Sverige och Nordlanden. Förvaltning och nordlig expansion 1250-1550
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Tegengren, Gunilla, 2015: Sverige och Nordlanden. Förvaltning och nordlig expansion, 1250-1550.
(Sweden and the Northern Provinces. Central and provincial governance, administration and territorial expansion in the north, 1250-1550). Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Written in Swedish, with an English summary.
Since the nineteenth century Sweden has been described in research as a kingdom on the European periphery whose development during the Middle Ages was determined by specifically national characteristics and placed it with in its European context. More recent international scholarship emphasises the common characteristics of the history of the European states. An entire system of cultural events, through the dominance of the papacy, was copied and permeated throughout kingdoms and principalities.
This thesis utilizes a systemic perspective and applies the over-arching hypothesis that social developments in Sweden during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries followed the same patterns that underpinned social change and territorial expansion in other peripheries of Europe. The thesis aims to explain the state formation process through the Swedish position as a realm within the papacy.
This thesis examines the hypothesis that the Swedish state formation process can be understood from the territorial management and the administrative systems used. General results are linked to Max Weber’s definition of the territorial state in which the state has a legal system with well-planned and rationally established rules for administration and taxation both in the core area, and as a method of territorial expansion. Such systems have been distinguished in the medieval sources, analyzed and explained in this study.
This thesis shows that the systems for mark planning and assessment were not only used in the core area of the realm, but also as the means when the Swedish Crown annexed the northern parts of Sweden and Finland in the fourteenth century.
The study is conducted on two chronological levels. The first part examines the period between 1250 and 1297 when a new legal system was prepared and finally enshrined by the king. The source material primarily consists of the Law of Uppland and diplomas. The second part examines the period between 1297 and 1550 in which the source material consists of the Laws of Uppland and Hälsingland, diplomas, land registers, and taxation documents. Based on data from the land registry, the medieval taxation in the northern provinces has been reconstructed and followed over 250 years.
This thesis brings to the fore valuable knowledge of the state formation in Sweden and gives the provinces of Nordlanden a chronological history that has been unknown until now.
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
University
Göteborgs universitet. Humanistiska fakulteten
University of Gothenburg. Faculty of Arts
Institution
Department of Historical Studies ; Institutionen för historiska studier
Disputation
Fredagen 9 oktober 2015, Lilla Hörsalen, Humanisten
Date of defence
2015-10-09
gunilla.tegengren@history.gu.se
tegengren@outlook.com
Other description
Den svenska statsbildningen är ett omdiskuterat historiskt problem. Man har länge hävdat att förutsättningar för en svensk statsförvaltning saknades under medeltiden och blev möjlig först på Gustav Vasas tid. I den här avhandlingen undersöks statsbildningen från ett förvaltningsperspektiv och visar helt nya resultat. Folkungatiden 1250 – 1389 var en period av stark förnyelse då en centraliserad statsförvaltning byggdes upp och staten införde ett system för individuell beskattning av böndernas jord. Under denna period expanderade Sverige också mot norr och de hälsingska och bottniska landskapen anslöts till det svenska riket. Från ett förvaltningshistoriskt perspektiv var det Upplandslagen och dess administrativa ordningar som kom att ligga till grund för all senare förvaltningsutveckling i vårt land. Upplandslagen var höjdpunkten i den omvälvande politiska utvecklingsprocess som påbörjades av Birger jarl och gjorde Sverige till en territoriell monarki bland andra i medeltidens europeiska samhälle.
Date
2015-09-04Author
Tegengren, Gunilla
Keywords
state formation
territorial expansion
legal change
medieval state
assessment
taxation
peasants
Publication type
Doctoral thesis
ISBN
978-91-628-9494-8 (e-publication)
978-91-628-9493-1
ISSN
0560-2416
Series/Report no.
Kungl. Skytteanska Samfundets Handlingar Samfundets Handlingar
Nr 72
Language
swe