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''Magnus Lagabøtes landslov'' () was a law covering the whole of
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
, issued by
King Magnus VI of Norway Magnus the Lawmender (1 or 3 May 1238 – 9 May 1280), also known as Magnus Haakonsson, was King of Norway from 1263 to 1280. One of his greatest achievements was the modernisation and nationalisation of the Norwegian law-code. He was the first N ...
, constituted by the regional courts (cf. Things) between 1274 and 1276. The law was the first to apply to Norway as a whole and is one of the first examples of comprehensive national legislation from a central authority in all of Europe. The law is the reason that the king was given the name ''Lagabøte'', "the one who improves the law". Albeit mending the law, with this much more detailed formulation of the law into written text, codification, the law-giving power was to a great extent taken away from the popular assemblies, these higher level regional things ( Borgarting, Eidsivating, Gulating and Frostating), by King Magnus VI. He managed to circumvent the traditional authority of these traditional things by the elaboration and codification of the Bjarkeyjarréttr, laws and things for the market-places, cities and towns with trade-rights, also temporary markets (cf: Birk (market place) and Bjarkey laws) that eventually made the cities (Nidaros which is Trondheim, Bergen, Tønsberg) independent from the traditional things (assemblies).


Characteristics

Although the legislation applied to the whole country, it formally consisted of four different law books, one for each of the four jurisdictions ( Gulating, Frostating, Eidsivating and Borgarting). However, the content of the four statutes was largely similar and was based primarily on the previous jurisdictional laws. In addition, a separate City Law, ''
Magnus Lagabøtes bylov ('Magnus Lagabøte's City Law') was promulgated for Bergen in 1276 during the reign of King Magnus VI of Norway (known as Magnus or 'law-mender'). Oslo, Trondheim and Tønsberg received their own versions of the City Law about the same time, w ...
'', was issued for the cities, from 1276. The preparation of a shared law strengthened the central authorities and the king's power. This led to reactions, especially from the Church. Archbishop Jon Raude in Nidaros opposed the king intervening in the ecclesiastical sphere and revising ecclesiastical legislation. There was a prolonged dispute between the king on the one hand and the church on the other side, which ended with a settlement and a compromise, called the '' Sættargjerden'', in
Tønsberg Tønsberg (), historically Tunsberg, is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tønsberg Municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located about south-southwest of the capital city of Oslo on the western coast of the Oslofjord near ...
in 1277. The archbishop succeeded in securing the church a considerable tax deduction and greater legal privileges. Large sections of the legislation were applicable for more than 400 years. It was revised and translated into Danish in 1604 and received the name '' Christian IVs Norske Lov'' ("Christian IV's Norwegian Law"), named after King
Christian IV of Denmark Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and King of Norway, Norway and List of rulers of Schleswig-Holstein, Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years and 330 days is th ...
. In 1687 the legislation was repealed and replaced by '' Christian Vs Norske Lov''. There were at least 41 copies or manuscripts of the State Law in circulation and it was the most widely used non-religious book in medieval Norway. There were large and small differences in the wording between the manuscripts, and this variation was known by those who used the manuscripts, as shown in the form of notes in the margins. According to Jørn Øyrehagen Sunde, the wording was not followed slavishly, and adapted to each individual case.Jørn Øyrehagen Sunde, 'Stordomen til Landslova', ''Dag og Tid'', 15. January 2016.


Editions and translations

*Rudolf Keyser and P.A. Munch (eds.)
Norges gamle love
(1848) *Rindal, Magnus, and Bjørg Dale Spørck, eds. Kong Magnus Håkonsson Lagabøtes landslov: Norrøn tekst med fullstendig variantapparat. Norrøne tekster, 9. Oslo: Riksarkivet, 2019. {{ISBN, 978-8-25480-137-6. Much of this is also online at https://www.nb.no/forskning/lagabote/ressurser/.


See also

*
Medieval Scandinavian law Medieval Scandinavian law, also called North Germanic law, was a subset of Germanic law practiced by North Germanic peoples. It was originally memorized by lawspeakers, but after the end of the Viking Age they were committed to writing, mostly by M ...


References


Sources


«Magnus Lagabøtes landslov»
''
Store norske leksikon The ''Great Norwegian Encyclopedia'' (, abbreviated ''SNL'') is a Norwegian-language online encyclopedia. It has several subdivisions, including the Norsk biografisk leksikon. The online encyclopedia is among the most-read Norwegian publishe ...
''
«Magnus Lagabøtes landslov»
at Norgeshistorie.no
«Forbrytelse og straff»
at Norgeshistorie.no Legal history of Norway