Sara Elisabeth Moræa

Sara Elisabeth "Sara Lisa" von Linné (née Moræa; 26 April 1716 – 20 April 1806) was a Swedish woman who was married to Carl Linnaeus and was mother to Carl Linnaeus the Younger and Elisabeth Christina von Linné. She was involved in the creation of the Linnean Society of London through the auctioning of her late husband's scientific papers. and she grew up on outside Falun. She attended school and received a formal education. in what is now known as ('Linnaeus' wedding cottage'), a cottage on Svedens gård.

The marriage is believed to have been a happy one, despite contemporary and recent descriptions of Sara Elisabeth as cantankerous. He wrote this after 27 years of marriage. According to his notes in Nemesis Divina, it also appears that they shared a bed at Hammarby and through letters sent by Carl Linnaeus to his friend Abraham Bäck that they were still kissing when they reunited after Carl Linnaeus' many trips after 20 years of marriage. After her husband's death in 1778, Sara Elisabeth ruled the estate for 30 years until her own death. She was not alone, however, because at the time of her husband's death all five of her children were living at home with them. The only child to marry and move out, Elisabeth Christina, had moved back home with her daughter a few years earlier because her husband had abused her. Carl and Sara Elisabeth wrote their son-in-law out of their wills because of how badly he had treated their eldest daughter and only grandchild. According to the instructions in Carl Linnaeus' will, they were to be sold to the highest bidder,

Personality

Sara Elisabeth has been described condescendingly both by her contemporaries and recent scholars who have written about her husband, mostly based on three quotes from Carl Linnaeus' young male students. Johan Christian Fabricius, aged 17, described the then 47-year-old Sara Elisabeth as "a big, strong woman, domineering, selfish and completely without culture". Johann Beckmann considered her terribly rude for allegedly saying that it was not worth learning German just for the sake of a student. Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm complained about having to spend time with Carl Linnaeus's "cross old wife" when neither Carl Linnaeus nor his daughters were at home. Reuterholm was 17 at the time and Sara Elisabeth was 57. Catherine Hansson played her in the TV series (2004)