The new Swedish king Gustav Vasa had trouble finding a wife. Not many foreign royals or nobles wanted to give their daugther to a king with such weak claim to the throne.
But eventually a deal was made with the little dukedom of Saxe-Lauenburg in Germany.
Despite being a small dukedom, it had existed for 300 years and the dynasty was related to many powerful families in Europe. They were also protestant, which suited Gustav perfectly, since he just carried out the protestant reformation in Sweden.
The bride-to-be was named Katarina of Saxe-Lauenburg, and she was 15 when the marriage negotiations began.
She had yet another advantage to make her appealing as a wife to a Swedish king with contested right to the throne – she descended on both her mother and fathers side from an old Swedish royal line – the Bjälbo family.
Katarina was born the 24th of September 1513, daughter of duke Magnus I of Sachsen-Lauenburg and Katarina of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel.
We know very little of her early life, except that she was raised in the protestant faith and that she had five siblings. Her older sister, Dorothea, was married to the new king of Denmark, Christian III.
We don’t know how Katarina looked either, since there are no portraits left of her. What is left, is the effigy on her tomb.
In the summer of 1531 Katarina and her mother set sail to her new homeland. She was then 17 years old – her husband to be was 35.
We can assume that Katarina was not very impressed by Stockholm, which at this time was a small city with about 10 000 inhabitants, many of which lived in small cottages. Pigs and cows roamed the streets and the city stank of garbage. Her new home was to be the Castle of Three Crowns, a quite outdated and draughty castle.
The wedding was held on Katarina’s 18th birthday, the 24th of September 1531. This was celebrated with pomp and pageantry – it was important to show of the royal family’s riches and power to strengthen Gustav’s status as king. Katarina was crowned queen the same day, and the celebrations lasted for a week.
Then Katarina’s new life began. Historically, she has been painted as withdrawn and moody – traits supposedly inherited by her son, Erik XIV.
But studying contemporary sources, primarily Per Brahe’s chronicle about Gustav Vasa, another picture emerges. He describes a lively court, where the king and queen were dancing together after dinner, went hunting or walking several times a week, and discussed politics together. In Gustav’s letters he even declared that should he die, Katarina would rule in place of any minor children until they became adults.
This contradicts the story of Katarina’s unhappy marriage and introverted character. It may be that because her son, Erik XIV would be deposed as king much later, as his mother she was painted in an unflattering light.
The birth of her son, the future Erik XIV (above), is described as long and difficult. According to one source an astrologer called to read the prince’s future in the stars bade the lords and ladies waiting outside Katarina’s chamber to pray that the birth would be postponed a little bit longer, since if the child was born at that hour, he would become ”a grief to the country”.
But it was too late, and that moment the newborn’s cries could be heard from the chamber.
Another chronicler however, Peder Svart, described the birth of the prince as a happy occation, that filled the whole country with “mirth and joy”. Again, Erik’s faith might have effected how his birth was described by later historians.
Gustav Vasa himself must have been very pleased, he now had an heir and the Vasa dynasty was founded – he would later make sure Sweden became a hereditary kingdom where the crown was to be inherited from father to eldest son.
But the family bliss would not last. In September 1535 Katarina’s sister Dorothea and her husband king Christian III of Denmark was visiting and this was celebrated with feasts and dancing.
In fact, the dancing was so wild that Katarina fell and hurt her self so bad that she later died, the day before her 22 birthday, probably due to a miscarriage caused by the fall.
Rumours spread that Katarina had warned Christian III about Gustav Vasa, which made the latter so angry that he beat her to death with a hammer.
Katarina was buried in Uppsala cathedral, and when the grave much later was exhumed and her skeleton examined, there was no sign of violence. Most likely the rumours was spread by Gustav’s enemies, meant to discredit the king.
Katarina’s short time on the throne has meant that she is almost forgotten. She has ended up in the shadow not only of her husband and her son, but also of her successor in the role of queen – Margareta Leijonhufvud, whom we will get to know in the next post.
Sources:
Harrison Lindbergh, Katarina. Erik XIV. (2022)
Lindqvist, Herman. Historien om alla Sveriges drottningar. (2006)
Tegenborg, Falkdalen, Karin. Svenska drottningar – i blickfånget från Vasatiden till idag. (2020)