Ebba Månsdotter
Lilliehöök of Kolbäck (13 January 1529, Upplo Manor,
Västergötland
Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden.
Väs ...
– 29 September 1609
Lerjeholm i
Angereds socken,
Älvsborgs län), was a Swedish noble, landlord and county administrator, Countess of
Raseborg
Raseborg ( fi, Raasepori) is a town (administrative area) and municipality of Finland. It was created on January 1, 2009, when the municipalities of Ekenäs, Karis and Pohja were consolidated into a single town. Of these, Ekenäs now serves as t ...
, Baroness of
Gräfsnäs and lady of
Käggleholm.
Biography
Early life
Ebba Lilliehöök was the only child of the ''
riksråd
Riksrådet (in Norwegian and Swedish), Rigsrådet (in Danish) or (English: the Council of the Realm and the Council of the State – sometimes translated as the "Privy Council") is the name of the councils of the Scandinavian countries that rule ...
'' Måns Bryntesson Lilliehöök (d. 1529) and Brita Jönsdotter Roos of Ervalla. Her father participated in the ''
Westrogothian rebellion
The Westrogothian rebellion (Swedish: ''Västgötaupproret''), also known as ''Västgötabullret'' (Westrogothian thunder) or ''Västgötaherrarnas uppror'' (Rebellion of the Westrogothian Lords) was a Swedish rebellion which took place in the pro ...
'' and was executed for his ambitions to become king. Her mother remarried ''riksråd'' Kristoffer Andersson Röde. In 1543, she accompanied her mother and stepfather in exile in Germany after a conflict between her stepfather and the king. Upon the death of her father in 1548, the king asked them to return to Sweden: Ebba was the heiress of substantial estates after her father, and the king wanted her to marry his brother-in-law. After negotiations with the queen and a written assurance of safety, Ebba returned to Sweden with her mother in the summer of 1548 and spent her remaining time until her wedding as a lady-in-waiting to the queen.
Marriage
On 7 October 1548, she married the noble Sten Eriksson, Baron and Count
Leijonhufvud
Leijonhufvud (also Germanized as Lewenhaupt) is the name of a Swedish noble family, from which some of the family members were granted baronial title. The baronial branch was 1568 granted the status of counts, and changed their family name to Lew ...
(1518–1568) in the presence of the King at the
Royal Palace
This is a list of royal palaces, sorted by continent.
Africa
* Abdin Palace, Cairo
* Al-Gawhara Palace, Cairo
* Koubbeh Palace, Cairo
* Tahra Palace, Cairo
* Menelik Palace
* Jubilee Palace
* Guenete Leul Palace
* Imperial Palace- Massa ...
in
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
. Her spouse was the brother-in-law of King Gustav I and the brother of Queen
Margaret Leijonhufvud
Margaret Leijonhufvud (née ''Margareta Eriksdotter''; 1 January 1516 – 26 August 1551) was Queen of Sweden from 1536 to 1551 by marriage to King Gustav I. She played a political role as the advisor of, and the intermediary to, her spouse the ...
, which gave them both an influential position at the royal court. Upon the coronation of Erik XIV in 1561, her spouse was created a Baron.
In 1567, her spouse was one of two of the group of imprisoned nobles to survive the infamous
Sture Murders, which killed among others the spouse of her sister-in-law
Martha Leijonhufvud
Martha Eriksdotter Leijonhufvud (24 December 1520 in Ödeby Lillkyrka, Ekeberg, Närke – 15 January 1584 in Stegeholm), known as (), was a politically-active Swedish noblewoman. She was the sister of Queen Margaret Leijonhufvud and sister-in ...
. During the event, Ebba was present in Uppsala with her sister-in-law in Uppsala and placed in house arrest to prevent them from interfering. Ebba was held "in high regard and respect" by the brothers of the King, the future
John III of Sweden
John III ( sv , Johan III, fi, Juhana III; 20 December 1537 – 17 November 1592) was King of Sweden from 1569 until his death. He was the son of King Gustav I of Sweden and his second wife Margaret Leijonhufvud. He was also, quite autonomous ...
and
Charles IX of Sweden
Charles IX, also Carl ( sv, Karl IX; 4 October 1550 – 30 October 1611), reigned as King of Sweden from 1604 until his death. He was the youngest son of King Gustav I () and of his second wife, Margaret Leijonhufvud, the brother of King Eric X ...
, and a personal friend of John's spouse
Catherine Jagellon
Catherine Jagiellon ( pl, Katarzyna Jagiellonka; sv, Katarina Jagellonica, Lithuanian: ''Kotryna Jogailatė''; 1 November 1526 – 16 September 1583) was a Polish princess and Queen of Sweden as the first wife of King John III. As such, she ...
. She and her spouse participated in convincing the royal brothers to rebel against the King, financed by sister-in-law Martha Leijonhufvud, resulting in Erik XIV being replaced by John III in 1568.
"Count Ebba"
In 1568, her spouse was given the title of Count at his death bed, having sustained an injury after being imprisoned by
Erik XIV
Eric XIV ( sv, Erik XIV; 13 December 153326 February 1577) was King of Sweden from 1560 until he was deposed in 1569. Eric XIV was the eldest son of Gustav I (1496–1560) and Catherine of Saxe-Lauenburg (1513–1535). He was also ruler of Est ...
. Ebba received the title of Count and was in 1571 granted the County of Raseborg in
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
as a
fief
A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an Lord, overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a for ...
. She thereby became, alongside her sisters-in-law Brita and Martha Leijonhufvud, one of the five greatest fief holders in Sweden during the reign of John III. She was generally known as "Count Ebba", as it was said, for her "masculine" ways. Her feud with her son attracted a lot of attention, and there were a lot of stories about their many conflicts. On one occasion, in 1604 for example, there was a story about her son preventing her chef from serving her after having served him bad food on her orders. By her contemporaries, Count Ebba was described as a: "A hair of the Devil himself, worse than her father, her son Axel and his sons". She herself commented about the ongoing conflict stating: "I am the mother and he is the son".
[Lilliehöök, Ebba von i Wilhelmina Stålberg, Anteckningar om svenska qvinnor (1864)]
Count Ebba was also politically controversial. In 1592, she came into conflict with the current monarch and was warned for having spread rumours about the king. In 1607, she was placed under house arrest on her estates by the order of Charles IX. She was the grandmother of
Ebba Mauritzdotter Leijonhufvud Ebba Mauritzdotter Leijonhufvud, also called Ebba Mauritzdotter Lewenhaupt (1595 – 25 January 1654), Countess of Raseborg, Lady of Käggleholm, Eksjöhovgård and Tullgarn, was a Swedish noble and courtier and member of the Leijonhufvud family ...
.
Ebba Lilliehöök is the ancestral mother of the
Lewenhaupt Lewenhaupt is the name of an old Swedish noble family and may refer to:
* Gustaf Adolf Lewenhaupt (1619–1656), Swedish soldier
* Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt (1659–1719), Swedish general
* Charles Emil Lewenhaupt (1691–1743), Swedish general
* Wi ...
noble family.
References
* Lilliehöök, Ebba von i Wilhelmina Stålberg, Anteckningar om svenska qvinnor (1864)
* Svenska Adelns Ättartavlor av Gustaf Elgenstierna
* Lilliehöök, Ebba von i Wilhelmina Stålberg, Anteckningar om svenska qvinnor (1864)
* Slottsguiden, Gräfsnäs, Sverige
* Ebba Månsdotter (Lilliehöök), urn:sbl:10331, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (art av Ivan Svalenius), hämtad 2013-12-01.
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lilliehook, Ebba Mansdotter
Swedish countesses
1529 births
1609 deaths
16th-century Swedish businesspeople
16th-century Finnish people
Finnish landowners
Swedish ladies-in-waiting
16th-century Finnish women
16th-century Swedish women
Swedish ironmasters
16th-century women landowners
17th-century women landowners
16th-century Swedish landowners
17th-century Swedish landowners
17th-century ironmasters