Avhandlingen tar sin utgångspunkt i den så kallade övergångsproblematiken då nya provinser införlivades i det svenska riket efter 1658. I avhandlingen analyseras tidens politiska och ekonomiska konflikter samt interaktionen mellan undersåte och överhet. Materialet diskuteras i förhållande till ett modernt natonalismkritiskt forskningsälge. Källmaterialet utgörs av invånrnas egna skrivelser till de nya makthavarna i samband med att Skånska kommissionen besökte Blekinge 1669-70 / Avhandlingen speglar en reltivt fredlig period före Skånska kriget där interaktionen mellan undersåte och överhet föregick enligt de mönster som fanns etablerat i de nordiska konglomeratstaterna redan under medeltiden. Borgare, bönder och präster eftersträvade att hos den svenska överheten vinna stöd för sina egna privilegier, vilket ofta innebar konflikter med andra grupper i landskapet. De konflikter som återfanns under dansk tid återkom också umgänget med den svenska överheten och lokala maktordningar konfronterades mot tidens centralistiska, absoluta maktordningar. I denna proces formades nya vinnare och nya förlorare i det blekingska lokalsamhället.

Peace as a concept usually ends up taking the back seat in the numerous studies of war and conflict. The definition of peace is often dependant on the definition of war, violence and/or conflict. The purpose of this thesis is to study the concept of peace during the Northern Wars and its Early modern attributes. The chosen time periods, the Second Northern War (1655-1660) and the Great Northern War (1700-1721), offer the possibility to study the change in the conception of peace over time and how the international political situation affects the description of peace. Every year, starting with Gustav I of Sweden, the Swedish monarchy wrote letters that were read by the priests to the general public, explaining the international situation and any predicaments in which the state found itself. The letters are called Böndagsplakat in Swedish, which roughly translate to “prayerday placard”, drawing its name from the prayer days proclaimed at the end of each letter. Previous research has shown that the purpose of these placards was to legitimise the actions of the monarchy and to have a long term effect on the general values of the public. The Swedish army relied heavily on the peasantry both financially and for recruitment which makes the official letters an important tool for the monarchy. Therefore this material is suitable for a hermeneutic inspired text analysis and a comparative study between the different wars. The results in the thesis are based on the descriptions of peace in the placards from the final stages of both wars (1658-1663 and 1717-1723) when the issue of peace is visible both before and after the peace treaties. This study shows that peace isn’t a static concept and that the description of peace is affected by the political situation. It is given different attributes which don’t necessarily rely on the definition of its counterpart war. The descriptions of peace also have different nuances depending on the political need to continue the war or end it, and it can be placed on a scale from a cease-fire to a complete perpetual peace. Peace, just like war, is a complex and historically changeable concept that needs a front row seat together with the studies of war.

This essay examines cases of faux executions administered by the high court of Göta hovrätt in Sweden during the years of 1648-1653. The faux executions are examined as a form of mental torture, utilized to extract confessions from suspected criminals. The essay builds on previous research on subjects of the early modern Swedish justice system, the interaction between the Swedish justice system and its constituents, as well as research on the subject of torture in the context of the Swedish justice system. Furthermore, research on the subject of torture and justice systems in early modern Germany and England are used as points of comparison. The goal is to understand the place of faux executions in both judicial practice and the mental frameworks of early modern Swedes, the condemning as well as the condemned. To achieve this end, the essay employs the theories of history of mentalities as well as ideas from micro history.      The primary material used in this essay are the judgements of the high court of Göta hovrätt, from which all orders of faux executions were issued. Importance is given not only to the sentencing as such, but the meaning loaded into choices of individual words. Additionally, the original sentence from the relevant lower court is consulted when available. The aim is to amass as much text as possible with regards to each individual case in order to acquire as many details as possible about each case.      The essay concludes that the use of faux executions arose as a consequence of the Roman-canon legal theory of proof, as well as the prevalence of ideas about the connection between truthful confessions and pain or death. In addition, the essay concludes that the present mentalities offered a wide range of reactions to the faux executions to those subjected to it. Furthermore, with regards to faux executions used in cases of infanticide, a parallel is found between the lack of condemning evidence and the court's ambiguous use of language with regards to the constructed ideal of "the guilty mother." Also, the essay concludes that faux executions had an ambiguous relationship with the concept of poena extraordinaria present in judicial discourse and practice throughout continental Europe. With regards to conditions in early modern England, it is established that there was no place for the faux execution, as the use of torture in England was not a consequence of the legal theory of proof. Lastly, the essay concludes that while the preconditions for faux executions existed in Germany, a possible reason for it not being used was the decentralized nature of its justice system.

The aim of this study is to examine the historical information about women’s libraries and book ownership during the early modern period in the work of Carl Magnus Carlander, Svenska bibliotek och ex-libris [Swedish libraries and ex-libris] (1904) and to inquire the scientific value of the information. A gender perspective is applied to the study. Gender is understood as a social and cultural constructed concept, dealing with female and male identities as interdependent categories.The study of Svenska bibliotek och ex-libris is made using source criticism and it has two parts. The first part deals with external conditions of the creation of the work; the life of C. M. Carlander and his motives for writing the work. The cultural and scientific context of the late 20th century, especially ideas and practices of book collecting, is discussed in relation to the work of Carlander. In the second part of the study book ownership and libraries of ten women described in the text are analysed, evaluating the evidence of the information on the basis of criteria used in source criticism; time, independence and tendency.The biggest contribution to library history made by Carlander in this work is the attributing of book ownerships marks, as relics, to historical persons on a broad scale, giving subsequent researchers the possibility to continue his work on a more text sociological basis than thought of during the late 19th century. / Program: Bibliotekarie

<p>Det övergripande syftet med uppsatsen är att få en bild av civiliseringsprocessen i Sjuhundra härad i Uppland under 1600-talet samtidigt som relationen, konfliktlösning kontra civilisering undersöks. För att uppnå syftet studeras domböckerna för 1601-1670 uppdelat på tre perioder, 1601-1614, 1638-1651 och 1660-1670. Brottsstrukturen för perioderna undersöks och jämförs genom att frekvensen för varje enskild kategori av ärenden per ting räknas fram. Våldet ägnas extra uppmärksamhet då det ger en bild av hur de mellanmänskliga relationerna ändrats över tiden. Även statens och kyrkans inflytande över den lokala rätten studeras då möjliga orsaker till ändringar i brottsstrukturen söks. Det dödliga och grova våldet minskade under perioderna vilket är förenligt med tidigare forskning, samtidigt som det milda våldet ökade. Statens inblandning i den lokala rättvisan tycks ha varit låg under alla perioder med en viss tendens till ökning under den tredje, medan kyrkans kontroll över utomäktenskaplig sexualitet ökade från mitten av 1600-talet. Den civiliseringsteori som Jarrick och Söderberg lanserat, där ökad empati är tecken på civilisering, tycks få visst stöd av denna undersökning, samtidigt som rätten tycks ha varit en konfliktlösande instans som ville upprätthålla lugnet i det lokala samhället.</p>

Det övergripande syftet med uppsatsen är att få en bild av civiliseringsprocessen i Sjuhundra härad i Uppland under 1600-talet samtidigt som relationen, konfliktlösning kontra civilisering undersöks. För att uppnå syftet studeras domböckerna för 1601-1670 uppdelat på tre perioder, 1601-1614, 1638-1651 och 1660-1670. Brottsstrukturen för perioderna undersöks och jämförs genom att frekvensen för varje enskild kategori av ärenden per ting räknas fram. Våldet ägnas extra uppmärksamhet då det ger en bild av hur de mellanmänskliga relationerna ändrats över tiden. Även statens och kyrkans inflytande över den lokala rätten studeras då möjliga orsaker till ändringar i brottsstrukturen söks. Det dödliga och grova våldet minskade under perioderna vilket är förenligt med tidigare forskning, samtidigt som det milda våldet ökade. Statens inblandning i den lokala rättvisan tycks ha varit låg under alla perioder med en viss tendens till ökning under den tredje, medan kyrkans kontroll över utomäktenskaplig sexualitet ökade från mitten av 1600-talet. Den civiliseringsteori som Jarrick och Söderberg lanserat, där ökad empati är tecken på civilisering, tycks få visst stöd av denna undersökning, samtidigt som rätten tycks ha varit en konfliktlösande instans som ville upprätthålla lugnet i det lokala samhället.

This essay deals with a harbor near Swedish castles called sea courtyards in the 17th century. It also deals with an old work made by Erik Dahlbergh called Suecia antiqua et hodierna as a source material in order to find these sea courtyards that does not exist in present day.

<p>Författaren har bytt namn till Jakob Starlander.</p>

Torture in the past is the subject of this dissertation. The aim of the study is to discuss one of the grand narratives of Swedish history. In an evolutionary frame Sweden has been put forward as a country which early developed judicial security for citizens. This dissertation contains a critique against an objectivistic view of the concept of knowledge. It proposes instead an evolutionary concept. In the discussion of sources I argue that although historians have been skilful in their evaluation of sources important problems still remains. The phenomenon of torture is here investigated at three different levels, as discourse, as norm and as practice. A point of departure is an overview of the discourse of torture and the use of torture in the past, from ancient times to the beginning of the early modern period in Europe. The purpose of that study is to gain some general insight concerning torture to which the main study, with focus on the phenomenon of torture in Sweden, could be related. The presentation of the history of torture starts in ancient Greece. The ability to use torture was regulated in Greek society. An important element in the discourse concerns a social regulation of torture; another is the connection with different concepts of truth. The conditions for the use of torture have changed over time. In early Middle Ages the practice of ordeals was common in Europe. In difficult cases tribes decided guilt with help from God. When the Christian church during the High Middle Ages rose to power it prohibited the use of ordeals. The obvious consequence of this act was that people had to make decisions by themselves, when they no longer could turn to God’s will when making decisions in severe judicial cases. In this context torture became important and was put into use. The existence of ordeals has been an obstacle to the use of torture. Torture had a strong position at the end of the medieval era, and this dissertation discusses whether the legislation is to be understood as implementation of torture or as regulation of an already existing practice. The first study of torture in a Swedish context deals with the discourse concerning the concept of torture. It is found that accusations of use of torture were used in propaganda and that torture in this context was understood as something unswedish and shameful. Next part focuses on the Old Swedish legislation prior to 1614. It is found that there is a prohibition against torture in the legislation from the fourteenth century, which must be regarded as a first attempt in Swedish law to regulate the use of torture. The study also focuses on the fact that the plaintiff had such extensive rights, that these could enable use of torture. The last part of the dissertation deals with the legal practice in Stockholm between 1474 and 1614. It identifies places for torture, actors and the judicial context in which the use of torture was practised.

This essay studies and compares three clergymen that were stationed in Sápmi during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and their writings that deal with the Saami population of the northern parts of Sweden. How they portray the Saami people and their culture is analyzed though postcolonial concepts as Edward Said’s othering and other concepts by the likes of Loomba, Lincoln and Pratt.  The three priests portrayal of the Saami people and their culture are similar In that way that they all confirm some of the colonial stereotypes of the Saami during the time they were writing. But especially one of the priests stands out in his effort to give a nuanced portrayal of the Saami people.