Carolyn,
Since man used to be hunters, hunting was free for everyone also in The Midde Ages in Sweden. It was, of course, Gustav Vasa (1523-1560) who as always regulated Sweden with stringent laws including the forests. He organised foresters to stop all hunting by common men in the lands and forests that were owned by the Crown (i e The State), mostly confiscated from The Roman-Catholic Church. They were at first called hejderiddare from the German word Heide which means heath or rather moor. Stiff sentences were distributed to poachers. The nobility also had large estates and used the same system.
Apart from guarding the forests and hunting there for the owners, they checked the forests as well. Trees that had fallen down could everybody take, but standing trees were of course forbidden to fell.
Then there were in Southern Sweden two types of trees that were inspected as well. First the oak. The Swedish Navy had the monopoly on the oak, even in the forests owned by common farmers! Here the forester checked the forests. made maps and noted especially large trees and divided the trees into categories. He made notes of very straight oaks suitable for battens for ships and curved ones suitable for the hull of the ships.
Beech was another species controlled by the forester. Here he saw to it that there were enough trees standing so that the pigs that were roaming around in the forests had enough beechnuts to eat.
The foresters were at times attacked while on duty, so early in the 18th century a law was passed to better protect the foresters.
The foresters were often of course a very hot issue, especially since the Crown and the Nobility had the largest and often also the best placed forests. Besides, hunting and poaching was at times one of the few opportunities open for the poor people to get some vitally needed food. The Sherwood Forests in a Swedish setting, but without a Robin Hood.
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