CASE OVER INHERITANCE OF A PRIEST LEFFERT KOPPERS: REVISITING THE SPECIAL ASPECTS OF JUDICIAL PROCEDURES IN MEDIEVAL NARVA
Judicial procedures of medieval Narva, a town under the Order’s power and with council owned elements, represents different forms of cooperation between the seignorial and town administration, which most clearly appeared in litigations concerning the trade and business activity of citizens and their familyhood. Using documents from the Tallinn city archive (Tallinna linnaarhiiv, collection 230), the author sees into special aspects of the town’s legal system on the example of the case over inheritance of a Narva priest Leffert Koppers . The case of Koppers is interesting to monitor the interaction of the Order and council owned structures of the Narva administration, their relations with the Livonian Order, Tallinn and Riga. Case information let us conclude that the legal system of Narva had a number of special features, the main of which was the will priority of the Livonian Master over decisions of the town council of Narva, Reval and Riga, even in those cases when interests of the Master were contrary to the Lübeck law.