Ebba Månsdotter

Ebba Månsdotter Lilliehöök of Kolbäck (13 January 1529 – 29 September 1609), was a Swedish noblewoman, landlord, county administrator, Countess of Raseborg, Baroness of Gräfsnäs and Lady of Käggleholm.

Biography Early life Ebba Lillehöök was born at Upplo Manor, Västergötland. She was the only child of the riksråd Måns Bryntesson Lilliehöök (d. 1529) and Brita Jönsdotter Roos of Ervalla. Her father participated in the Westrogothian rebellion 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. Ebba was held "in high regard and respect" by the brothers of the king, the future John III of Sweden and Charles IX of Sweden, and a personal friend of John's spouse Catherine Jagiellon. 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 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".

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 paternal grandmother of Ebba Mauritzdotter Leijonhufvud.

Ebba Lilliehöök was the ancestral mother of the Lewenhaupt noble family.

Death Lilliehöök died at Lerjeholm in Angered parish, Älvsborg County.