Karin Månsdotter (In English
Catherine, "Carin", "Karen", in
FinnishFinnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. It is one of the official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a Finnish dialect, are spoken...
:
Kaarina Maununtytär), (November 6, 1550–September 13, 1612) was
QueenA queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles...
of
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
and wife of
Eric XIV of SwedenEric XIV was King of Sweden from 1560 until he was deposed in 1568. Eric XIV was the son of Gustav I of Sweden and Catherine of Saxe-Lauenburg . He was also ruler of Estonia, after its conquest by Sweden in 1561...
.
Karin was the daughter of the Måns, first soldier and later jailkeeper (her last name was simply a patronymicon meaning "daughter of Måns") and his wife Ingrid, said to have sold vegetables on the square, whose family was peasants in
UpplandUppland is a historical province or landskap on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic sea...
. Both her parents are believed to have died in c. 1560. She was at one point employed as a waitress at the tavern of Gert Cantor before she was employed at court. She was working as a maid to the King's sister, Princess Elizabeth, when she became mistress to the king in 1565.
Royal mistress
The position seems to have been quite official, as she was given nice clothes and appeared with him openly at court, and was given her own apartment and servants. Thus, she could be regarded as the first official royal mistress in Sweden, although only
Hedvig TaubeCountess Hedvig Ulrika Taube was a Swedish noblewoman and salonist, official royal mistress to King Frederick I of Sweden...
otherwise is considered an official royal mistress in Sweden. When her daughter Sigrid was born in 1566, she was treated as though she was a legitimate princess. Before this, the king had a whole harem of mistresses, such as
Agda PersdotterAgda Persdotter or Agda i Porten, , was a Swedish woman, main royal mistress of King Eric XIV of Sweden during his time as a Crown Prince and during the first years of his reign 1560-1565.- Biography :...
and Doredi Valentinsdotter, but when Karin entered his life, he dismissed them all. She also received education and learned to read and write. His treatment of her caused much astonishment. The ideas of the time suggested
witchcraftWitchcraft, in various historical, anthropological, religious and mythological contexts, is the use of certain kinds of supernatural or magical powers. Witchcraft can refer to the use of such powers in order to inflict harm or damage upon members of a community or their property...
and love potions to explain the deep attatchment
Tradition say Karin had a fiance before she met Eric: a soldier named Maxiimilian. After she had become royal mistress, he managed to get in to the palace, were he was discovered Carl the manservant and taken to the king, who had him killed. It is not lnown how true this story is
Karin Månsdotter's portrait was done only in her husband's scribbled drawings in captivity and in a latter-day bust at her grave (a portrait long believed to be of her has been discovered to be of her sister-in-law). She was described as a very beautiful girl with long blond hair and innocent eyes, and her personality seems to have been calm, humble and natural. The king was mentally unstable, and she seems to have been the only one who could comfort him and calm him down, which made her appreciated by his relatives, who considered her good for him. She had no personal enemies at court, but she was not respected, and their marriage in 1568 was considered a scandal and may have contributed to his dethronement.
It is unknown whether Karin Månsdotter had any political influence, but a popular image in Swedish history was of her serving as a counterweight to the king's advisor
Jöran PerssonJöran Persson, alternatively Göran Persson , was King Eric XIV of Sweden's most trusted counsellor and head of the King's network of spies. He was widely seen as a Machiavellian figure, and of holding too much influence over Eric...
; a painting by
Georg von RosenGeorg von Rosen , was a Swedish painter, known for his treatment of subjects from Swedish history and Norse mythology. He taught at the Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm between 1880 and 1908....
three hundred years later (1871) illustrates this, showing the king on the floor, confused by his inner demons, with Karin Månsdotter at one side holding his hand, looking like an innocent angel giving him strength to resist the demands of Jöran Persson, standing on the other side of him, trying to get him to sign a document.
Her contemporarys early used her to give Eric appeals on their behalf, especially the nobles at court did this, and it seems as she did her best to do so, which is illustrated in the Sture Murders in Uppsala 1567, which could perhaps describe the form of her influence on Eric. In May 1567, Eric is considered to have suffered from some sort of mental collapse. He had gathered several men from the noble family Sture, among them count Svante sture, and imprisoned them. Countess Märta Sture, sister of the former queen
Margaret LeijonhufvudMargaret was a Swedish queen consort of King Gustav I, Queen of Sweden from 1536 to 1551...
, sent an appeal to Karin Månsdotter and asked that the prisoners be protected. Karin sent for her and assured her that no none will hurt the prisoners. Later the same morning, the king visited Svante Sture in prison, fell on his knees before him and begged for his friendship. Later the same day, however, the Sture prisoners was executed all the same.
Queen
Eric XIV married Karin
morganaticallyA morganatic marriage is a type of marriage which can be contracted in certain countries, usually between people of unequal social rank, which prevents the passage of the husband's titles and privileges to the wife and any children born of the marriage...
in 1567, and officially in 1568, when she was ennobled and crowned queen under the name Katarina Magnusdotter (a fancified version of her name). The coronation was celebrated with great festivities in Stockholm to confirm the new queen's legitimacy. The wedding was unique; never before had the children of the couple been present at a royal wedding; both the infant son and daughter of Eric and Karin were present to confirm their official status. Karin's relatives were dressed in clothes made for them by the royal tailor. During the coronation, the Lord Chancellor, who was carrying the crown, fainted and dropped the crown to the floor. Immediately afterward, Eric's brothers rebelled and he and his family were imprisoned.
It is said, that during the dethronement, Karin fell on her knees before Queen Dowager
Katarina StenbockKatarina Stenbock was the third and last consort of King Gustav I of Sweden, and Queen consort of Sweden between 1552 and 1560...
, crying out; "Forgive him!", as a reminder of the insanity of the King, of which the wedding was considered a sign, and one of the reasons for the coup, and then to the king's brother, the future King
John III of SwedenJohn III was King of Sweden from 1568 until his death. He was the son of King Gustav I of Sweden and his second wife Margaret Leijonhufvud. He was also quite autonomously the ruler of Finland from 1556 to 1563...
, crying out the same thing; "Forgive him!", but she was completely ignored. This touching scene, portrayed in an old film about her, was most likely a myth - among other things, the Queen Dowager had left the castle at that time - but it illustrates the probably truthful image of her and her personality.
Queen Karin and her children were separated from her husband in 1573 to prevent the birth of any more legitimate offspring. King Eric described it in his diary as: " My wife has been taken from me by use of violence." Karin and her children were taken to the Castle of Turku (Åbo) in
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
where she remained under house arrest until the death of her husband four years later. In 1575, her son was taken from her and sent to
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
to be placed under the care of the Jesuits, but she was allowed to keep her daughter. In 1577, she received the news of her husband's death, but she was treated with kindness and given a manor in
KangasalaKangasala is a municipality in Finland, next to Tampere. It was founded in 1865. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is ....
, Finland, where she lived the rest of her life.
Widowhood
She returned to the Swedish court on two occasions; in 1577, newly widowed, she travelled to Stockholm to ask for economic support (which she was given) and in 1582, she met Queen
Catherine JagiellonCatherine Jagiellon was Duchess of Finland 1562-83, Queen Consort of Sweden 1569-83 and Grand Duchess of Finland 1581-83 and heir to her mother's claim to the title of King of Jerusalem....
and Queen Dowager
Katarina StenbockKatarina Stenbock was the third and last consort of King Gustav I of Sweden, and Queen consort of Sweden between 1552 and 1560...
in what was called the
"Three Queens Visit".
In 1587, her daughter Sigrid was appointed lady-in-waiting to the new king's daughter, Princess
Anna of FinlandAnna Vasa or Anna of Sweden also Anne was a royal sister of the monarch of Poland, Sweden and Lithuania Sigismund III Vasa and starosta of Brodnica and Golub.-Biography:...
, who followed her brother King Sigismund to Warsaw where he had been elected king. Karin accompanied her on her journey. In Warsaw, she met her son Gustaf again, twelve years after he was taken from her. He was now a Catholic, he had forgotten her and they could not speak to each other because he had forgotten the Swedish language, and Karin knew no other language; she could identify him only by the help of his birthmarks. She saw him once again in
EstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by the Russian Federation...
in 1595, and unlike the previous meeting, this has been confirmed. He was poor and was working as a
mercenaryA mercenary is a professional soldier hired by a foreign army, as opposed to a soldier enlisted in the armed forces of a sovereign state. He or she takes part in armed conflict on many different scales, and is "motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain...
. She tried to help him financially, and for the rest of her life, she tried to get permission for him to return to Sweden, but she never saw him again. Her daughter Sigrid, on the other hand, married two Swedish noblemen and often spent time with her mother.
Karin became respected and liked in Finland; during the great rebellion
Cudgel WarThe Club War was a 1596 peasant uprising in the kingdom of Sweden against exploitation by nobility and military in what is today Finland...
in 1596-1597, the rebels refrained from plundering her estate. She is buried in the
Cathedral of TurkuTurku Cathedral is the Mother Church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, and the country's national shrine. It is the central church of the Archdiocese of Turku and the seat of the Archbishop of Finland, Jukka Paarma...
.
Although three of the queens in Sweden during the same century were not of royal blood, (but noble), Karin Månsdotter was the only Swedish queen before modern times to be a commoner - unless you wish to count
Desiree ClaryBernardine Eugénie Désirée Clary , one-time fiancée of Napoleon Bonaparte, was a Frenchwoman who became Queen of Sweden and Norway as the wife of King Charles XIV John...
, who was born a commoner but enobled many years before she became royal - and her fate has been regarded as quite unique and romantic.
Family
Karin Månsdotter had the following children with the king;
- Princess Sigrid of Sweden
Princess Sigrid of Sweden or Sigrid Eriksdotter Vasa , was a Swedish princess. She was the daughter of king Eric XIV of Sweden and his mistress, the later Queen Karin Månsdotter.- Biography :...
(1566–1633) (born before the marriage), lady-in-waiting, wife of two noblemen.
- Prince Gustav of Sweden
Prince Gustav of Sweden, or Gustav Eriksson Vasa who was born January 28, 1568 and died in February 1607, was a Swedish prince and the son of king Eric XIV of Sweden and Karin Månsdotter....
(1568–1607) (born before the marriage), mercenary.
- Prince Henrik of Sweden (1570–1574)
- Prince Arnold of Sweden (1572–1573)
Karin Månsdotter in fiction
Karin Månsdotter has been portrayed in films and books. The film Karin Månsdotter (film)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047142/ by
Alf SjöbergAlf Sjöberg was a Swedish theatre and film director. He won the Grand Prix du Festival at the Cannes Film Festival twice: in 1946 for Torment , and in 1951 for his film Miss Julie .Despite his success with films...
was made in (1954).
Succession