Elizabeth of Sweden

Unlike her older sister Sophia , who was the most miserable of the children of Gustav Vasa , Princess Elizabeth is the happiest ^[3] . She was a cheerful and balanced person. Elizabeth was described as a beautiful blonde. The portrait, which was originally believed to have portrayed Queen Karin Monsdotter , is now considered to belong to her.

Marriage plans

In 1562, Princess Elizabeth became engaged to Christoph , the third son of Albrecht VII , Duke of Mecklenburg-Gustrowski. However, shortly afterwards, he was taken hostage and spent several years in captivity; the engagement was considered broken ^[3] . For several years, her brothers had been negotiating about her marriage, trying to ensure the most beneficial political and economic union in the noble houses of both Germany and Italy. Among the candidates under consideration was the Grand Duke of Tuscany ^[3] .

In 1574, arrangements were made between her brother, King Johan III, and the Dowager Queen of France, Catherine de Medici, about her marriage to King Henry III . Catherine de Medici considered Elizabeth a suitable candidate because she did not want her son to marry a royal princess; such an alliance was considered beneficial for maintaining French influence in Poland, and also because France would have received an ally outside the Habsburg lands that surrounded French territory ^[4] . The French ambassador was instructed to bring a portrait of Elizabeth, about which he wrote the following: “They assured me that she is very beautiful, has a sharp mind, is pleasant in communication, has a good figure and posture ... everyone notes her great modesty; in truth, sire, everyone who knows her admires her virtue ... She enjoys playing the virginel , which she plays better than most others, she also plays the lute , and she has a soft character. ”

Everything was almost decided when the French king suddenly announced that he had long decided to marry Louise of Lorraine .

Elizabeth herself lived quite happily at the Swedish court and apparently did not regret that the negotiations on marriage had failed. She had her own yard, and she was responsible for raising the illegitimate children of her brothers. Karin Monsdotter was one of her maids of honor before becoming a lover, and then the wife of Elizabeth's brother, King Eric XIV . When Eric was overthrown in 1568, she was the last to leave, sailing on a boat with her stepmother, Dowager Queen Katharina , and her sister Princess Sophia. Often she had to mediate and reconcile her constantly quarreling brothers and sisters ^[3] .

Marriage and Late Life

In 1577, her torn engagement to the recently widowed Christophe of Mecklenburg was renewed, and on May 14, 1581 they got married ^[3] . She left for Germany and settled with her husband in Schwerin . The fact that they have been waiting for each other for so long shows that it was not just an arranged marriage, but also a love union. Judging by their letters, it can be concluded that their marriage was happier than most of the royal unions of that time ^[3] . They had only one surviving child, daughter Margaret Elizabeth (1584-1616), who in 1608 married the Duke of Johann Albrecht II of Mecklenburg .

In 1592, Elizabeth Vasa became a widow, and the following year returned to Sweden. She died unexpectedly in 1597 during negotiations about another possible marriage. In the Schwerin Cathedral , a grave monument was erected for Elizabeth and her husband, but in the end she was buried in the grave of her father in Uppsala Cathedral .

• Leif Jonsson, Ann-Marie Nilsson och Greger Andersson (in Swedish): Musiken i Sverige. Från forntiden till stormaktstidens slut 1720 (Music in Sweden. From Ancient times to the end of Empire)
• Karin Tegenborg Falkdalen (2010). Vasadöttrarna (The Vasa Daughters). Falun: Historiska Media. ISBN 978-91-85873-87-6 (in Swedish)