Alv Knutsson forbids Gertrud Jepsdatter to sell odal property
DN 2/846 · 19 Septbr. 1462 · Bergen
What the letter says
The squire Per Åkesson and the town councillor Arne Anundsson make known that on 19 September 1462 in Bergen they heard Sir Alv Knutsson offer Gertrud Jepsdatter lifelong board, clothing and servants in return for his taking care of her property and giving her full land rent. The property was odal for Alv's wife and children, and she was to have the use of it as long as she lived without selling or pledging it. Gertrud answered that she would travel to her husband Magnus Hogenskild in Sweden and enter a convent with the whole property. She also refused to let the court decide the case, and then Alv forbade her to sell or pledge anything.
The letter in modern English (excerpt)
To all men who see or hear this letter, Per Åkesson, squire, and Arne Anundsson, town councillor in Bergen, send God's greeting and their own. We make known that we were in Bergen on the Sunday before St Matthew's Mass in the autumn (19 September) 1462 and heard that the well-born man Sir Alv Knutsson, knight, came with these offers to Mistress Gertrud Jepsdatter. First, that he would keep her in board and clothing as long as she lived, and in addition keep her with servants as befitted her. Second, that he would take her property into his protection, the part she had, which was odal for his wife and children, so that it should not lie deserted and fall into decay as it had done until now, and give her full land rent (rent for the land) from her share. Third, that she should have the use of the property as long as she lived, as the rettarbøter of the worthy lord Sir Håkon, by the grace of God King of Norway, lay down, but without parting with it in any way, neither pledging nor selling it, as she said she would do and had done before. We stood as guarantors that Sir Alv would keep everything he promised her. To this she answered Sir Alv and said that she had received a letter from her husband Magnus Hogenskild, and that she would travel to him in Sweden. Furthermore she said that she would enter a convent with the whole property. Then Sir Alv at once offered to go to court with her before the archbishop, the lawman and the Council of the Realm
Original text (excerpt)
Ollom monnom them som thetta breff se eder høra sender Per Akason a vapn ok Arne Anundson radman i Bergwen q. guds ok sina kunnight gørande at wij warom i Bergwen søndaghen nest fore sancti Mattis dagh om høsten anno domini m cd lx secundo hørdom aa at velboren man her Alff Knwtzson riddere bød hustru Gertrude Jepsdotter tesse bod. fførst at han vilde halda henne kost ok klede i sina liffdagha ok ther med halda henne thienista folk epter thy som henne hørde at haffua. annat thet han bød henne at
Background
The knight Alv Knutsson of Tre Rosor (died c. 1496) later inherited Giske after Junker Hans Sigurdsson, who died in 1466. According to the editor, Gertrud Jepsdatter was of the Rømer family, the same family as Jon Marteinsson, and the property was probably an inheritance to which Alv's wife and children had a right. Odal meant that the family had a right of pre-emption and redemption to the land, and therefore someone who only had the right of use could not give it away to a convent. Land rent was the annual rent the tenant farmers paid to the owner. The letter is a letter of witness to a lawful prohibition, made to secure evidence in case Gertrud sold all the same. It shows how the estates of the late Middle Ages were held together through inheritance, marriage and litigation. The editor connects the property with Finnen, but this does not stand in the text itself.
People: Alv Knutsson, Magnhild Oddsdatter