44 THE KING'S MIRROR 



however, far beyond the author of the Address. So com- 

 plete is the king's power, " that he may dispose as he 

 likes of the lives of all who live in his kingdom." * He 

 " owns the entire kingdom as well as all the people in it, 

 so that all the men who are in his kingdom owe him 

 service whenever his needs demand it."f These sen- 

 tences would indicate that the author's position lies 

 close to the verge of absolutism. But Norwegian king- 

 was anything bi]f PibH 11 *^ f>1 F ^'"ff 



in tJiegovexiimeni. Professor Ludvig Daae has put forth 

 the hypothesis that the author of the King's Mirror was 

 acquainted with the governmental system of Frederick 

 II in his Italian kingdom, which he governed as an abso- 

 lute monarch, t There may be some truth in this for 

 there is no doubt that the character of Frederick's 

 government was known to the Northmen; but it is also 

 possible that the theory of absolute monarchy had a 

 separate Norse origin, that the insistence on divine right 

 in the long fight with the church had driven the parti- 

 sans of monarchy far forward along the highway that 

 led to practical absolutism. Less than a generation after 

 the King's Mirror was composed, the newer ideas of 

 kingship appear in the legislation of Magnus Lawmen- 

 der. Kings have received their authority from God, for 

 " God Himself deigns to call Himself by their name; " 

 and the preamble continues: "he is, indeed, in great 

 danger before God, who does not with perfect love and 

 reverence uphold them in the authority to which God 



* C. xliii. f C. xxviii. 



f'Studier angaaende Kongespeilet " : Aarboger for nordisk Oldkyndighed, 



1896, 189. 



