Helga de la Brache

Helga de la Brache (born Aurora Florentina Magnusson; 6 September 1817 in Stockholm – 11 January 1885), was a Swedish con artist. She obtained a royal pension by convincing the authorities that she was the secret legitimate daughter of King Gustav IV of Sweden and Queen Frederica of Baden.

Fraud In 1861, a woman by the name Helga de la Brache petitioned the government of King Charles XV for a pension with the claim of being the secret legitimate daughter of Gustav IV of Sweden, who had been deposed and exiled in the Coup of 1809. She was born poor.

The exiled Gustav IV and Frederica of Baden had divorced in 1812. News of Gustav IV and his family was banned in Sweden since his exile. Helga de la Brache claimed that the former king and queen had married again, secretly, "in a convent in Germany", which resulted in her birth in Lausanne in 1820. She was sent to Sweden to be raised by her alleged father's aunt, Princess Sophia Albertine of Sweden. When the Princess died in 1829, Helga was taken to the Vadstena asylum, so that she would be seen as insane, and her true identity kept a secret.

She was released in 1834 and taken to her family in Baden, where she was placed under house arrest. In 1837, she read about the death of her father in the paper, and was not able to conceal her grief. She was again placed in an asylum in Sweden, to prevent her true identity being made public. She eventually managed to escape from the asylum. She was provided for by the charity of people who supported her claims, and was soon granted a pension of 6,000 § from her mother's family in Germany.

In 1850, the pension stopped, and she was unable to continue the life to which she accustomed by birth. This was to the reason to why she was forced to ask the government for an allowance. She was also forced to support her many faithful friends, who had stood by her during her years of persecution. Because of this, no smaller pension than 5,000 or 6,000 would be sufficient.

Her story was believed by many people in Sweden and Finland, and she was given financial support from private benefactors. Followed by her faithful lady's companion, who was an educated and cultivated woman who supported her story, de la Brache acted with a combination of simplicity and naivete. Her way of acting gave the impression that she was not cunning enough to have made up the story, and yet sensible enough for people to believe that she was not insane, but fully believed her own claim. One of the reasons why such a story could be believed was that all contact with the deposed former dynasty in exile was forbidden after the Coup of 1809, which made it hard to verify and examine the alleged family relations.

In 1859, de la Brache and her companion arrived in the capital of Stockholm. They lived as guests at the home of the upper class woman and professor's wife Lidbeck, who believed the story about the secret royal birth. Lidbeck's daughter Mrs Sandströmer introduced them to Frances Lewin-von Koch. She convinced the salon hostess Frances Lewin-von Koch (1804–1888), the British born spouse of the minister of justice, Nils von Koch, who housed her and provided her with a lawyer. Through Frances Lewin-von Koch she also convinced her husband the Justice Minister.

She also convinced the parliamentary Anders Uhr and the Royal Court Chaplain Carl Norrby. She was however seen as a fraud by Prime Minister Louis Gerhard De Geer and Foreign Minister Ludvig Manderström. Queen Mother Josefina took a personal interest in her, and provided her with an allowance. The king did not take much interest, but wanted to get the whole affair over and done with. She was granted a meeting with the king who afterward remarked to the parliamentarians: "Why, she is just as sane as you or me".

The claim of de la Brache's royal birth was presented to the king's government by Nils von Koch in behalf of de la Brache on 26 March 1861. While Nils von Koch stated that he, having made inquiries, could not confirm her claim to be true, neither could he prove it to be impossible, and supported her request.

"Princess Helga de la Brache" spent her last years in a modest apartment in the Klara norra-area with her companion, seemingly paid for by a supporter. The two women lived a quiet life, walked in the park and ordered home food and rarely talked to other people. Helga was described as a nice old woman. In 1884, the two women were observed in the gardens of Drottningholm Palace by King Oscar II, who ordered them to be escorted from the park. Soon after, they moved from their apartment to another one in Djurgården, because they were afraid that they were going to be arrested.

During her last years, she was described as dignified and sad. According to the artist Georg von Rosen, who was present at her death bed, she was genuinely convinced of her royal birth.

She died at Djurgården, Stockholm, 1885.

Legacy In 1909, the politician Per August Johansson tried to clear her name, but the process led to nothing. The later process of the 1910s was centered around the fact, that Frederica of Baden had named the Russian czar as the guardian of her children after her divorce, and because of this, Helga de la Brache was to have been entitled to economic compensation from the Russian czar. This process ended with the Russian revolution of 1917.

Several books have been written about her.