Deras sista vilja: Adliga arvsstrategier och testamentespraxis i 1800-talets Sverige

Abstract

Final wishes: Noble inheritance strategies and testamentary practices in early nineteenth-century Sweden

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the Swedish nobility gradually lost several of their privileges, including the exclusive right to hold feudal lands, the monopoly on offices of state, and the ability to bequeath their estates in entail (fideicommiss). Also, despite fierce opposition from the nobility, the Inheritance Code was revised in 1845 introducing equal inheritance rights for sons and daughters. However, the transfer of property to the next generation could still be influenced by testators’ wills, putting heirs on an equal if not better footing.

In this article, we examine the extent to which the Swedish nobility tried to push inheritance in certain directions in the decades prior to the enactment of the equal inheritance law. We use an analysis of wills and probate inventories to identify how individual nobles allocated their assets, who was favoured or disadvantaged, and how those decisions affected the economic balance between sons and daughters.

Our findings uncover a discrepancy between the position taken in parliamentary debates by members of the Estate of the Nobles and the practical measures taken by nobles in southern Sweden. Several families chose to distribute property in ways that diverged from traditional inheritance hierarchies, which typically favoured sons over daughters. Instead, marital bonds were often prioritised: spouses appointed each other as the primary beneficiaries before their own children, and it was not uncommon for couples to divide property equally between sons and daughter long before the legal change made it standard.

Such behaviour challenges the conventional perception of Sweden’s nobility as conservative and resistant to change. Instead, it aligns with the broader economic, political, and cultural transformation of Western society. Patriarchal systems were strong in the older societal structure, as were beliefs in the collective and the significance of biological kinship; over time, however, the rights of women and individuals began to be emphasised more. Rather than resisting the new ideals, some segments of the nobility appear to have voluntarily adapted to new circumstances, thereby contributing to the very developments their peers opposed at the national level.