Violence and the Peasant Elite in Lower Satakunta (1550–1680)

“The lengthy quarrels over inheritance hint that these people had fiery tempers”, wrote Mauno Jokipii in his pioneering article on the history of the Lavila family—one of the prominent families of freeholders in Lower Satakunta.1 In our study on the women from that same family, Virpi Nissila and I have encountered about 100 court cases from the 1620 to the 1650s, in which six women from two generations have been present. The most prominent of them is Anna Martensdotter who appeared in court 28 times in the four years for which we have the court minutes still intact. These records tell of her offensive behaviour: neighbours complaining about her physical violence, insults, appropriations, an…

Secretaries as Agents in the Middle of Power Structures (1560-1680)

This article has no abstract. peerReviewed

Tiedonvälitys sivistysmissiosta uutisiin

Conclusion: Resisting, Cooperating, and Fighting

The three-fold division of this book—how these peasant elites and the peasantry in general confronted the authorities, how they dealt with them, and how they acted within their own local communities and networks—has aimed to place their aggressive and violent behaviour in the framework of Nordic state formation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The focus has thus been on their relationship with the state and its representatives. This structure contained per se a conflict of interests between states that wanted to intervene and control local communities and the leading peasants in these communities who wanted to guard their favourable positions. At the same time, there were possibi…

Hallinnon sankarilliset yksilöt ja kasvoton koneisto

From “friends” to “patrons”

In this article, we examine a period when Sweden took a leap from a locally-oriented power structure to a more centralised state. This meant a profound social change. We concentrate on the connection between changes in rhetoric and changes in society that took place in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Our point of departure is that, in rhetoric, there occurred a shift in balance from the rhetoric of friendship to the rhetoric of patronage. In the context of Sweden and Finland, we discuss whether this was linked to changes in administration and in the social order as a whole. Were there any real changes behind this rhetorical transition? Our source material provides a glimpse into wh…

The Gentle Art of Counselling Monarchs (1560-1655)

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The Story of Aggressive and Violent Peasant Elites in the North

All over early modern Fennoscandia—in the areas of modern-day Norway, Sweden, and Finland—there were peasants who occupied wealthy farmsteads, held positions of trust, and had kinship networks with members of higher status groups such as local priests and state officials, burghers, and other gentry. Even though they served as a link between the rest of the peasantry and the state authorities, it is evident that early modern peasant resistance was also often led by the wealthy. There is abundant evidence in court records that these respected and leading members of the local community could practically terrorise their neighbourhood with violence and aggression. Why was there this seeming cont…