Herremændene i Jyske Lov

"Herremænd" in the Danish Law of JutlandThe earliest mention of the Danish word herremand (pl. herremænd) appears in the 1241 Jyske Lov (Law of Jutland), III 7-20, in the chapters dealing with the naval levy (leding). The King, the Duke and the King's other children or kin as well as the bishops were entitled to accept fully armoured men for war duty and in return these were exempted from the levy tax. Jyske Lov gives the impression that herremænd were not very wealthy. To gain tax exemption they might, e.g., have to rent land, as long as it amounted to no more than a good peasant holding. Later in the thirteenth century recruitment rules led to conflicts among the mighty of the realm, especially conflicts between the King and the Archbishop, who were also in disagreement as to the right of disposal of the Archbishop's men in wartime. In Saxo's description of the Civil War (1146-57) and the Scandia Rebellion (1181-82) we meet two main social groups of combatants, magnates and milites (satellites). Magnates are known from various sources as rich and powerful men, while milites were men in the service of kings, princes or bishops. The word miles, however, was ambiguous. In Saxo and far into the thirteenth century it could also be used as a generic term for all combatants, but gradually it was limited to those who were knighted, thus designating only the most distinguished of the men of power. In the Late Middle Ages the word herremand appears again, but in a different meaning than in Jyske Lov. In a broad sense the term meant a man of rank or power, and when used precisely, it specifically denoted a nobleman. Here Herremand is a lord, whereas the herremand of Jyske Lov is a lord's man (homo domini). There are no arguments to support the idea of a gradual change of meaning, as was the case for the concept and word miles. The assumption, therefore, is that Jyske Lov exhibits a peculiar use of the word as a generic term for men serving under any of the many and various kinds of lords. Translated by Michael Wolf

Ods herreds ejendomme på reformationstiden

Property Ownership in the Odsherred 1536A hundred years ago the historian Kristian Erslev wrote that the church and the nobility in Denmark at the end of the Middle Ages each owned thirty-five to forty per cent of the holdings in Denmark, while the remaining twenty-five percent was divided between the crown and the propertied peasants. On the whole his estimate is still accepted. But several subsequent studies of local conditions have demonstrated great variation from one part of the country to another and from one locality to another. In the case of Zealand, in particular, it is possible to reconstruct the distribution of ownership rather precisely. The basis for this is the large number of cadastres stemming from the second half of the sixteenth century. These ledgers record the estates of the crown and freeholders, including the lands that were taken from the bishops and monasteries during the Danish Reformation in 1536. In the case of the ecclesiastical institutions that survived after 1536 their cadastres as well as their letters of acquisition contain property lists. Information on the lands of the nobility is, on the contrary, tenuous, but what was owned by neither crown nor church was eo ipso owned by the nobility. To determine its extent it is necessary to know how many holdings there were. The source material is sufficiently ample to be certain that changes regarding the number of holdings on Zealand were minimal into the seventeenth century, where their number is known village by village.On the other hand, the distribution of ownership between the various social orders (stænder) underwent a number of changes between 1536 and the earliest extant cadastre. The crown’s letters of acquisition from around 1536 onwards are, however, extant and published in Kronens Skøder (Crown Deeds); the collection is so complete that it is possible to trace every property transaction, above all, the numerous exchanges between the nobility and the crown, including the surviving ecclesiastical institutions, in the second half of the sixteenth century. As a result, one can reconstruct the extent and location of the properties belonging to the crown/church and the nobility at the time of the Reformation.Once this is done, the problem is to sort out what the crown owned before the Reformation and what it subsequently derived from the church. The task is readily accomplished in the case of Sømme district around Roskilde, since an extant cadastre from 1554 distinguishes sharply between crown and episcopal properties prior to the Reformation. Cadastres and letters held by the three rich convents in Roskilde are also extant. The matter is more difficult in the case of the district of Odsherred, where the Dragsholm cadastre goes no further back than 1591/92. The object of the present study is to reconstruct the distribution of property of that district in 1536.The property distribution of the district around 1591 is presented in Table 1. At that time the crown owned close to all the properties: six hundred and ninety- six peasant holdings out of seven hundred and fifty-two. The number of farms recorded in the earliest land register from 1664 was virtually the same, seven hundred and fifty, confirming that we know of virtually all the holdings from about 1591. Both lists include some smallholders, but not cottagers. In 1591 the nobility owned only six holdings. Fortunately, the Danish National Archive is in possession of a list of estates owned by the nobility in Odsherred in 1553, a document that was apparently composed because the king wished to acquire (through exchange) all nobility property in the district to secure royal hunting rights. It was a matter of a total of one hundred and nineteen holdings, and by utilizing the Kronens Skøder collection it can be ascertained that subsequently the crown did systematically acquire the properties in question. Furthermore, the 1553 list and a monastic cadastre show that nobles had acquired thirty-four of the hundred and nineteen holdings from monasteries. The lands owned by the nobility in 1536 consisted, therefore, of only eighty-five holdings (see Map 2).The main analysis deals with the Dragsholm cadastre from 1591. It bears numerous traces of the composite origin of its holdings. In regard to certain holdings it relates that some were once subservient to Kalundborg and some to Dragsholm. In 1591 all the peasants were, of course, subservient to Dragsholm, but as we know from its previous history, Odsherred was transferred from Kalundborg to Dragsholm, when the latter was elevated to a superior district (hovedlen) in 1566. To all appearances the only properties belonging to Dragsholm before 1566 were the extensive episcopal estates in Odsherred and the areas south of it, while the castle of Kalundborg possessed Odsherred’s medieval crown lands, the district’s previous monastic estates, and the lands it acquired there from the nobility. The cadastre of 1591 (and its unknown antecedents) must therefore be the product of combining two older cadastres, which had existed in 1566. A close examination does, indeed, reveal distinct traces of such a compilation. In particular, there is a striking difference between the common duties on peasant plots: cows or cattle from those subservient to Dragsholm, but so-called "young cattle money" (nødeskat) paid by many previously subservient to Kalundborg. There were also differences between the duties on individual holdings, e.g., only those previously subservient to Kalundborg could fulfil their progress obligations with barley or money instead of barley. Generally speaking, the system of payments had been firmly established by the end of the Middle Ages, and the 1664 land register shows that all the holdings known in 1591 were still bound by the same duties.The analysis of peasant duties tells us who previously owned the great majority of holdings in Odsherred. It is of particular interest that the pattern of duties identifies sixty holdings that had belonged to the Convent of Our Lady in Roskilde, a complex of lands whose size and location is otherwise unknown (see Map 2).However, besides the village of Rørvig, where the crown between 1566 and 1591 gave all twenty-four holdings equal status (and thus deleted every trace of former relations), the previous status of over one hundred holdings still remains to be established. But a re-examination of the 1591 cadastre reveals that the old Dragsholm holdings are always listed first in villages where there were other owners. The bishop, of course, did not have holdings in every village, but a look at the cadastre’s topographical order reveals the key to the final solution of the problem. Within each parish the village with the church naturally tops the list, while the following entries are topographically random, because the villages with episcopal holdings come first. The topographical situation is illustrated in Map 3. There is only one instance of deviation from the described pattern, namely, village no. 13 in Højby Parish, which was old episcopal property. On the face of it, its position in the cadastre looks like a mistake, but, in fact, Ellinge until 1566 had been a small independent manor and had not belonged under Dragsholm.When the unknown author of the 1566 cadastre was faced with the task of compiling the entries of two older cadastres into a single new document, he chose an understandable and logical procedure, which was also the surest method of carrying out an extensive undertaking. His resultant work has provided a basis for determining the distribution of property in 1536. The bishopric possessed two hundred and forty-one holdings, the crown two hundred and forty-five, the monasteries ninety-eight, the nobility eighty-five, the Roskilde cathedral chapter twenty-one, churches and clerics twenty-four, and the Vartov hospital five. The only undetermined properties are the twenty-four Rørvig holdings and three holdings in and around Asminderup parish.The correctness of the analysis can be confirmed by examining the cadastre of the Bishop of Roskilde from 1370-95. Data on the extent and position of crown and episcopal lands were on the whole still valid in 1536, although frequent changes had occurred in the structure of the holdings, and nearly always changes regarding duties.Translated by Michael Wolf

Højmiddelalderens danske godssystem set i europæisk sammenhæng.

Forfatteren var professor i historie ved Århus Universitet. Han var på mange måder banebrydende med hensyn til udforskningen af landbrugets og bebyggelsens historie i middelalderen.Med udgangspunkt i Roskildebispens Jordebog 1370 sætter han det danske højmiddelalderlige godssystem med bryder og gårdsæder ind i en europæisk sammenhæng og diskuterer årsagerne til dette godssystems sammenbrud omkring 1400

Befolkningsfald, landgildefald og jordpriser i det 14. århundrede

The Population Decline, the Decrease of Manorial Dues, and the Price of Land in Fourteenth Century DenmarkThe evidence of a population decline in Denmark in the fourteenth century consists primarily of deserted farms and a decrease of manorial dues. In 1931 the Danish historian C.A. Christensen demonstrated a sharp drop in manorial dues and dated it, on the basis of Zealand land prices, to the 1330s and 1340s, which meant, as he himself pointed out, prior to the Black Death. I 1964 he showed that the number of deserted farms culminated only about 1400. He correctly viewed the drop in manorial dues against the background of the population decrease and the abandoned farms, and he managed to find an explanation of the chronology by combining Russel's analysis of the late and cumulative effects of the plague epidemics with Postan's Malthusian theory. According to this explanation the overpopulation crisis had already set in by 1300, leading in turn to a decrease in population and the initial desertion of the farms.Today the historian must consider the epidemical plagues as the crucial factor, and substantial evidence regarding deserted farms, except in the case of wars, dates at the earliest from 1360 or 1370. The question then is whether the sharp decline in manorial dues can really be dated as early as the 1330s. C.A. Christensen claimed in his 1931 analysis of land prices that the level of interest on loans with a lien on land was about 10% throughout the whole fourteenth century. It can be shown, however, that the level of interest after 1330, due no doubt to extremely unstable political conditions (war, the Holstein occupation,[p. 16]taxes), rose to over 15% and stayed there for decades. It must be concluded,therefore, that the drop in the price of land in the 1330s was due solely to the high rate of interest and tells us nothing about a decline in manorial dues. Together, the price of land and the level of interest show that the decline in manorial dues, like the deserted farms, belong to the period after 1360.The fact that no immediate economic effects of the Black Death can be ascertained accords with the situation in England. After the first great epidemic of the plague there was still a sufficient supply of labour, despite the enormous death rate. It was subsequent epidemics that induced the shortage of labour and consequently the desertion of the farms.Translated by Michael Wolf

Studier over registret fra Ringsted og Ramsø herreder ca. 1517.

Et bevaret register over Ringsted og Ramsø herreder fra ca. 1517 giver usædvanligt rige oplysninger om antallet af gårde og deres tilhørsforhold. Ud over gårde næves et betydeligt antal gårdsæder, som viser sig at dække over dels smågårde dels huse. Når de gårdsæder, som reelt var gårde, medregnes, kan det konstateres at gårdtallet samlet faldt fra 1517 til 1682. Et vigtigt metodisk resultat er, at næsten alle gårde i registret også kendes fra andre kilder, hvilket viser, at man ved hjælp af disse kan rekonstruere gårdtal og ejerstruktur i andre sjællandske herreder

Continuous-wave second-harmonic generation in the far-UVC pumped by a blue laser diode

Far-UVC light in the wavelength range of 200-230 nm has attracted renewed interest because of its safety for human exposure and effectiveness in inactivating pathogens. Here we present a compact solid-state far-UVC laser source based on second-harmonic generation (SHG) using a low-cost commercially-available blue laser diode pump. Leveraging the high intensity of light in a nanophotonic waveguide and heterogeneous integration, our approach achieves Cherenkov phase-matching across a bonded interface consisting of a silicon nitride (SiN) waveguide and a beta barium borate (BBO) nonlinear crystal. Through systematic investigations of waveguide dimensions and pump power, we analyze the dependencies of Cherenkov emission angle, conversion efficiency, and output power. Experimental results confirm the feasibility of generating far-UVC, paving the way for mass production in a compact form factor. This solid-state far-UVC laser source shows significant potential for applications in human-safe disinfection, non-line-of-sight free-space communication, and deep-UV Raman spectroscopy

Detecting Inter-Annual Variations in the Phenology of Evergreen Conifers Using Long-Term MODIS Vegetation Index Time Series

Long-term observations of vegetation phenology can be used to monitor the response of terrestrial ecosystems to climate change. Satellite remote sensing provides the most efficient means to observe phenological events through time series analysis of vegetation indices such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). This study investigates the potential of a Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI), which has been linked to vegetation light use efficiency, to improve the accuracy of MODIS-based estimates of phenology in an evergreen conifer forest. Timings of the start and end of the growing season (SGS and EGS) were derived from a 13-year-long time series of PRI and NDVI based on a MAIAC (multi-angle implementation of atmospheric correction) processed MODIS dataset and standard MODIS NDVI product data. The derived dates were validated with phenology estimates from ground-based flux tower measurements of ecosystem productivity. Significant correlations were found between the MAIAC time series and ground-estimated SGS (R-2 = 0.36-0.8), which is remarkable since previous studies have found it difficult to observe inter-annual phenological variations in evergreen vegetation from satellite data. The considerably noisier NDVI product could not accurately predict SGS, and EGS could not be derived successfully from any of the time series. While the strongest relationship overall was found between SGS derived from the ground data and PRI, MAIAC NDVI exhibited high correlations with SGS more consistently (R-2 > 0.6 in all cases). The results suggest that PRI can serve as an effective indicator of spring seasonal transitions, however, additional work is necessary to confirm the relationships observed and to further explore the usefulness of MODIS PRI for detecting phenology.Peer reviewe

Spatio-temporal divergence in the responses of Finland's boreal forests to climate variables

Spring greening in boreal forest ecosystems has been widely linked to increasing temperature, but few studies have attempted to unravel the relative effects of climate variables such as maximum temperature (TMX), minimum temperature (TMN), mean temperature (TMP), precipitation (PRE) and radiation (RAD) on vegetation growth at different stages of growing season. However, clarifying these effects is fundamental to better understand the relationship between vegetation and climate change. This study investigated spatio-temporal divergence in the responses of Finland's boreal forests to climate variables using the plant phenology index (PPI) calculated based on the latest Collection V006 MODIS BRDF-corrected surface reflectance products (MCD43C4) from 2002 to 2018, and identified the dominant climate variables controlling vegetation change during the growing season (May-September) on a monthly basis. Partial least squares (PLS) regression was used to quantify the response of PPI to climate variables and distinguish the separate impacts of different variables. The study results show the dominant effects of temperature on the PPI in May and June, with TMX, TMN and TMP being the most important explanatory variables for the variation of PPI depending on the location, respectively. Meanwhile, drought had an unexpectedly positive impact on vegetation in few areas. More than 50 % of the variation of PPI could be explained by climate variables for 68.5 % of the entire forest area in May and 87.7 % in June, respectively. During July to September, the PPI variance explained by climate and corresponding spatial extent rapidly decreased. Nevertheless, the RAD was found be the most important explanatory variable to July PPI in some areas. In contrast, the PPI in August and September was insensitive to climate in almost all of the regions studied. Our study gives useful insights on quantifying and identifying the relative importance of climate variables to boreal forest, which can be used to predict the possible response of forest under future warming.Peer reviewe