Ebba Brahe

Ebba Brahe

Ebba Magnusdotter Brahe (born March 16, 1596 in Lerjeholm , historical province of Västergötland , † January 5, 1674 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish lady-in-waiting and businesswoman.

Life

Ebba Brahe was the daughter of Reichsdrosten Magnus Graf Brahe and Britta Stensdotter Leijonhufvud. Per Brahe the Younger was her cousin.

After the death of her mother, the 15-year-old came to the Swedish royal court in 1611 as the lady-in-waiting of the queen widow Christine , a friend of her mother's. King Gustav Adolf, who was two years his senior , immediately fell in love with the young woman of extraordinary beauty. In March 1613 he wrote a letter to her asking for an interview with her father so that he could ask for her hand. The Queen Mother, who led the government for her underage son, was vehemently against this connection, as she wanted a dynastic connection with a ruling house for her son. She feared domestic political difficulties from a marriage to a Swedish nobleman. In 1614 Ebba Brahe left her service and became lady-in-waiting to her great-aunt Katharina Stenbock , the widow of Gustav I. Vasa . In 1615 her relationship with the king ended.

In 1618 she married the Reich Marshal Jakob De la Gardie , who had been courting her for years. She had 14 children with him, to whom she dedicated the following years of her life. From 1619 to 1628 the family lived in Livonia , where he was governor.

She supported the role of her son Magnus Gabriel as the favorite of Queen Christina and was able to achieve that he could marry Marie Euphrosine von Pfalz-Zweibrücken-Kleeburg , a cousin of the queen and sister of her successor Karl X. Gustav . In 1651 the historian Arnold Johan Messenius accused her of having bewitched the queen so that she refused to marry. Messenius and his son were executed for this (and for further insults against the queen).

After the death of her husband in 1652, Ebba Brahe took the family's fortune into her hands and increased it prudently. She bought one estate after another, sometimes with plenty of resolute means. In 1667 she was involved in a property lawsuit against Johan Axelsson Oxenstierna , the son of the chancellor. When iron ore was found on two of her estates , she tried her hand at iron production, which enabled her to further expand her considerable fortune.

progeny

Of the 14 children Ebba Brahe and Jakobs De la Gardie are known:

1. Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie (1622–1686), the famous Chancellor and favorite of Queen Christina
2. Maria Sofia De la Gardie (1627–1694), Christina of Sweden's lady-in-waiting and entrepreneur
3. Pontus Frederik De la Gardie (1630–1692), husband of Beata Elisabeth von Königsmarck

literature

• Ebba Brahe . In: Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson (eds.): Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon . 2nd Edition. tape 1 : A-K . Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1906, p. 130 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).