Ordinance of Alsnö

The Articles of Alsnö ( swedish Alsnö stadga ) is the Swedish King Magnus Birgersson in the 1280s at the royal court Alsnö hus, done ( on the island in Mälaren Adelsön located ) statutes. The original document has been lost, but there are several copies. The transcripts mention 1285 as a date of issue, but said recent historical research that the statutes before 1281, was probably on the Lord's Day of 1280 enacted.

The statute is one of the documents in the Swedish historical research the most discussed of the Middle Ages. The statutes are certain groups - namely, bishops, knights, squires, and royal service men - of royal legal claim (based in most interpretations on taxes and penalties ) exempt. In addition, men are called to serve the king with armed horses, but here are the historians do not agree on whether they too were fully covered by the royal privileges.

By this statute a privileged layer, called in Swedish frälse, which is equated with the European nobility originated. In contrast to the time before this layer included not only the families of the former tribal chiefs or big farmers, but also royal service men and followers, who were bound by feudal principle by an oath of allegiance to the king.