Dyveke Sigbritsdatter

Dyveke Sigbritsdatter (* around 1490 in Amsterdam ; † September 21, 1517 in Copenhagen ) was the lover of King Christian II of Denmark, Norway and Sweden .

Life

Erik Valkendorf meets Sigbrit Willums and her daughter Dyveke (left) in Bergen around 1507; Painting by Eilif Peterssen 1876

Dyveke came from an Amsterdam merchant family. Only the first name Nicolaus is known of her father, who died early. Dyveke's surname Sigbritsdatter (Danish for "Sigbrit's daughter") is derived from her mother. The surname is also often left out; even in reference works she sometimes only appears under her first name Dyveke , the Middle Dutch word for "little pigeon".

Dyveke and her widowed mother Sigbrit Villoms (also Willums or Villomsdatter , "daughter of Villom") moved from the Netherlands to Bergen (Norway) . According to the report of the Danish historian Hans Svaning (1503–1584), the royal chancellor Erik Valkendorf met the exceptionally beautiful Dyveke at her stand on the Bergen market and told Christian II, then viceroy in Norway. Valkendorf soon regretted this, as Christian II insisted on getting to know Dyveke personally and had a dance festival held in Bergen for this purpose, to which Dyveke was also invited. As Hans Svaning reports on this, Dyveke is said to have shared Christian II's bed that same night. It is now believed that these events occurred in 1507 (or, less likely, 1509).

Then Christian II had a house built in Oslo for Dyveke and Sigbrit. When he became King of Denmark in 1513, he gave them Hvidøre Castle north of Copenhagen to live in. In 1516 he bought a farm for Dyveke and Sigbrit in Copenhagen very close to his castle. The fact that he continued the relationship with Dyveke after his marriage to Isabella of Austria in 1515 earned Christian II the disapproval of both local dignitaries and foreign embassies. The German Emperor Maximilian I , grandfather of Isabella of Austria, blatantly threatened in 1516 that a disaster would happen to Dyveke if Christian II did not part with her.

In 1517 Dyveke died suddenly, probably of poisoned cherries. Her mother Sigbrit saw Erik Valkendorf, who had become Archbishop of Nidaros in 1510 , as the mastermind behind the murder plot. Christian II believed, however, that his liegeman Torben Oxe had poisoned Dyveke because she had rejected his advances. The Reichsrat considered this to be unproven and acquitted Torben Oxe. Christian II ignored this and tried Torben Oxe again, this time in front of a peasant court, which found him guilty and had him beheaded. So Dyveke's death became a political issue, as this high-handed approach by Christian II heightened tensions between him and the leading nobles in the Imperial Council.

Dyveke's mother, Sigbrit Villoms, remained influential as Christian II's advisor and financial expert even after her daughter's death. She had her own secretaries and oversaw the kingdom's customs. Her position of power, which was not legitimized with an official office or noble descent, gave her many opponents; even the Stockholm bloodbath of 1520 was accused by public opinion of the time. When Christian II fell in 1523, Sigbrit Villoms fled with him to the Netherlands, where she hid for a few years. The last news from her comes from 1532, when she is said to have been imprisoned in Vilvorde prison near Brussels and was probably executed as a witch soon afterwards.

Dyveke was buried in the Carmelite monastery in Helsingør , where her grave site is still shown in the cloister. There was once a lying, smooth tombstone without an inscription in front of the now walled-up entrance door to the north wing of the monastery. According to legend, the enemies of Christian II had Dyveke buried there “so that all honest people could trample them”. A fragment of the tombstone of Dyveke's mother Sigbrit Villoms is now in the Danish National Museum in Copenhagen.

Ingrid S. Jensen comes to the following conclusion: “In the course of time Dyveke was seen as a whore as well as a saint. On the one hand, she was understood as an innocent young girl who was sacrificed by her own mother on the altar of greed. On the other hand, she appeared as a calculating, easy-going woman who bewitched and plunged into misfortune all men she met. This is how the chronicler Poul Helgesen wrote it in the 16th century, and this is how historians and storytellers still write it. The truth about Dyveke, as in so many other cases, is probably somewhere in the middle. "

Treatment in art and literature

Dyveke playing the lute and King Christian II of Denmark, painting by Vilhelm Rosenstand 1885

Dyveke has been popular in literature and art since the late 18th century, especially in Denmark, but also in Germany. Ole Johan Samsøe (1759–1796) wrote a tragedy in five acts Dyveke (1796), which was translated into German by Daniel Manthey (1798).

The Danish poet Sophus Claussen wrote about Dyveke in an untitled poem with the opening words "Møder denne Due Spot". In it, because of the unfortunate turn of Christian's policy after Dyveke's death, he spoke of "the bloody rain falling as her young laugh died" ( Og da hendes unge Latter / døde - faldt der bloodig Regn ) and stated that Dyveke was still in Copenhagen lives on.

The following writers dealt with Dyveke in historical novels: Carsten Hauch ( Wilhelm Zabern , 1834), Hermann Marggraff ( The Little Pigeon of Amsterdam , 1839), Friedrich von Riekhoff ( Düveke , 1842), Ida Frick ( Sybrecht Willms , 1843), Salomon Hermann von Mosenthal ( Düweke , 1860), FM Fellmann ( Dyveke , 1947). Dyveke's most recent treatment in a novel about Christian II is due to the Flemish writer Brigitte Raskin ( Hjerterkonge , 2004).

Furthermore, Leopold Schefer and Karl August Friedrich von Witzleben , called Tromlitz, designed the theme as a novella. The historian Ernst Münch wrote in a mixed form of historiography and novella about King Christ II, the dove of Amsterdam and mother Sigbrit .

Dyveke was also depicted in numerous 19th century history paintings, e.g. B. shows a painting by Vilhelm Rosenstand (1885) Dyveke playing the lute , on whose shoulder Christian II leans. In contrast, there is no historical picture of Dyveke, but traditionally the figure of a sinner on an altar panel painted in the 16th century with the portrait of Christian II in the St. Mary's Church in Helsingør (now in the National Museum in Copenhagen) was identified as Dyveke.

Finally, Dyveke was also treated musically: the Danish poet Holger Drachmann wrote a cycle Dyvekes sange (Dyveke's songs), which was set to music by Peter Heise (1879). The Danish composer Johan Bartholdy (1853–1904) wrote an opera Dyveke (1899). Kai Normann Andersen composed the music for the comedy revue in two acts Dyveke by Kjeld Abell and Poul Henningsen (1940).

literature

• Povl Bagge: Dyveke , in: Dansk Biografisk Leksikon 6 (1935), p. 166; Reprinted in: Dansk Biografisk Leksikon, 3rd Edition, Vol. 4 (1980) p. 84.
• Palle Lauring: Dyveke og Sigbrit Willumsdatter (eller Willums) , in: Ders .: Dronninger og andre kvinder i Danmarkshistorien , Copenhagen 1981, pp. 30–35. ISBN 87-14-28994-6 .

Web links

• Article about Christian II (Danish) with the Dyveke painting by V. Rosenstand
• Ingrid Skovsmose Jensen: Dyveke , in: Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon (Danish)
• Grethe Jacobsen: Sigbrit Villoms , in: Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon (Danish)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gorm Benzon, Vore gamle kirker og klostre , Copenhagen 1973, p. 170
2. ↑ Ingrid Skovsmose Jensen at the end of her article Dyveke (as stated above under web links)
3. ↑ Sophus Claussen's poem in the Archive for Dansk Literature ( Memento of the original from December 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Ernst Münch: King Christiern II., The dove from Amsterdam and mother Sigbrit . In: Ders .: Biographical-historical studies . Hallberger Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1836, Volume 1, pp. 285-320.