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43-599: It was drafted by a Royal commission, enacted at the three Folkland Things , and given Royal assent in 1296. The Law of Uppland became the law of the land, not only for the province of Uppland it created, containing the three Folklands and Roden , but also for Gästrikland . The law contained eight law codes: The Church, King's, Heritance, Freeman's, Land, Merchant's, Neighborhood, and Thing codes. Courts were held in each Hundred and each Folkland. There were no public prosecutors, and no material difference between criminal and civil cases existed. Suits in law would be initiated by

86-487: A hamna was made up of two attung , which was "two eighth parts of a village". One attung seems to have been equal to the land area it took to feed an ordinary family (around 12 acres, see Hide (unit) , Virgate and Oxgang for English equivalents). Each attung also regard as having a "share" in the raid, so one who owned two attung had twice as much chance to go on the raid as one who owned only one. Those who owned less than an attung had to team up with others to form

129-414: A bow and 24 arrows. Later 12th-13th century changes to this law code list more extensive equipment for the more affluent freemen, with helmet, mail hauberk, shield, spear and sword being what the well-to-do farmer or burgher must bring to war. In 12th-13th-century sources detailing the 11th century, jarls are mentioned as the chieftain of the leiðangr . In the 12th century, a bishop could also be head of

172-618: A church code due to opposition from the Church, the church codes of the several provincial laws remained in force even after 1350. Gradually the church code of the Law of Uppland became valid for the whole kingdom, remaining in force until it was partly replaced by the Church Act of 1686 and finally by stipulations in the Civil Code of 1734 . The Church code governed the relationship between

215-543: A draft that was subsequently enacted by the Things of the three Folklands, and finally given Royal assent eight days after Saint Stephen 's Day (January 2), 1296. The Law of Uppland became the law of the land, not only for the province of Uppland it created, containing the three Folklands and Roden , but also for Gästrikland . Since the new law of the whole realm, the Magnus Erikssons landslag of 1350, lacked

258-532: A leiðangr, saga mentions of leiðangr, and archeological evidence that indicates the presence of considerable military mobilization. Finland also had some form of ledung system after its conquest by Sweden. It was also used in Denmark as well as in Norway. The leiðangr was a system organizing a coastal fleet with the aim of defence, coerced trade, plunderings, and aggressive wars. The leidangs were centered upon

301-591: A part of a larger region called Svealand , the core of the Swedish Kingdom and able to muster as 2200 warriors. The vessel, called snäcka , was a technological descendant of the Viking age warship . Ledung allows organizing an army to campaign outside its territory, useful for Baltic crusading. During the Early Medieval Period , the majority of the leidang would have been unarmored. Some of

344-425: A ship and a crew. If enemy forces attacked the country, fires (signal beacons) built on high hills would mobilize the farmers to the skipreide. The number of farms in an area determined the size of a skipreide. It did not usually include the entire parish, nor was it confined to a parish; it could include farms from several parishes. The farmers of each district had to build and equip a rowed sailing ship. The size of

387-517: A ship for military use. They were collectively responsible to build, maintain, equip and staff a leidangsskip (coastal defense ship), fully provisioned for two or three months. Skipreide were mainly on the coast, but also extended quite far inland along fjords and deep waterways (“as far inland as the salmon runs”), to safeguard the procurement of timber for building of the warships. In the 1200s, each Skipreide consisted of 40 lid, and each lid of 4 farms/hemman; meaning that it took about 160 hemman to supply

430-527: A ship. The organizational unit was the ship itself with the men providing their own equipment and provisions for the journey. The ship's company agreed to serve for a certain period of time, normally, the fleet levy was on expeditions for two or three summer months. It was composed of free men that owns farms. The leiðangr differed from conventional feudalism in that the expeditions gathered around leaders based on military merit, rather than noble status. All free men were obliged to take part in or contribute to

473-525: A unit of one attung and share the burdens as well as the profit. According to the Law of Uppland , the hundreds of Uppland , all in all 22 hundreds (Tiundaland; providing 10 hundreds, Attundaland; providing 8 hundreds and Fjärdhundaland; providing 4 hundreds) each of which providing four ships (four ships, each with 24 crewmen and a steersman, each equals 100 men). Also, those of Västmanland two ships and those of Roslagen one ship (the name indicate that this

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516-815: The Church , the Bishop , the Priest , the Parish , and the People, including marriage , baptism , and tithe . The King's code covered the election of Kings, and the relationship between the King and the People. It contained provisions concerning the People's obligation to the King, such as leidang , watch and ward, and taxes , as well as the King's obligation to uphold the Peace . The Heritance code governed inheritance and bequests ;

559-511: The Law of the land and of the law of Roden . Eighteen amendments were later added to the law, including stipulations about burial fees, outlawry , deeding of land, and homicide by unknown perpetrators. A Thing could be held as often as every week in each hundred , or in each Skiplagh (ship's district) in Roden. The judgments were given by the judge , not the assembly. There would be two judges for each thing, although only one served at

602-528: The Skaldic courtly poets of Jarl Haakon of Western Norway and his son Erik. In each poem, the princes are praised for summoning the ships of the leidangr to the Battle of Hjörungavágr against a Danish fleet. The King of Norway, Harald Hardrada , is later praised by two court Skalds for summoning the leidangr to attack Denmark. Harald is also called king of the leidangr and the latter is termed almenningr ,

645-522: The fyrd as a precursor to a modern national army composed of all ranks of society, describing it as a "ridiculous fantasy": The persistent old belief that peasants and small farmers gathered to form a national army or fyrd is a strange delusion dreamt up by antiquarians in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries to justify universal military conscription. Henry I of England , the Anglo-Norman king who promised at his coronation to restore

688-457: The fyrd can be traced back to at least the seventh century, and it is likely that the obligation of Englishmen to serve in the fyrd dates from before its earliest appearance in written records . Alfred the Great is credited with the development of the fyrd system together with the building of "burhs", the development of a cavalry force, and the building of a fleet. Each element of the system

731-420: The leiðangr . All of the leiðangr were called to arms when invading forces threatened the land. Only a fraction of the ships called to the leiðangr would take part in the expeditions, but as they were often profitable, many prominent magnates and chieftains would vy for the opportunity to join. At its most basic level, the system relied on each hemman or farm supplying one armed man. The leidang divided

774-652: The Crown. Where Alfred revealed his genius was in designing the field force and burhs to be parts of a coherent military system. Neither Alfred's reformed fyrd nor his burhs alone would have afforded a sufficient defence against the Vikings; together, however, they robbed the Vikings of their major strategic advantages: surprise and mobility. The fyrd was used heavily by King Harold in 1066, for example in resisting invasion by Harald Hardrada and William of Normandy . The historian David Sturdy has cautioned about regarding

817-694: The Dean of Uppsala Master Andreas And  [ sv ] (Birger's cousin), the Knights Herr Röd Keldorsson and Herr Bengt Bosson, Ulf Lagmansson, Hagbard of Söderby, Anders of Forkarby and Torsten of Sandbro; from Attundaland the Knight Herr Filip Röde of Rundby, Håkan Lawspeaker, Eskil the Cross-eyed, Sigurd Judge and Jon Gåsabog; from Fjärdhundraland Ulv of Önsta, Götrik and Ulvheden, Judges. The commission made

860-731: The Freeman's code was the nearest equivalent of a criminal code , aimed at protecting the Freemen from abuse. The Land code included clauses about birthright to land, property owned in common, and maintenance of the elderly. The Merchant code regulated purchase of gold, women's right of purchase, hospitality and foraging, as well as a prohibition against selling Christians. The Neighborhood code regulated division of land, metes and bounds , commons , new land, mills , dams and bridges , hunting , fishing , cattle and more. The Thing code included provisions about trials and lawsuits , as well as of

903-527: The duty and right of all men . During the 11th century Danish naval forces, though not termed leidangr , are sporadically praised as led by Danish kings (as Knut in his conquest of England). A Danish royal charter from 1085 stipulates that certain people on the lands of the canons of Lund are liable to pay fines for neglecting expeditio . According to historian Niels Lund, there was no real leiðangr in Denmark until 1170. Historian Sverre Bagge has disputed Lund's interpretation, pointing to earlier references to

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946-479: The end of the 13th century, they only existed for these purposes. In about 1660, skipreide were converted into tinglags, court districts that included a bygdeting (community court) or a byting (city court). In Anglo-Saxon times, defences were based on the fyrd . It was a militia called up from the districts threatened with attack. Service in the fyrd was usually of short duration and participants were expected to provide their own arms and provisions. The origins of

989-469: The fleet levy, although typically nobles led levies in the 12th to 14th centuries. According to historical register, majority of early Baltic Crusaders in the 12th century were well-armed. During the 13th and 14th, mounted troops were raised from amongst the aristocracies of the crusading nations, but foot soldiers formed the core of armies raised by the ledung system. Each hundare district should have been able to muster up 100 men and four ships and formed

1032-422: The form of unofficial law texts ( Rechtsbücher ). From the Law of Uppland , however, the law codes were formally enacted. The area of Uppland, which did not exist before the enactment of the Law of Uppland, contained the three Folklands of Tiundaland , Attundaland , and Fjärdhundraland . The Lawspeaker of Tiundaland, Birger Persson (the father of Saint Bridget ) complained to King Birger Magnusson , that

1075-493: The land into districts, ship's crews or ship communities, "skipreiða" (Old Norse), "skipæn" (Danish), "skeppslag" or "roslag" and also "hundaland" (Swedish, mainly east coast), "skipreide" or "skibrede" (modern Norwegian, this division/system is applied mainly to Norway and western Sweden, which in turn adhered under Norwegian rule at the time), and required every skipreide to deliver one ship and crew. These skipreide were administrative areas in which residents were assigned to outfit

1118-415: The late 12th century. However, there are also written sources and archeological evidence which indicate that the lething system was introduced as early as the tenth century, if not earlier. The age of the lething is disputed among scholars. The Icelandic sagas link the introduction of the lething to King Haakon I (The Good) of Norway in the tenth century. The first known lethings are found during

1161-448: The law for the three Folklands were scattered in several different law texts, some of them obscure and sometimes very difficult to comply with. Hence the King appointed Birger chairman of a Royal commission that would draft a new law; removing some provisions, adding some, and merging the old laws of the three folklands into one. According to the preamble of the Law, in addition to Birger, the commission came to consist of from Tiundaland,

1204-405: The ninth and tenth centuries when Sea Kings could be elected. These rulers were given provisional authority over men who had to assemble for an allotted time to achieve certain limited and pre-agreed goals. The temporary kingships of early Viking society had no power of enforcement over their men as they exercised authority only by consent. The leidangr of Norway is first mentioned in 985 AD by

1247-486: The parties. A perpetrator caught in flagrante delicto would be taken as a prisoner to the Thing by the plaintiff ; in other cases the plaintiff would serve a summons on the defendant . In cases of acts that could be atoned for by mulcts , the defendant could also initiate action by offering such at the Thing. Legal proceedings were of three kinds: trial by eyewitnesses , trial by compurgation and trial by jury . If

1290-566: The parties. Legal proceedings were of three kinds: trial by eyewitnesses , trial by compurgation and trial by jury . In early medieval Sweden, each Land ( province ) was judicially autonomous with its own legal system, laws and justice ( leges terrae ). The law originally only existed in a spoken form, recited at the Thing by the Lawspeaker . From the end of the 13th century, the oral laws began on private initiative to be recorded in

1333-410: The plaintiff could bring, in most cases, six sworn free and freeborn men as eyewitnesses , the case was closed, and now further action from the defendant would be allowed; he was convicted . But if the plaintiff could not produce enough sworn witnesses, the defendant had the right to establish his nonliability by taking an oath and having, normally, eighteen men swear that they believed him. If

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1376-417: The progress of an enemy army, he would build them. If the enemy struck from the sea, he would counter them with his own naval power. Characteristically, all of Alfred's innovations were firmly rooted in traditional West Saxon practice, drawing as they did on the three so-called ‘common burdens' of bridge work, fortress repair and service on the king's campaigns that all holders of bookland and royal loanland owed

1419-453: The required number of men took the oath, he was acquitted , otherwise he was convicted. The use of jury trials is not guided by any clear legal principles, but through individual provisions in various parts of the law. A new jury ( næfnd ) would be selected for each new case. In trials concerning the King's Peace , the jurors had to be approved by both parties. In some other cases half the jury

1462-532: The rim. By the 12th century, helmets and padded gambesons were very common, the Kettle hat type of helmet now being used alongside the earlier Nasal Helm and Spangenhelm types. Padded armour and mail were also more common among ordinary men. In parts of the Scandinavian countries, the leiðangr evolved to a tax in the 12th century to 13th century, paid by all (free) farmers until the 19th century, although

1505-588: The ship-levy was frequently called out and used in the 13th–15th centuries, with the Norwegian leiðangr fleet going as far as Scotland in the 1260s. The use of the levy-tax as opposed to the use of maritime forces was more prevalent in Denmark and Sweden than Norway, since the Norwegian kingdom always depended heavily on fleet-based forces rather than land-based ones. Skipreide, originally a defense system, later assumed other powers, such as to legal authority to pass laws and financial authority to levy taxes. Towards

1548-620: The ships was defined as a standardized number of oars, initially 40 oars, later 24 oars. In Norway, there were 279 such districts in 1277, in Denmark two-three times as many. The head of a district was called styrimaðr or styræsmand , steersman, and he functioned as captain of the ship. The smallest unit was the crew of peasants who had to arm and provide for one oarsman ( hafnæ in Danish, hamna in Swedish, manngerð in Old Norse). In Sweden

1591-612: The time. The judges were elected by a jury of twelve men appointed by the King's Lensmann , and thereafter commissioned by the King. Each Folkland also had a thing, under the Lawspeaker of Uppland. A common landsting for all of Uppland did not exist. Appeals from the Hundred thing would go to the Lawspeaker; from the Lawspeaker to the King. There were no public prosecutors , and no material difference between criminal and civil cases existed. Suits in law would be initiated by

1634-740: The wealthier men may have worn gambesons and spangenhelms , while the wealthiest might wear mail . As the Viking Age began, the leidang slowly began to improve in terms of armor as their areas became richer. By the ninth century, most members of a Leidang would have had helmets either of the spangenhelm or Nasal Helm design. Drengrs would have worn mail, while wealthier freemen may have worn padded cloth/gambesons. Spears were common to all men, and many would have had short hand axes. Nobles and wealthy freemen would have had swords. Shields were used by all, and were usually round and of wood and leather construction, sometimes with leather or iron binding around

1677-454: Was a form of conscription ( mass levy ) to organize coastal fleets for seasonal excursions and in defense of the realm typical for medieval Scandinavians and, later, a public levy of free farmers. In Anglo-Saxon England , a different system was used to achieve similar ends, and was known as the fyrd . The first recorded instance of a Norse lething is disputed among scholars. There is considerable evidence that substantiates its existence in

1720-568: Was meant to remedy defects in the West Saxon military establishment exposed by the Viking invasions. If, under the existing system, he could not assemble forces quickly enough to intercept mobile Viking raiders, the obvious answer was to have a standing field force. If this entailed transforming the West Saxon fyrd from a sporadic levy of king's men and their retinues into a mounted standing army, so be it. If his kingdom lacked strongpoints to impede

1763-635: Was published in 1933. Folkland (Swedish provinces) Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.150 via cp1114 cp1114, Varnish XID 931173612 Upstream caches: cp1114 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 08:40:49 GMT Leidang The institution known as leiðangr ( Old Norse ), leidang ( Norwegian ), leding ( Danish ), ledung ( Swedish ), expeditio ( Latin ) or sometimes lething (English),

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1806-484: Was seen as just one ship's crew but they were not part of a hundred and might have had the same rights/function of whole hundred only fewer people). The older laws regulating the leiðangr (the Norwegian "Older Law of the Gulating" dates to the 11th or 12th century) require every man to, as a minimum, arm himself with an axe or a sword in addition to spear and shield, and for every rowbench (typically of two men) to have

1849-399: Was selected by each party. The jurors took an oath on their verdict ; if they refused to give a verdict, they were fined. The Law of Uppland is preserved in five complete handwritten copies. The assent is preserved in both a Swedish and a Latin form. A printed version was published in 1607 by Johannes Bureus . The first scholarly edition was published in 1834. A translation to modern Swedish

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