Testamentary Freedom in Law and Practice in Medieval Sweden: Conflicts and Coexistence

Korpiola, Mia

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-76258-6_5

Mia Korpiola⁴

Part of the book series: Studies in the History of Law and Justice ((SHLJ,volume 14))

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Abstract

The chapter discusses the limits of testamentary freedom in medieval Swedish law. Last wills, testaments and donations for pious causes were introduced in Sweden in the twelfth century. Some thirteenth-century papal decretals indicate that according to Swedish law, the consent of relatives was required to valid deathbed donations. This was condemned as a “perverse custom” by the popes, advocating testamentary freedom. However, both these decretals and the Swedish thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century provincial laws provide evidence of the tensions between ecclesiastical authorities and Swedish lay society. The provincial laws limited testamentary freedom regarding various aspects: requiring the consent of the heirs, the timing of the bequest (deathbed/sickbed or health), the proportion of the donation vis-à-vis the whole property of the donor, and type of property (immovables, inherited or acquired land). With the free assent of one’s closest heirs, all and any restrictions of testamentary freedom could be overcome. In legal practice, donators often sought to ensure the consent of their heirs in advance. They used them as witnesses and signatories, they used redemption clauses or bought off relatives with claims to the property. Acquiring the consent of heirs to wills and donations of land became customary practice in later medieval Sweden.

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Notes

1.
X 3.26.10–11.
2.
Pollock, Frederick and Maitland, Frederic William. 1898. The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward 1, 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 240–251, 332–337. See also Douglas, Audrey W. 1978. Frankalmoin and Jurisdictional Immunity: Maitland Revisited. Speculum 53/1: 26–48.
3.
Frensdorff, Ferdinand. 1882. Dortmunder Statuten und Urtheile (Hansischen Geschichtsquellen, 3). Verein für hansische Geschichte, Halle: Buchhandlung d. Waisenhauses 28: Lateinische Statuten, 14: “De donationibus et legationibus, Si aliquis egrotat ad mortem (aegrotare = to be ill), quod teuthonice in sire vyrsogt dicitur, nichil potest dare vel alicui assignare sive in mobilibus sive in inmobilibus sive in sese moventibus nisi de consensu heredum. Si etiam bene sanus est corpore, non potest vendere vel alienare hereditatem suam sine consensu heredum nec dare paratos denarios aut promittere, nisi illos in momento det de manu sua et se ab illis amplius excludat.”
4.
Ibid., 33: “27. Nemo potest legare vel eciam dare ecclesiis vel claustris aliquam hereditatem vel aliqua bona inmobilia infra muros nostros jacencia vel in campo nostro in agris, pratis, molendinis pascuis, vel piscariis existentia; denarios potest dare, si vult et quod vult.”
5.
E.g. Sawyer, Birgit. 1992. Kvinnor och familj i det forn– och medeltida Skandinavien (Occasional papers on medieval topics) 6. Skara: Viktoria. Cf. Vogt, Helle. 2010. The Function of Kinship in Medieval Nordic Legislation (Medieval Law and Its Practice) 9. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
6.
Liljegren, Johan Gustaf (Ed.). 1829. Diplomatarium Suecanum [hereafter DS] 1. Stockholm: Norstedt, nr. 41, 62: “Ad hec nunciatum nobis est quod sunt aliqui inter vos qui exheredatis legitimis filiis. bona sua omnia ecclesiis derelinqunt. quod. quidem nullo iure permittitur. sed qui habet vnum filium si uult alterum faciat christum. dimidiam ecclesie reliquendo. Qui habet duos. faciat tercium christum. et sic in ceteris. quoniam ecclesia exheredatis filiis recipere totum non debet. quod nimirum fratres uel sorores fratribus uel sororibus pretermissis facere possunt vt sine filiis decedentes. totum ecclesiis derelinquant.” For the new dating see https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sdhk?EndastDigitaliserat=false&Innehall=alexander+iii&TrycktUtgava=true&TrycktRegest=true&Brevtext=true&Extratext=true&Sigill=true&Original=true&MedeltidaAvskrifter=true&MedeltidaRegest=true&EftermedeltidaAvskrifter=true&EftermedeltidaRegest=true&AvanceradSok=False&page=11&postid=sdhk_224&tab=post#tab (visited 10 June 2017).
7.
10 Mar. 1206, DS 1 (as n. 6), nr. 131, 157: “[N]emo in extremis aliquid deo et ecclesiis de bonis temporalibus suis nisi presentibus et consencientibus heredibus potestatem habeat conferendi.”
8.
10 Mar. 1206, DS 1 (as n. 6), nr. 131, 157: “hominibus ipsius terre publice denunciare curetis quod omnes habeant liberam facultatem de bonis suis cum egerint in extremis ecclesiis atque pauperibus seu aliis intuitu pietatis beneficia conferendi […] Contradictores per censuram ecclesiasticam appellacione postposita compescentes.”
9.
Chapter on Inheritance [Ärvdabalken] 10, Äldre Västgötalagen [hereafter VgL I], Svenska landskapslagar [hereafter SLL] 5, Holmbäck, Åke and Wessén, Elias (Eds.). 1946. Stockholm: Hugo Gebers förlag, 77.
10.
Chapter on Inheritance 9, VgL I (as n. 9), 77.
11.
9 Aug. 1274, DS 1 (as n. 6), nr. 577, 476: “Qui uero nullum, ipsi Ecclesie si uoluerit omnia sua bona relinquat, non obstante contradictione fratrum, uel sororum aut aliorum etiam propinquorum.”
12.
9 Aug. 1274, DS 1 (as n. 6), nr. 577, 475–476: “siue clericus, siue laicus eiusdem Regni condens de bonis proprijs mobilibus, siue immobilibus testamentum, aliqua de bonis ipsis legauerit ecclesijs, aut alijs pijs locis, huiusmodi legatum, secundum quandam prauam consuetudinem, dicendum potius corruptelam, que a nobis irrationabiliter approbata, in illis partibus inoleuit, et pro lege seruatur, nullum robur obtinet firmitatis, nisi quatenus de ipsius testatpris heredum processerit uoluntate, licet in litteris felicis recordationis Alexandri. Pape. III. predecessoris nostri ad clare memorie. K. Regem Sweuorum, et Episcopos, ac Clerum per Swetiam constitutos directis, inter alia contineri dicatur expresse, ut qui habet unum filium heredem, secundum si uoluerit faciat sibi christum, dimidium bonorum suorum Ecclesie relinquendo, et qui duos tertium, et sic deinceps. Qui uero nullum, ipsi Ecclesie si uoluerit omnia sua bona relinquat, non obstante contradictione fratrum, uel sororum aut aliorum etiam propinquorum. Jmpediuntur etiam a uobis, dictisque Balliuis, et Ministerialibus dicti Regni Prelati, quominus testamenta decedentium, quo ad ea, que in pios usus ab ipsis decedentibus relinquuntur per ipsos iuxta eorum officij debitum executioni mandentur, nostra que statuta extendere ad clericos nitimini, et nichilominus ipsos tamquam laicos puniri facitis, si statuta eadem non obseruent, contra canonicas sanctiones.”
13.
A letter by Pope Gregory IX (r. 1227–1241), DS 1 (as n. 6), nr. 297, 289: “Mater et heres ipsius E. juxta quandam pravam illius terre consuetudinem, que abusus potius dici potest.”
14.
E.g., Chapter on the Church [Kyrkobalken, hereafter Kk] 59, Yngre Västgötalagen [hereafter VgL II], Svenska landskapslagar [hereafter SLL] 5 (as n. 9), 216.
15.
Kk 60, VgL II (as n. 14), 216–217; VgL II, in Corpus iuris Sueo–Gotorum antiqui [hereafter CISGA] 1, eds. H. S. Collijn and C. J. Schlyter (Z. Haeggström, Stockholm, 1827), 102; X 3.26.11: “tribus aut duobus legitimis testibus requisitis quoniam scriptum est: «In ore duorum vel trium testium stat omne verbum»”.
16.
Law of Uppland [hereafter UL], Corpus iuris Sueo–Gotorum antiqui [hereafter CISGA] 3, ed. C. J. Schlyter (Berlingska Boktryckeriet, Lund, 1834), 10. See also Law of Västmanland [hereafter VmL], CISGA 5, ed. C. J. Schlyter (Lund, 1841), 97.
17.
Confirmatio [Confirmation of King Magnus Eriksson], Södermannalagen [hereafter SdmL], SLL 3, eds. Åke Holmbäck and Elias Wessén (Stockholm, 1940), 4; SdmL, CISGA 4, ed. C. J. Schlyter (Lund, 1838): “undan taknum at enosto tuem punctum. en ær um kirkiu gif. annar ær um testament”, 3.
18.
See also Vogt, Helle. 2017. Protecting the individual, the kin and the soul - Donation regulations in Danish and Norwegian medieval legislation. In Rønning, Ole–Albert, Møller Sigh, Helle and Vogt, Helle (Eds.). 2017. Donations, Inheritance and Property in the Nordic and Western World from Late Antiquity Until Today. London: Routledge.
19.
Chapter on Inheritance 10, VgL I (as n. 9), 77.
20.
Kk 15, Law of Småland, in SLL 5 (as n. 9), 431. One markland equalled 8 öresland or 24 örtugland.
21.
Kk 24 Östgotalagen ( = ÖgL) (as n. 14), 17; Kk 24, ÖgL, ed. Schlyter, 21.
22.
Chapter on Inheritance 10, VgL I, eds. Holmbäck and Wessén, 77.
23.
Kk 14, UL (as n. 16), 22–24; Kk 14, UL, ed. Schlyter, 50.
24.
Kk 12, SdmL (as n. 17), 21; Kk 12, SdmL, ed. Schlyter, p 32–33; Kk 13, VmL, ed. Schlyter, 97–98.
25.
Kk 12, Law of Hälsingland, in CISGA 6, ed. C. J. Schlyter. Lund, 1844, Berlingska Boktryckeriet, 11 p.
26.
Kk 14, UL, eds. Holmbäck and Wessén, 22; Kk 12, SdmL, eds. Holmbäck and Wessén, 21; Kk 12, SdmL, ed. Schlyter, 32–33.
27.
Kk 14, UL (as n. 14), 22.
28.
Chapter on Marriage 16, Law of Dalarna, CISGA 5, ed. C. J. Schlyter (as n. 16), 52–53.
29.
20 Feb. 1301, Liljegren, Johan Gustaf. 1834–1837. DS 2. Stockholm: Berlinska Boktrycheriet, nr. 1337, 336.
30.
DS 1 (as n. 6), nr. 303, 295.
31.
“[F]ratribus meis presentibus. consulentibus. et vnanimiter consencientibus. […] presentem litteram sigillo proprio et fratrum meorum Laurencii. johannis et magni”, 3 Aug. 1257, DS 1 (as n. 6), nr. 442, 385.
32.
DS 1 (as n. 6), nr. 842, 697.
33.
E.g., Rantala, Tuula. 2018. Widows, Morning Gifts and Monastic Donations in Planning for Old Age and Death in Fifteenth–Century Sweden. In Korpiola, Mia and Lahtinen, Anu (Eds.). 2018. Planning for Death: Wills and Death–Related Property Arrangements in Europe, 1200–1600. Leiden: Brill, in press.
34.
13 Dec. 1306, DS 2 (as n. 29), nr. 1521, 480: “Jn huius rei confirmacionem sigillum venerabilis patris domini L dei gracia episcopi lincopensis vnacum sigillis dilectorum propinquorum meorum videlicet domini . B. prepositi skarensis fratris mei ac sororum mearum domine Jngiburgis et domine helene et domini Magni cristinæson, mathei haconason ac meo proprio quo vtor et dilecti filii mei magni presentibus sunt appensa.” Cf. the same donation 13 Dec. 1306, DS 2, ed. Liljegren, nr. 1522, 481 with only the seals of the bishop of Linköping, Olof and her son Magnus.
35.
31 Oct. 1407, Svenskt Diplomatarium, från och med år 1401 1, ed. Carl Silfverstolpe, Stockholm, A. Norstedt & Söner, 1875–1884, nr. 896, 685.
36.
7 July 1313, DS 3, ed. Bror Emil Hildebrand (Stockholm 1842–1850), nr. 1929, 135: “tunc enim totum illud quod excedit ad heredes dicte Domine Jngridis, sicut de jure fuerit, devolvatur.”
37.
8 Se 1378, DS 11 Gejrot, Claes, Andersson, Roger, Hedström, Ingela and Ståhl, Peter (Eds.). 2006–2014. Stockholm: Riksarkivets rådgivande nämnd för svenskt diplomatarium.
38.
25 Apr. 1298, DS 2 (as n. 29), nr. 1232, 257.
39.
25 Apr. 1298, DS 2 (as n. 29), nr. 1232, 257–258: “sub tali condicione quod heredes mei infra annum a tempore defunctionis mee computandum, dictam terram pro iusto precio redimendi habeant facultatem.”
40.
8 Apr. 1300, DS 2 (as n. 29), nr. 1306, 318.
41.
DS 1 (as n. 6), nr. 855, 706–707: “Nouerint ergo tam posteri quam presentes, me monachis de aluastro apud quos eligo sepulturam vnam curiam meam in swecia, que dicitur ramshamr, cum omnibus attinenciis preter mancipia omnia, quibus libertatem confero, in testamento reliquisse. Jta tamen quod si filius meus uolerit eandem curiam habere, eadem ei uel pro iusto precio, uel eciam pro alia curia que hagaby dicitur pro vt equum fuerit & eis conuenerit sine contradictione relinquatur.”
42.
2 May 1284, DS 1 (as n. 6), nr. 786, 642–643: 642: “insuper pro redempcione itineris iherosolimitani quod deo uoueram contuli terram quam possideram in ølandia redimendam ab heredibus meis pro undecim marcjs argentj.”
43.
DS 1 (as n. 6), nr. 900, 738: “Jtem curiam Swnd in wermælandia redactam in equipollens precium do omnibus claustris ista parte Tywid equaliter diuidendam.”
44.
31 Dec. 1296, DS 2 (as n. 29), nr. 1185, 224–225.
45.
Chapter on Land 2, Åke Holmbäck and Elias Wessén (Eds.). 1962. Magnus Erikssons Landslag i nusvensk tolkning (Rättshistoriskt bibliotek 6). Lund: Nordiska bokhandel, 72. See also more generally Hafström, Gerhard. 1957. Bördsrätt. In Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder: fra vikingetid til reformationstid 2. Copenhagen; Rosenkilde og Bagger, cols. 509–12.
46.
White, Stephen D. 1988. Custom, Kinship, and Gifts to Saints: The Laudatio Parentum in Western France, 1050–1150. Chapel Hill-London. North Carolina Press, 1–2.
47.
White. 1988. Custom, Kinship, and Gifts to Saints (as n. 46), 193–205, quotation on 199.
48.
Norborg, Lars–Arne. 1958. Storföretaget Vadstena kloster: Studier in senmedeltida godspolitik och ekonomiförvaltning. Bibliotheca historica Lundensis 7. Lund: CWK Gleerup, 69.
49.
Stensland, Per Gustav. 1945. Julita klosters godspolitik. Nordiska Museets Handlingar, 22. Stockholm: Nordiska Museet, 20–21.
50.
21 Jan. 1259, DS 1 (as n. 6), nr. 457, 394–395.
51.
9 Apr. 1263, DS 1 (as n. 6), nr. 485, 411.
52.
Norborg 1958 (as n. 48), 69.
53.
Korpiola, Mia and Trolle Önnerfors, Elsa. 2018. Inheritance Law, Wills, and Strategies of Heirship in Medieval Sweden. In Korpiola, Mia and Lahtinen, Anu. (Eds.). Planning for Death: Wills and Death–Related Property Arrangements in Europe, 1200–1600. Leiden: Brill, in press.
54.
Ebel, Wilhelm. 1954. Bürgerliches Rechtsleben zur Hansezeit in Lübecker Ratsurteilen (Quellensammlung zur Kulturgeschichte) 4. Göttingen, Frankfurt, Berlin: Musterschmidt Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 31–32: “Vir liberum habet arbitrium impignorandi, vendendi, dandi, cuiquam vult, proprietates sibi conquisitarum facultatum… Hereditaria bona nemo potest impignorare, vendere, dare, praeter heredum conniventiam”.
55.
Korpiola and Trolle Önnerfors, “Inheritance Law, Wills, and Strategies of Heirship”.

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Mia Korpiola

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Korpiola, M. (2018). Testamentary Freedom in Law and Practice in Medieval Sweden: Conflicts and Coexistence. In: di Renzo Villata, M. (eds) Succession Law, Practice and Society in Europe across the Centuries. Studies in the History of Law and Justice, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76258-6_5

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76258-6_5
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