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ESSAYS IN SWEDISH HISTORY

¹¹⁸ Cf. Hogenskild Bielke’s anxiety to get his share of donations in Estonia •

S. A. Nilsson, Krona ochfralse, p. 367.

¹¹⁸ It was not really broken down until the last decade of the Age of Liberty. For an early example of this daim see SRARP, iii, 215.

¹²⁰ H. Munktell, Det soenska rdttsarvet, Stockholm, 1944, p. 103; cf. the remarks in W. Tham, Axel Oxenstiema. Hans ungdom och oerksamhet intill dr 1612, Stockholm, 1935, p. 295.

¹²¹ Erik Sparre, Rattegangsinlagor i łoisłen rórande Fru Gdrvel Abrahamsdotter Gyllenstiemas arv, Historiska Handlingar, 27:1, Stockholm, 1927.

¹²² J. Hallenberg, Svea Rikes Historia tinder konung Gusta/ Adolf den Stores regering, iii, 263.

¹²⁸ Jerker Rosen, Studier bing Erik XIV:s hóga namiid, pp. 31—2.

¹²⁴ For the agitation over this in the years around 1650, see RRP, xii,

342; xiii, 12; SRARP, iv, 171, 257.

¹²⁵ It is significant that the first threats to it seem to come in the reign of Charles xi. It was first explicitly guaranteed by express enactment in the Act of Union and Security of 1789: Emil Hildebrand, Steriges regeringsformer och konungaforsakringar, p. 148.

¹²⁶ H. Munktell, ‘Till fragan om bóndemas stallning vid 1600-talets mitt’, Historisk Tidskrift, 1943. By a resolution of the riksdag in 1650 forum prioil-egiatum was not to apply in cases about labour services between a lord and his peasants: they were to be tried in the county court. For examples of the coundTs willingness to deal stemly with members of the high aristocracy who oppressed their peasants, see RRP, x, 563; xi, 19; Wittrock, Carl X Gustafs testament, pp. 125, 151. But examples might be cited on the other side: one notorious offender, though sentenced by Svea Hourdtt, was then promoted to the office of landshooding: Wittrock, Regeringen och allmogen under Kristinas egen styrelse, pp. 187, 227-32, 243; id., Regeringen och allmogen under Kristinas formyndare, pp. 140, 299-300, 405, 415-19; Handlingar rórande Skandinamens historia, xxi, 151; H. Swenne, Soenska adelns ekonomiska priwlegier, p. 312.

¹²⁷ Soeriges traktater med frammande mag ter, iii, 376.

¹²⁸ Soenska riksdagsakter, I Senes, iii, 396.

¹²⁸ Ibid., II Series, i, 75.

¹³⁰ Soenska riksdagsakter, I Series, ii, 368, 375; iii, 412-14; Nilsson, Kampen om de adligaprioilegiema, pp. 14, 19, 30, 103-4, ^io7* And cf. S. Bergh, Karl IX och den soenska adeln, p. 35.

¹³¹ Soenska riksdagsakter, I Series, iii, 414.

¹³² Nilsson, op. cit., pp. 29, 78-9; Bergh, op. cit., p. 18.

¹³³ The phrase used in the resolution of the Sóderkóping riksdag, 1595: Soenska riksdagsakter, I Series, iii, 617. A reminder, perhaps, that Konopczyński^ confldent generalization to the effect that monarchs prefer the majority-principle, aristocracies the unanimity-principle, is not universally valid: W. Konopczyński, Le Liberum Veto, Paris, 1930, p. 23.

¹³⁴ As Axel Oxenstiema remarked on one occasion, ‘It is the highest jus that we have, that we are capaces munerorum publicorum in regno, which jus is onerosum, and it is salus reipublicae which draws a man to it’: RRP, vi, 404; and cf. ibid., 654.

¹⁸⁸ Christina and Axel Oxenstiema shared an odd admiration for Condć;

ON ARISTOCRATIC CONSTITUTIONAL1SM

and Oxenstierna once linked him with 01denbameveldt as an. example of a man who had suffered on account of ‘virtue’: RRP, xiv, 175.

¹⁸⁶ They are printed in G. O. Hyltćn-Gavallius and G. Stephens, Sveriges historiska ochpolitiska visor, Orebro, 1853, atp. 121. A rough translation might run (with acknowledgments to Barbour’s Bruce, which it so curiously resembles):

Freedom is the fairest thing To which a man may have liking In the wide world’s dominions.

Who loveth freedom morę than wealth He tendereth his honour’s health;

For they be good companions.