The Reception of the ius commune through German Law in Reformation Sweden (ca. 1530-1610): Torture, Police, and Crime

Abstract

<p>On the northern borders of Europe, the Kingdom of Sweden experienced dynastic change in the 1520s. The Vasa kings had to establish their chancery from scratch to manage correspondence and diplomacy for them. While clerics had largely served as royal chancellors and secretaries in the later Middle Ages, the onset of the Reformation altered the situation. At the same time, town secretaries and syndici were increasingly university graduates and even doctors in law trained in the ius commune in Germany and the Baltic Sea region at least since the early fifteenth century. Consequently, the Swedish kings needed experts with similar knowledge in their service. This chapter will investigate the need of Swedish kings to acquire experts knowledgeable about correspondence, diplomacy, and learned law on the northern borders of the ius commune.<br></p>