Piper, Christina

Family

Born in Stockholm in 1673, she was the eldest child of wealthy businessman and his wife Margareta Andersen.

Her father was knighted in 1698 and began to bear the surname Törnflycht. Her grandmother belonged to the Hising family and was a descendant of the family circle of Archbishop Petrus Kenicius . Mother also had noble Scottish roots. Christina had two brothers: and , who became Masons in 1719 and in 1731, respectively.

Kristina Turne was seventeen years old when she married the twenty-five-year-old count Karl Pieper on February 13, 1690, becoming the ancestor of the entire subsequent line of the Pieper surname: only she and her husband had eight children.

Activities

In 1697, Karl Pieper, who was already Secretary of State and Chancellor, was appointed Minister of State. Christina Pieper began to play a significant role in state policy, as Karl's wife and closest friend. She began to hold important receptions at which Swedish officials and foreign diplomats besieged her, trying to get the location of her husband and king. In the years 1700-1710, the Piper couple played the same role in the state as Magdalena Stenbock and Bengt Oksensherna in the years 1680-1690, as well as Margaret Gyllenstiern and Arvid Gorn in 1720-1730: married couples acting as partners who had influence on the political life of the state.

Christina Pieper has been responsible for the affairs of her large family since 1700, when her husband, along with King Charles XII, left the country to participate in the Great Northern War as head of the royal field office. She visited Karl twice during the war: the first time in Ravic in 1705 and the second in in 1707. During her first visit, she was received by the Polish Queen Ekaterina Opalinsky and visited . During her second visit, she and her husband met with John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough . During the Battle of Poltava in 1709, Karl Pieper was captured and sent to Russia , where he remained until his death: he died in 1716, his body was brought to Sweden in 1718 and was finally buried in 1719. Karl Piper was accused of convincing Karl XII to attack Russia, as well as of defeat in the Battle of Poltava. Christina Pieper had to go through difficult times and leave Stockholm in connection with these.

She lost all influence on state affairs. For the rest of her life, she devoted herself to the role of the respected matriarch of her family and affairs in her estates. She settled in the castle Krageholms slott in the province of Skåne ; used her landowner position to influence local politics, becoming an important figure in the local economy. In 1725, Cristina acquired land in and organized a large-scale production of aluminum and building materials based on local alumina and shale alum. ^[2] She built a school, a nursing home, a prison and a hospital for her workers in Andrarum. In 1740, she built the new Christinehofs slott castle on the estate and even issued her own coins with the initials “CP” , which could only be used in estate stores.

She died in 1752 in the castle Krageholms slott in the province of Skane .

• Norrhem, Svante. Kvinnor vid maktens sida: 1632-1772. Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2007. Libris 10428618. ISBN 978-91-89116-91-7 .
• Norrhem, Svante. Christina och Carl Piper: en biografi, Historiska media, Lund, 2010.

• Om Christina Piper (Swedish)
• Piper, släkt (Swedish)
• Möt Christina Piper i den nya utställningen - en kvinnas makt och skaparkraft (Swedish)