Disputing Strategies in Medieval Scandinavia Medieval Law and Its Practice
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Disputing Strategies in Medieval Scandinavia Medieval Law and Its Practice Edited by John Hudson (St Andrews) Editorial Board Paul Brand (All Souls College, Oxford) Dirk Heirbaut (Ghent) Richard Helmholz (Chicago) Caroline Humfress (Birkbeck, London) Magnus Ryan (Cambridge) Stephen White (Emory) VOLUME 16 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/mlip Medieval Law and Its Practice Disputing Strategies in Medieval Scandinavia Edited by John Hudson (St Andrews) Edited by Editorial Board Kim Esmark, Lars Hermanson, Paul Brand (All Souls College, Oxford) Hans Jacob Orning & Helle Vogt Dirk Heirbaut (Ghent) Richard Helmholz (Chicago) Caroline Humfress (Birkbeck, London) Magnus Ryan (Cambridge) Stephen White (Emory) VOLUME 16 LEIDEn • BOSTON 2013 Cover illustrations: Detail from Magnus the Lawmender’s National Law, early 14th century, Hardenberg’s Codex, GKS 1154 2º, The Royal Library, Copenhagen. With kind permission of The Royal Library, Copenhagen. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Disputing strategies in medieval Scandinavia / edited by Kim Esmark, Lars Hermanson, Hans Jacob Orning, and Helle Vogt. pages cm. — (Medieval law and its practice ; volume 16) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-24367-5 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-22159-8 (e-book) 1. Law— Scandinavia—History—To 1500. 2. Law, Medieval. 3. Scandinavia—Social conditions. 4. Scandinavia—History—To 1397. I. Esmark, Kim, editor of compilation. II. Hermanson, Lars, 1967– editor of compilation. III. Orning, Hans Jacob, editor of compilation. IV. Vogt, Helle, editor of compilation. KJ690.D57 2013 340.5’50948—dc23 2013027251 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1873-8176 ISBN 978-90-04-24367-5 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-22159-8 (e-book) Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. CONTENTS List of Contributors ........................................................................................ vii List of Kings ...................................................................................................... ix General Maps ................................................................................................... xiii General Introduction ..................................................................................... 1 Kim Esmark and Hans Jacob Orning PART ONE POWER POLITICS: KINGSHIP, COERCION, AND CONFLICT Introduction to Part One .............................................................................. 31 Hans Jacob Orning Conflict and Social (dis)order in Norway, c. 1030–1160 ....................... 45 Hans Jacob Orning Kingship, Women and Politics in Morkinskinna ................................... 83 Auður Magnúsdóttir How to Legitimate Rebellion and Condemn Usurpation of the Crown: Discourses of Fidelity and Treason in the Gesta Danorum of Saxo Grammaticus ............................................................ 107 Lars Hermanson PART TWO LOCAL DISPUTES: PROPERTY, JUSTICE, AND SOCIAL TRANSACTION Introduction to Part Two ............................................................................. 143 Helle Vogt and Kim Esmark The Power to Judge: Jurisdiction in Property Conflicts in Thirteenth-Century Denmark ........................................................... 161 Helle Vogt vi contents Disputing Property in Zealand: The Records of the Sorø Donation Book ............................................................................................ 181 Kim Esmark Gifts and Society in Fourteenth Century Sweden ................................ 219 Catharina Andersson The Field of Property Devolution in Norway During the Late Middle Ages: Inheritance Settlements, Marriage Contracts and Legal Disputes ................................................................ 247 Lars Ivar Hansen PART THREE COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES The Feelings in the Feud: The Emotional Turn in the Study of Medieval Vengeance ............................................................................ 281 Stephen D. White The Rules of Conflict Among the Warrior Aristocracy of the High Middle Ages ...................................................................................... 313 Gerd Althoff Legal History and the History of Disputes .............................................. 333 John Hudson Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 343 General Index ................................................................................................... 361 Index of Names ................................................................................................ 365 Index of Places ................................................................................................. 370 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Gerd Althoff is Professor in medieval history at the Westfälische Wil- helms-Universität Münster. His main research topics are the culture of writ- ing, symbolic communication and conflict handling in medieval society. Catharina Andersson is teacher and researcher at the Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Umeå University. Her main interests are medieval religious history in Sweden and Scandinavia in the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth history, especially the relation- ship between the religious institutions and the aristocracy, monasticism, and gender issues. Kim Esmark is Associate Professor in Medieval History at the Department of Culture and Identity, Roskilde University. He has published articles and co-edited books on gift-giving, rituals, kinship, religious patronage and dispute processing in Denmark and France, c. 1000–1300. Lars Ivar Hansen is Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History at the Uni versity of Tromsø, Norway. His main fields of research are eco- nomic and social history, focusing on the role of kinship networks and other networks of alliance, inheritance practices, and the inter-ethnic relations between the peoples of north ern Fennoscandia. Lars Hermanson is Professor at the Department of Historical Studies, Gothenburg University. His main research interest is the interplay between social, political and spiritual relations in North European societies in the period c. 900–1200. John Hudson is Professor of Legal History in the Department of Mediae- val History, University of St Andrews, and William W. Cook Global Law Professor at University of Michigan Law School. His main research inter- ests are the development of English Law in the centuries either side of the Norman Conquest, and forms of writing on legal history. viii list of contributors Auđur G. Magnúsdóttir, is Associate Professor in Medieval History at the Department of Historical Studies, Gothenburg University. Her main research interests are gender relations in Medieval Iceland. Hans Jacob Orning is Professor in history at The University of Oslo, and Professor II at The University College of Volda. His main research interests are the sociopolitical development in Norway in the High Middle Ages and manuscript culture in Late Medieval Iceland. Helle Vogt is Associate Professor of Legal History at the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen. Her main research interests are Nordic legal history and the interaction between local law and learned Christian legal ideology. Stephen D. White is the Candler Professor of Medieval History at Emory University and Honorary Professor of Mediaeval History at the Univer- sity of St Andrews and, for 2012–13, a Fellow at the National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA. He is currently writing a book on state violence in medieval England. LIST OF KINGS Kings of Denmark Harald I Bluetooth 958–986/7 Svend I Forkbeard 986/7–1014 Harald II 1014–1018 Knud II the Great 1018–1035 Knud III (Hardeknud) 1035–1042 Magnus the Good 1042–1047 Svend II Estridsen 1047–1074 Harald III 1074–1080 Saint Knud IV 1080–1086 Oluf I Hunger 1086–1095 Erik I the Good 1095–1103 Niels 1104–1134 Erik II the Unforgettable 1134–1137 Erik III the Lamb 1137–1146 Svend III Grathe 1146–1157 Knud V 1146–1157 Valdemar I the Great 1154–1182 Knud VI 1182–1202 Valdemar II the Victorious 1202–1241 Erik IV Plough–penning 1241–1252 Christopher I 1252–1259 Erik V Klipping 1259–1286 Erik VI Menved 1286–1319 Christopher II 1320–1326, 1329–1332 Valdemar III 1326–1329 Interregnum 1332–1340 Valdemar IV 1340–1375 Olav II 1375–1387 Margrethe I 1387–1397 (1412) Kalmar Union of Denmark, Sweden and Norway 1397–1523 x list of kings Kings of Norway Saint Olav II Haraldsson 1015 –1028 Svend Alfivason 1030–1035 Magnus II the Good 1035–1047 Harald Hardruler