Princess Cecilia of Sweden

Cecilia of Sweden (Swedish: Cecilia Gustavsdotter Vasa; 16 November 1540 – 27 January 1627), was Princess of Sweden as the daughter of King Gustav I and his second wife, Margaret Leijonhufvud, and Margravine of Baden-Rodemachern as the wife of Christopher II, Margrave of Baden-Rodemachern. She is the most famous daughter of Gustav I, known for a courtship scandal in connection with a sister's wedding and for a lengthy stay in England under Elizabeth I where her first child was born.

Biography

Early life Cecilia was described as the most beautiful of the daughters of Gustav I, and was frequently mentioned because of her beauty. She has been referred to as somewhat of a Black Sheep of the family, because of the scandals she was involved in. During her early childhood, she, as well as her siblings in the royal nursery, were primarily under the care of her mother's trusted nurse, Brigitta Lars Anderssons, her mother's cousin Lady Margareta and the noble widow Ingrid Amundsdotter. After the death of her mother in 1551, she as well as her siblings were placed in the care of Christina Gyllenstierna and then under her aunts Brita and Martha Leijonhufvud before her father's marriage to Catherine Stenbock. They were then under the responsibility of their stepmother and, more precisely, the head lady-in-waiting Anna Hogenskild.

In 1556, she and her sisters were given a dowry of 100.000 daler, had their portraits painted and their personal qualities described in Latin by the court poet Henricus Mollerus and presented on the dynastic marriage market. The same year, her father presented Ostfriesland (East Frisia) with a trading treaty and a marriage alliance. Ostfriesland was chosen because it was strategically placed toward Denmark, and because the Calvinistic Emden was a rival to Lubeck and a treaty could break the domination of the Hanseatic league in Sweden. She arrived in the autumn of 1565 after traveling some 400 miles by water and 750 miles on ice and snow. Cecilia had been engaged in a correspondence with Elizabeth for several years and seems to have felt admiration for her on a personal level. She successfully asked Elizabeth for an invitation to England already in 1562, and learned to speak English from English people in Sweden. Cecilia traveled to England through Estonia, Prussia, Poland and Germany (without visiting the home of her consort) to Antwerp in the Spanish Netherlands. She managed to meet her imprisoned brother John before her departure, and when she arrived in Swedish Estonia, Eric asked his governor in Reval to keep her under supervision, as he suspected her to be more loyal to their brother John than to him.

Cecilia's visit to England was part of an attempt to convince Queen Elizabeth I to marry her half-brother King Eric XIV.

Issue Edward Fortunatus, Margrave of Baden-Rodemachern (1565–1600) Kristoffer Gustav of Baden-Rodemachern (1566–1609) Philip III, Margrave of Baden-Rodemachern (1567–1620) Karl of Baden-Rodemachern (1569–1590) Bernhard of Baden-Rodemachern (1570–1571) Johann Karl of Baden-Rodemachern (1572–1599) in the Knights Hospitaller Charitas Cecilia (1579–1629), illegitimate daughter, placed in a convent.

Ancestors