Forklare, kreve, true, trygle: Argumentasjon og retorikk i klagemål og bønneskriv fra 1300- til 1600-tallet

Sammendrag

The topic of the article is rhetoric and arguments in letters of complaint to the central authorities in Norway ca. 1420-1650. Four complaints are analyzed – from 1424, 1497, 1580 and 1648. The analysis focuses on legal and economic arguments – on the role of law and custom, and poverty as a reason for demanding or begging for justice or favors. The analysis concludes that the law plays a pivotal role in all the complaints -the law being the national law-code of 1274. Customs in a more general sense is more present in a series of complaints from 1648. Poverty is a more ambiguous concept. All complaints refer to the poverty of the local population, but in the 15th century cases, poverty is explicitly an argument for the king to look into his local administration as not to lose revenue due to illegal overtaxing. In the 16th and 17th century, poverty seems to be a general rhetorical maneuver aimed at securing sympathy. The submissive aspects of the complaints are also more present in the later examples. Comparing these aspects and developments with contemporary communication of the same nature on the continent, the article concludes that the lack of representative forums such as estates put emphasis on direct communication between local communities and the central authorities within the framework of the 1274-law-code.