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…

Et oppgjør med eneveldet og standssamfunnet : dannelsen av en folkelig offentlighet i norske bygder 1814-1850

Author's version of an article in the journal: Historisk tidsskrift. Also available from the publisher at: http://www.idunn.no/ht/2013/01/et_oppgjr_med_eneveldet_og_standssamfunnet_-_dannelsen_av_ Previous studies of political culture in Norway in the period 1814–1850 have mainly concentrated on events and movements surrounding the Storting and the bourgeoisie in large urban areas. Exceptions were formation of the peasants’ opposition in the Storting and of the radical lower class movement under the guidance of Marcus Thrane in 1848–1851. Little attention has been paid to the development of a popular rural public sphere and the early democratization of local communities in Norway in the per…

Norse expansion and sami counterpower in Sør-Salten c. 600-1350

Peasants and the Political Culture in Norway (c. 1400–1700)

This chapter looks at the major confrontations between the state and peasants in Norway during the period 1400–1700. These have variously been described as rebellions, riots and insurrections. Indeed, one could argue that none of these were full-scale revolts as such, if by that we mean a massive threat to the regime and social order. The peasants and their leaders would never declare that they were seeking to abolish the regime or attack the king nor that they intended to implement a new social or political order. In most cases, they would address oral or written protests or sabotage the collection of new taxes or other burdens that the state had imposed. Their protests would primarily be …

Solid strukturhistorie om kvinner, uten særlig mange menn