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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 possibilities for cooperation and mutually benefiting from the arrangements.

“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 Nissilä 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 Mårtensdotter 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, and even tearing roofs down. Against her brother Valentin, Anna engaged in an exceptional dispute that lasted for decades and covered a variety of matters. The number of times and way she handled appearing in court reveals her active and aggressive agency.2 The knowledge that there was a tradition in her family for its members to hold positions of trust in the local administration throws the contentious behaviour of her and her siblings into stark relief. Her grandfather had been a scribe and her father, uncle, and grandmother had held the post of local constable in Eurajoki parish for decades. So where did this fiery behaviour come from, and what might have caused it? What was its social context? And does the story of Anna Mårtensdotter tell us something more general about violence in Western Finland?

This book investigates the forms that the aggression and violence of peasant elites could take in early modern Fennoscandia, and their role within society. The contributors highlight the social strati

Lappalainen, Mirkka: Susimessu. 1590-luvun sisallissota Ruotsissa ja Suomessa. Kustannusosakeyhtio Siltala: Helsinki 2009.

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 whether and how social changes were reflected within the correspondence of two noblemen living at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries.

Expressions connected to friendship and brotherhood were a prominent part of letter-writing in the 16th century. They did not necessarily describe the true nature of a given relationship, but can rather be seen as a strategy, as a means to refer to shared values and norms related to friendship. Among noblemen, appealing to friendship was the main way of justifying requests. This reveals a connection between the rhetoric Of friendship and power. Along with an emotional bond or a supporting network,friendship can be examined as a cultural ideal, which could be utilized rhetorically, to produce and exercise power.