Ebba Stenbock

The regent Duke Charles (later King Charles IX) insulting the corpse of Klaus Fleming in the presence of Ebba Stenbock. Albert Edelfelt's painting, 1878.

Ebba Gustavsdotter Stenbock ( – 8 March 1614, in Sweden) was a Swedish noble. She led the defense of the stronghold Turku Castle for the loyalists of Sigismund III Vasa during the siege by Charles IX of Sweden in succession of her spouse Clas Eriksson Fleming (1530–1597), governor of Finland. The sister of Queen Katarina Stenbock, she married Clas Eriksson Fleming (1530–1597), governor of Finland, in 1573.

Life Ebba Stenbock was the daughter of riksråd Gustaf Olofsson Stenbock and Brita Eriksdotter Leijonhufvud, and the sister of Queen Catherine Stenbock. She was the niece of Queen Margareta Leijonhufvud, and thereby the cousin of the royal children of that marriage, including the future John III of Sweden and Charles IX of Sweden. In 1573, she married Clas Eriksson Fleming in the house of her sister, the Queen Dowager in Stockholm, and moved with him to Finland. She had three children during her marriage: the daughters Katarina, Hebla and Margareta, and her son Johan Fleming.

Cudgel War In April 1597, after having subdued the Cudgel War and preparing to resist the expected invasion of Duke Charles, Fleming died. He was succeeded as governor by Arvid Stålarm the Younger, but Ebba took over the moral leadership and decided to continue the line of her spouse and defend Turku Castle against the army of Duke Charles with the help of two noble officers, who took the military leadership by her side.

Later life Ebba and her daughters were taken prisoner and brought to Stockholm, where they were separated and placed in house arrest. Ebba was placed in a house belonging to Welam de Wijk, captain of Duke Charles' fleet, and in 1598, de Wijk was arrested for attempt to start a mutiny, encouraged by Ebba, who had promised him marriage to one of her daughters. In 1599, a messenger of Sigismund from Finland was arrested in Stockholm, with Ebba as one of the loyalists he had delivered letters to. Her son was executed in the Åbo Bloodbath the same year. No formal accusation was brought against her, and she and her daughters were released after the Linköping Bloodbath. Like many other wives and daughters of the exiled loyalists to Sigismund, whose estates had been confiscated by Charles, they took refuge with Queen Dowager Catherine Stenbock at Strömsholm.