Fraser Miller Researcher

In my dissertation From Swords to Plowshares: Space and the Peace of the Home in Medieval Nordic Law, c. 1150–1350, I studied the ways in which the legislation regulating the peace of the home (hemfriden), or domestic peace, was established and developed in the extant Nordic laws from about 1150–1350. The peace of the home, referring to the extra legal protection that one enjoyed against violence while at home, was a concept under development during the period under study. What kinds of violence were included under the domestic peace, how severely were these punished, and which areas and which categories of person were protected by the peace, are all questions that the dissertation aimed to answer.

By examining all the legal provisions concerning the peace of the home and systematically comparing them in all of the Nordic laws, I show that this development was far from straightforward. The many regional differences that existed indicate the self-assertion of local legal customs and power interests when these entered into dialogue with centralizing forces linked to the church and the royal power.

Royal authority was increasingly asserted over the domestic space during this period. Earlier research has identified the introduction of special requisites and the increased rights of the plaintiff in peace legislation as evidence of resistance to royal power. In the dissertation, I argue instead for a more nuanced interpretation: the king agreed to and accepted limitations on his authority as part of a process whereby new claims were made within already existing frameworks.

The dissertation is available as a PDF in open access on DiVA and a printed version can be ordered here.

Miller, Fraser. From Swords to Plowshares: Space and the Peace of the Home in Medieval Nordic Law, c. 1150–1350. PhD diss., Stockholm University, 2025.