So, while Andersson studies the poorest amongst servants, I intend in examining medieval testaments to study the diverse group of servants between the poorest and the highest ranking servants. This investigation has the potential to deepen and broaden our knowledge of medieval servants’ lives and livelihoods in Sweden.11 International research on medieval servants is substantial.12 InEngland, many young boys and girls worked as servants in urban (but also rural) settings for a limited number of years before they married – thus labelled ‘life-cycle servants’.13 This practice has been linked to a late age of marriage, a tradition found also on the north-western European continent. In southern Europe, people married at a younger age. Here, fewer male servants are found, while female servants of various ages were numerous, particularly in urban settings. Working as a female servant was somewhat of a social security system for women in need.14 Thus, in the English and north-western European context, being a servant was often part of a life-cycle tradition, one found neither in southern Europe nor applicable to ‘servants in husbandry’ in Sweden.15 According to Jane Whittle, ‘specialist or career servants’, such as millers and gardeners, worked all their life in the same type of service. They were often married and lived in their own household.16 Research on medieval England and France, for instance, stresses how servants included a large range of people under significantly varied living conditions.17 This paper focuses on medieval servants in Sweden. The sources used are testaments written between 1200 and the 1520s. An inventory attempting to identify all medieval Swedish testaments, including those 330 11 No medieval work contracts in Sweden have been preserved. The lack of such contracts might be related to the use of oral contracts instead; see discussion in e.g. Laumonier 2022. 12 See e.g. Baur 1989; Goldberg 1992; Goldberg 2000; Goldberg 2022; Whittle 2005a; Whittle 2005b; Cochelin & Wolfthal 2022; Phillips 2022, Masè 2018; Epstein 1984. 13 Whittle 2005b; Goldberg 1992; Goldberg 2022. 14 Goldberg 1992; Goldberg 2022, pp. 376f. 15 Andersson 2023. 16 Whittle 2005b. 17 See e.g. Goldberg 2022, p. 376; Laumonier 2022.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=