Funded by the Crafoord foundation
Project period: 2022-2025
Project team: Martin Dackling (Lund University, PI), Jonas Thorup Thomsen (Lund University).
This project explores inheritance and property distribution within the Swedish nobility during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries—a period marked by both the decline of aristocratic privileges and profound social transformation. While previous research has emphasized the nobility’s gradual loss of political and economic power, this project reconsiders that narrative by examining how noble families actively managed the transfer of wealth through wills and inheritance strategies. Drawing on noble testaments preserved in the appellate court archives (1750–1810), the study analyses what kinds of property were distributed, to whom, and how these transfers were justified. By combining social, legal, and economic perspectives, the project clarifies how inheritance practices contributed both to the persistence and transformation of noble wealth. Special attention is also given to wills as expressions of emotion and to how feelings were invoked as moral justifications for bequeathing. The results will advance our understanding of early modern elites, property strategies, and the emotional dimensions of inheritance.
