The Law of Uppland (; ) was the law that applied in Uppland, Sweden, from 1296 to the beginning of the 1350s. It was drafted by a Royal commission, enacted at the three Folkland Things, and given Royal assent in 1296. The Law of Uppland became the law of the land, not only for the province of

Uppland Uppland () is a historical province or ' on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. On the small uninhab ...

it created, containing the three Folklands and

Roden Roden is a name of Germanic origin, originally meaning "red valley" or an anglicization of the Gaelic name "O'Rodain". It may refer to: Places * Roden, Bavaria, a town in the Main-Spessart district of Bavaria, Germany * Roden, Netherlands, a tow ...

, but also for

Gästrikland Gästrikland () is a historical province or ''landskap'' on the eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Uppland, Västmanland, Dalarna, Hälsingland and the Gulf of Bothnia. Gästrikland is the southernmost of the Norrland provinces. Other forms of ...

. The law contained eight law codes: The Church, King's, Heritance, Freeman's, Land, Merchant's, Neighborhood, and Thing codes. Courts were held in each

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

and each Folkland. There were no public prosecutors, and no material difference between criminal and civil cases existed. Suits in law would be initiated by the parties. Legal proceedings were of three kinds: trial by eyewitnesses, trial by

compurgation Compurgation, also called trial by oath, wager of law, and oath-helping, was a defence used primarily in medieval law. A defendant could establish their innocence or nonliability by taking an oath and by getting a required number of persons, typi ...

and trial by

jury A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartiality, impartial verdict (a Question of fact, finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a sentence (law), penalty o ...

Background

In early medieval Sweden, each (

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

) was judicially autonomous with its own legal system, laws and justice (). The law originally only existed in a spoken form, recited at the

Thing Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focuses ...

by the

Lawspeaker A lawspeaker or lawman (Swedish language, Swedish: ''lagman'', Old Swedish: ''laghmaþer'' or ''laghman'', Danish language, Danish: ''lovsigemand'', Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''lagmann'', Icelandic language, Icelandic: , Faroese language, ...

. From the end of the 13th century, the oral laws began on private initiative to be recorded in the form of unofficial law texts ('' Rechtsbücher''). From the Law of

, however, the law codes were formally enacted.

Creation

The area of Uppland, which did not exist before the enactment of the Law of Uppland, contained the three Folklands of

Tiundaland Tiundaland is a historic region, '' Folkland'', and since 1296 part of the modern province of Uppland. It originally meant the ''land of the ten hundreds'' and referred to its duty of providing 1000 men and 40 ships for the Swedish king's leidang. ...

Attundaland Attundaland (or the land of the eight hundreds) was the name given to the southeastern part of the present day province of Uppland, north of Stockholm. Its name refers to its role of providing 800 men and 32 ships for the leidang The institution ...

, and

Fjärdhundraland Fjärdhundraland or the ''land of the four hundreds'' is, since 1296, a part of the province of Uppland in Sweden. Its name refers to its role of providing 400 men and 16 ships for the leidang of the Swedish king at Uppsala. Snorri Sturluson rela ...

. The Lawspeaker of Tiundaland,

Birger Persson Herr Birger Persson (sometimes Petersson) of Finsta (??? - 3 April 1327) was a Swedish magnate, knight, privy councillor and Uppland's first lawspeaker. He was a co-drafter of the Law of Uppland, and father of Saint Bridget of Sweden. He was al ...

(the father of Saint Bridget) complained to King Birger Magnusson, that the law for the three Folklands were scattered in several different law texts, some of them obscure and sometimes very difficult to comply with. Hence the King appointed Birger chairman of a Royal commission that would draft a new law; removing some provisions, adding some, and merging the old laws of the three folklands into one.Lundberg 1980-1982a, col. 332. According to the

preamble A preamble is an introductory and expressionary statement in a document that explains the document's purpose and underlying philosophy. When applied to the opening paragraphs of a statute, it may recite historical facts pertinent to the subj ...

of the Law, in addition to Birger, the commission came to consist of from Tiundaland, the Dean of

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

Master (Birger's cousin), the Knights Herr Röd Keldorsson and Herr Bengt Bosson, Ulf Lagmansson, Hagbard of Söderby, Anders of Forkarby and Torsten of Sandbro; from Attundaland the Knight Herr Filip Röde of Rundby, Håkan Lawspeaker, Eskil the Cross-eyed, Sigurd Judge and Jon Gåsabog; from Fjärdhundraland Ulv of Önsta, Götrik and Ulvheden, Judges. The commission made a draft that was subsequently enacted by the Things of the three Folklands, and finally given

Royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in other ...

eight days after

Saint Stephen Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ''Stéphanos'', meaning "wreath, crown" and by extension "reward, honor, renown, fame", often given as a title rather than as a name; c. 5 – c. 34 AD) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first ...

's Day (January 2), 1296.

Jurisdiction

The Law of Uppland became the law of the land, not only for the province of Uppland it created, containing the three Folklands and

, but also for

. Since the new law of the whole realm, the

Magnus Erikssons landslag The Magnus Erikssons landslag (Country Law of Magnus Eriksson) also called only ''Landslagen'' (Country Law) was a Swedish law passed by king Magnus IV in circa 1341. It was the first attempt to a law applying to the entire nation of Sweden, re ...

of 1350, lacked a church code due to opposition from the Church, the church codes of the several provincial laws remained in force even after 1350. Gradually the church code of the Law of Uppland became valid for the whole kingdom, remaining in force until it was partly replaced by the Church Act of 1686 and finally by stipulations in the

Civil Code of 1734 The Civil Code of 1734 (Swedish: ''1734 års lag''), was passed by the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates in 1734, and put in effect after it had been ratified by Frederick I of Sweden 23 January 1736. It became the foundation of the later civil code in ...

Formal content

The Church code governed the relationship between the

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

, the

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

, the

Priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

, the

Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

, and the People, including

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

, and

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more r ...

. The King's code covered the election of Kings, and the relationship between the King and the People. It contained provisions concerning the People's obligation to the King, such as

leidang The institution known as ''leiðangr'' (Old Norse), ''leidang'' (Norwegian), ''leding'' (Danish), ''ledung'' (Swedish), ''expeditio'' (Latin) or sometimes lething (English), was a form of conscription ( mass levy) to organize coastal fleets for seas ...

, watch and ward, and

tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

es, as well as the King's obligation to uphold the

Peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

. The Heritance code governed

inheritance Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, Title (property), titles, debts, entitlements, Privilege (law), privileges, rights, and Law of obligations, obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ ...

and

bequest A bequest is property given by will. Historically, the term ''bequest'' was used for personal property given by will and ''deviser'' for real property. Today, the two words are used interchangeably. The word ''bequeath'' is a verb form for the act ...

s; the Freeman's code was the nearest equivalent of a

criminal code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that migh ...

, aimed at protecting the Freemen from abuse. The Land code included clauses about birthright to land, property owned in common, and maintenance of the elderly. The Merchant code regulated purchase of gold, women's right of purchase, hospitality and foraging, as well as a prohibition against selling Christians. The Neighborhood code regulated division of land,

metes and bounds Metes and bounds is a system or method of describing land, real property (in contrast to personal property) or real estate. The system has been used in England for many centuries and is still used there in the definition of general boundaries. The ...

commons The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons ...

, new land,

mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Textile mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

s and

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

and more. The Thing code included provisions about

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of Party (law), parties to a :wikt:dispute, dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence (law), evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to Adjudication, adjudicate claims or d ...

s and

lawsuits - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...

, as well as of the

Law of the land The phrase ''law of the land'' is a legal term, equivalent to the Latin ''lex terrae'', or ''legem terrae'' in the accusative case. It refers to all of the laws in force within a country or region, including statute law and case-made law. Use in ...

and of the law of

. Eighteen amendments were later added to the law, including stipulations about burial fees,

outlawry An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...

deed In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferring ...

ing of land, and homicide by unknown perpetrators.

Courts and procedures

could be held as often as every week in each

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

, or in each ''Skiplagh'' (ship's district) in Roden. The

judgment Judgement (or US spelling judgment) is also known as ''adjudication'', which means the evaluation of evidence to decision-making, make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. The term has at least five distinct u ...

s were given by the

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

, not the assembly. There would be two judges for each thing, although only one served at the time. The judges were elected by a

of twelve men appointed by the King's

Lensmann in modern Norwegian or in Danish and older Norwegian spelling (; ) is a term with several distinct meanings in Nordic history. The Icelandic equivalent was a . Fief-holder The term traditionally referred to a holder of a royal fief in Denmark ...

, and thereafter commissioned by the King. Each Folkland also had a thing, under the Lawspeaker of Uppland. A common landsting for all of Uppland did not exist.

Appeals In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...

from the Hundred thing would go to the Lawspeaker; from the Lawspeaker to the King. There were no

public prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial ...

s, and no material difference between

criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...

and

civil cases Civil law is a major branch of the law. Glanville Williams. ''Learning the Law''. Eleventh Edition. Stevens. 1982. p. 2. In common law legal systems such as England and Wales and the United States, the term refers to non- criminal law. The law r ...

existed. Suits in law would be initiated by the parties. A perpetrator caught

in flagrante delicto ''In flagrante delicto'' (Latin for "in blazing offence") or sometimes simply ''in flagrante'' ("in blazing") is a legal term used to indicate that a criminal has been caught in the act of committing an offence (compare ). The colloquial "caught ...

would be taken as a

prisoner A prisoner (also known as an inmate or detainee) is a person who is deprived of liberty against their will. This can be by confinement, captivity, or forcible restraint. The term applies particularly to serving a prison sentence in a prison. ...

to the Thing by the

plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the p ...

; in other cases the plaintiff would serve a

summons A summons (also known in England and Wales as a claim form and in the Australian state of New South Wales as a court attendance notice (CAN)) is a legal document issued by a court (a ''judicial summons'') or by an administrative agency of governme ...

on the

defendant In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case. Terminology varies from one jurisdic ...

. In cases of acts that could be atoned for by mulcts, the defendant could also initiate action by offering such at the Thing. Legal proceedings were of three kinds: trial by eyewitnesses, trial by compurgation and

trial by jury A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial in which a judge or panel of judges makes all decisions. Jury trials are used in a significant ...

. If the plaintiff could bring, in most cases, six sworn free and

freeborn "Freeborn" is a term associated with political agitator John Lilburne (1614–1657), a member of the Levellers, a 17th-century English political party. As a word, "freeborn" means born free, rather than in slavery or bondage or vassalage. Lilbu ...

men A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chro ...

as eyewitnesses, the case was closed, and now further action from the defendant would be allowed; he was

convicted In law, a conviction is the verdict reached by a court of law finding a defendant guilty of a crime. The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal (that is, "not guilty"). In Scotland, there can also be a verdict of "not proven", which is consid ...

. But if the plaintiff could not produce enough sworn witnesses, the defendant had the right to establish his nonliability by taking an

oath Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon ', also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to ...

and having, normally, eighteen men swear that they believed him. If the required number of men took the oath, he was

acquitted In common law jurisdictions, an acquittal certifies that the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as criminal law is concerned. The finality of an acquittal is dependent on the jurisdiction. In some countries, such as the ...

, otherwise he was convicted. The use of jury trials is not guided by any clear legal principles, but through individual provisions in various parts of the law. A new jury () would be selected for each new case. In trials concerning the King's Peace, the jurors had to be approved by both parties. In some other cases half the jury was selected by each party. The jurors took an oath on their

verdict In law, a verdict is the formal trier of fact, finding of fact made by a jury on matters or questions submitted to the jury by a judge. In a bench trial, the judge's decision near the end of the trial is simply referred to as a finding. In Engl ...

; if they refused to give a verdict, they were fined.

Editions

The Law of Uppland is preserved in five complete handwritten copies. The assent is preserved in both a Swedish and a Latin form. A printed version was published in 1607 by

Johannes Bureus Johannes Thomae Bureus Agrivillensis (born Johan Bure; 1568–1652) was a Swedish polymath, antiquarian, mystic, royal librarian, poet, and tutor and adviser of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. He is a well-known exponent of Gothicism. Life an ...

. The first scholarly edition was published in 1834. A translation to modern Swedish was published in 1933.Holmbäck & Wessén 1933.

References

Citations

Cited literature

* Bureus, Johannes (1607). ''Vplandz laghen, sum af Byrgher Magnusa son Swea ok Giötha kununge, åhrom äfter Ch. b. 1295. förbätradhes.'' Stockholm. * Hafström, Gerhard (1980–1982). "Skeppslag." In: Granlund, Johan (ed.) (1980–1982). ''Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder fra vikingetid til reformationstid.'' 2nd edition. Copenhagen, vol. 15: 471-472. * Holmbäck, Åke & Wessén, Elias (1933). ''Svenska landskapslagar. Ser. 1, Östgötalagen och Upplandslagen.'' Stockholm. * Liedgren, Jan (1980–1982). "Landskabslove: Sverige." In: Granlund, Johan (ed.) (1980-1982). ''Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder fra vikingetid til reformationstid.'' 2nd edition. Copenhagen, vol. 10: 231-233. * Lundberg, Birger (1980–1982). "Uppland." In: Granlund, Johan (ed.) (1980–1982). ''Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder fra vikingetid til reformationstid.'' 2nd edition. Copenhagen, vol. 19: 320-323. * Lundberg, Birger (1980–1982a). "Upplandslagen." In: Granlund, Johan (ed.) (1980–1982). ''Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder fra vikingetid til reformationstid.'' 2nd edition. Copenhagen, vol. 19: 331-334. * Lagerbring, Sven (1773). ''Swea rikes historia: 1060-1300.'' Stockholm. * Schlyter, Carl Johan (ed.) (1834). ''Corpus iuris sueo-gotorum antiqui. Samling af Sweriges gamla lagar, på kongl. maj:ts nådigste befallning utgifven. Vol. 3: Codex iuris Uplandici = Uplands-lagen.'' Stockholm. * Strandberg, Carl (1980–1982). "Kyrkobalkar: Sverige." In: Granlund, Johan (ed.) (1980–1982). ''Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder fra vikingetid til reformationstid.'' 2nd edition. Copenhagen, vol. 9: 682-684. * Wührer, Karl (1980–1982). "Nämnd." In: Granlund, Johan (ed.) (1980–1982). ''Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder fra vikingetid til reformationstid.'' 2nd edition. Copenhagen, vol. 12: 440-447. {{Authority control Law of Sweden Medieval law Medieval Sweden Legal history of Sweden