Gyldenstjerne, also spelled Gyldenstierne and in Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

 Gyllenstierna (English: Golden Star), is a Danish

Danish nobility

Nobility in Denmark was a leading social class until the 19th or 20th century. Danish nobility exists yet and has a recognized status in Denmark, a monarchy, but its real privileges have been abolished....

, Norwegian

Norwegian nobility

Norwegian nobility are persons and families who in early times belonged to the supreme social, political, and military class and who later were members of the institutionalised nobility in the Kingdom of Norway. It has its historical roots in the group of chieftains and warriors which evolved...

, and Swedish noble family

Swedish nobility

The Swedish nobility were historically a legally and/or socially privileged class in Sweden, part of the so-called frälse . Today, the nobility is still very much a part of Swedish society but they do not maintain many of their former privileges...

 divided into various branches and ranks. It is one of the oldest noble families in Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

. The first known man was knight Nils Eriksson to Ågård in Jutland

Jutland

Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, who is mentioned in 1314. The family has a prominent position in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish history. It belonged to the higher nobility, and paradoxically, in Sweden it supported the absolute monarchy. Highest stood the noblewoman Kristina Nilsdotter Gyllenstierna

Christina Gyllenstierna

Christina Nilsdotter of Fogelvik, Heiress of Tullgarn , was the wife of the Swedish regent Sten Sture the Younger, and after his death, leader of resistance to Christian II of Denmark...

, who as Sten Sture the younger's

Sten Sture the Younger

Sten Sture the Younger , Lord of Ekesiö , was a Swedish statesman and regent of Sweden, under the era of the Kalmar Union.-Life:...

 wife was regent consort of Sweden.

Denmark

The oldest known man is the knight Lord Nils Eriksson to Ågård, who is mentioned in 1314. He was the father of Lord Erik Nilsson to Ågård, who got the son Lord Nils Eriksson to Ågård. With Nils the younger's sons Knud, Peder, and Erik Nilssøner, the family was divided into three primary branches: Restrup, Ågård, and Demstrup.

The family in Denmark became extinct in 1729.

Norway

The Danish knight Mogens Henriksen Gyldenstierne († 1569) was from 1527 feudal lord on Akershus

Akershus

- Geography :The county is conventionally divided into the traditional districts Follo and Romerike, which fill the vast part of the county, as well as the small exclave west of Oslo that consists of Asker and Bærum...

, and after him came his relative Erik Olufsen Gyldenstierne († 1536). The Danish minister Alex Gyldenstierne (ca. 1542–1603) was in the years 1588–1601 Governor-general of Norway

Governor-general of Norway

The Governor-general of Norway, styled Rigsstatholder in Danish or Riksståthållare in Swedish, both meaning 'Lieutenant of the realm' , was the appointed head of the Norwegian Government in the absence of the Monarch....

.

Sweden

In the first part of the 1400s, the family came to Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 with Erik Eriksson to Fågelvik, who after a while married Karl Knutsson Bonde's alias King Charles VIII of Sweden's

Charles VIII of Sweden

Charles VIII of Sweden , Charles I of Norway, also Carl, , was king of Sweden and king of Norway ....

 daughter Kristina. Among their children was Nils Eriksson Gyllenstierna, who was the father of Kristina Nilsdotter Gyllenstierna

Christina Gyllenstierna

Christina Nilsdotter of Fogelvik, Heiress of Tullgarn , was the wife of the Swedish regent Sten Sture the Younger, and after his death, leader of resistance to Christian II of Denmark...

, regent consort of Sweden.

Nils Göransson Gyllenstierna was in 1569 elevated to baronial estate. After that Scania

Scania

Scania is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the...

 was included as a part of Sweden, a today extinct branch of the Danish family was introduced on the House of Nobility. The Vinstrop branch became barons in 1651, while four branches received dignity of counts. All these are extinct. The untitled parts of the family are still living in Sweden.

Literature and sources

• Wikipedia, Danish: Gyldenstierne
• Wikipedia, Norwegian Bokmål & Riksmål: Gyldenstierne
• Wikipedia, Swedish: Gyllenstierna