When queen Margareta Leijonhufvud died the king, Gustav Vasa, was 55 years old. He had a chronic inflammation in one leg and the few teeth he had left were inflamed. He must have been in constant pain, which did not make his already foul temper better.
But a man needs a wife, and once again the choice fell upon a much younger woman – 16-year-old Katarina Stenbock.
Katarina’s parents were close to the king. Her father Gustav was one of his closest advisers and member of the Privy Council. Her mother, Britta, was sister to the queen. Katarina Stenbock was thus cousin to the king’s children and according to ecclesiastical law, they were too closely related to marry. This led to an argument with the bishops. But the king was backed by the Privy Council and although the Archbishop still refused to perform the ceremony, another bishop could be persuaded.
It is said that Katarina herself was not too thrilled to married to the old and sick king. Like the story about how her aunt Margareta hid in the attic, there is a similar story of how Katarina tried to hide from the king behind the rose bushes in the garden when he came to propose. But again, this is not likely true. Like Margareta, Katarina was raised to obey her parents, and although she formally had to agree to the match, in reality she had very little choice.
And so, the wedding was held on August 22, 1552, and the now 17-year-old Katarina Stenbock was crowned queen the following day. Both wedding and coronation was celebrated with much pomp and extravagance. New clothes were sewn, not just for the bride and groom, but for all the princes and princesses as well, and no expenses were spared. For example, a new pearl-encrusted cap for Katarina was covered with more than 20 000 pearls.
We know very little about Katarina Stenbock in her role as queen. One reason for this could be her young age, she didn’t have the same influence as the previous queen had had. As step-mother, she should of course care for the children, but she was about the same age as her cousins/step-children.
We dont really know much about her marriage either, although some evidence suggest that it was not a happy one. She supposedly wrote to her mother asking advice and help, and the king made a new law to prevent marriages with great age difference.
The new royal couple never had any children of their own. Katarina might have been pregnant and had a miscarriage in 1556, when Gustav Vasa wrote to his physician about Katarina being ill with ”sudden maternal discomfort”.
In the summer of 1560 it was Gustav’s turn to fall ill. Katarina was constantly by his side, worrying for him so that she made herself sick. She then asked for her sickbed to be brought in to the king’s room, so that she could still watch over him.
But no care in the world helped. On September 29, 1560, Gustav Vasa died. Katarina was only 25 years old. And this is often where she disappears from the historical narrative. Most historians are content to state that she settled on her widow’s estate in Strömsholm and lived a withdrawn life. However, the latter is not true. Katarina Stenbock did not live a quiet life by any accounts.
As dowager queen and step-mother to the new king, Erik XIV, she was one of the most influential and powerful women in the country. She had five sisters and six brothers and many of them and their children would play important roles in the powerstruggle that broke out between Gustav Vasa’s sons after his death.
When Erik XIV’s mental health declined and he imprisoned and killed part of the Swedish nobility in what has been known as the Sture murders in 1567, one of Katarina’s own brothers were among the victims, as well as her brother-in-law and two nephews. Katarina played a very important role as mediator between the king and the nobility after this incident, which shows that both parties trusted her. During the same time, Erik had imprisoned his brother Johan and his wife Katarina Jagellonica, and Katarina used her influence with the king to have them released and to reconcile the brothers.
When Johan and the youngest brother Karl rebelled against Erik in 1568, Katarina was in Stockholm as his guest, and had to flee the capital together with princess Sofia when the rebells closed in. One story claims that Erik tried to sell them to Russia, but that is probably part of the propaganda against him. Even though Katarina plegded her loyalty to the new king Johan III, she still seemed to have a good relationship with Erik, who in his journal wrote that if it were not for her, he might have been killed already.
Katarina had a good relationship with all her step-children, except for duke Karl. He claimed that Strömsholm, which she was given by Erik after Gustav Vasa’s death, was legally his, and they would argue over the estate for many years. Johan III supported Katarina’s claim, as did his son Sigismund after he became king in 1592. Her strained relationship to Karl was probably why she and the rest of her family supported Sigismund when Karl rebelled.
When Sigismund lost the battle for the throne in 1599, many of Katarina’s male relatives had to go into exile, or were executed by Karl. Once again Kataria played a mediating role, as she and her female relatives saved what they could from this disaster. Much of their property was confiscated by the Crown, but she was granted the right to stay at Strömsholm. Outwardly, she and the new king, Karl IX, reconciled, even though they never trusted each other.
Katarina never remarried, probably because as a widow she had a freedom no married woman could have, and with her status as dowager queen, she was head of the family. It was she who arranged marriages for her relatives, and took in several of her nieces and nephews that were orphaned.
Katarina Stenbock died on September 13th 1621, 86 years old. She had then been a dowager queen for 61 years – longer than anyone in Swedish history.
In the eulogy, Bishop Johannes Rudbeckius called her “a mother without children” because of her commitment to the children of her relatives, her stepchildren and the care of those who lived and worked on her estates.
Sources:
Lindqvist, Herman. Historien om alla Sveriges drottningar. (2006)
Tegenborg, Falkdalen, Karin. Sveriges drottningar – i blickfånget från Vasatiden till idag. (2020)
Tegenborg, Falkdalen, Karin. Vasadrottningen – En biografi om Katarina Stenbock 1535-1621. (2015)