him, and that sentence had been passed on him in Copenhagen, he left
Bruges. No doubt the arrest of Leonora in England was a still greater
blow to him. The Spanish Government would probably have surrendered
him to the Danish authorities, and he had to flee from place to
place, pursued by Danish agents demanding his extradition, and men
anxious to earn the reward offered for his apprehension, dead or
alive. His last abode was Basle, where he passed under a feigned
name, until a quarrel between one of his sons and a stranger caused
the discovery of their secret. Not feeling himself safe, Ulfeldt left
Basle, alone, at night, in a boat descending the Rhine; but he never
reached his destination. He was labouring under a violent attack on
the chest, and the night air killed him. He breathed his last in the
boat, on February 20, 1664. The boatmen, concluding from the gold and
jewels which they found on him that he was a person of consequence,
brought the body on shore, and made the matter known in Basle, from
whence his sons came and buried him under a tree in a field--no one
knows the spot.
Meanwhile the punishment of beheading and quartering had been
executed on a wooden effigy in Copenhagen. His palace was demolished,
and the site laid out in a public square, on which a pillar of
sandstone was erected as an everlasting monument of his crimes. This
pillar was taken away in 1842, and the name was changed from Ulfeldt
Square to Greyfriars Square, as an indication of the forgetting and
forgiving spirit of the time, or perhaps rather because the treason
of Ulfeldt was closely connected with the ancient jealousy between
Danes and Swedes, of which the present generation is so anxious to
efface the traces.
His children had to seek new homes elsewhere. Christian, who killed
Fuchs, became a Roman Catholic and died as an abbe; and none of them
continued the name, except the youngest son Leo, who went into the
service of the German Emperor, and rose to the highest dignities. His
son Corfits likewise filled important offices under Charles VI. and
Maria Theresa, but left no sons. His two daughters married
respectively a Count Waldstein and a Count Thun, whose descendants
therefore now represent the family of Ulfeldt.
Leonora Christina remained in prison for twenty-two years--that is,
until the death of Sophia Amalia, the Queen of Fredrik III. This
King, as well as his son Christian V., would willingly have set her
at liberty; but the influence of the Queen over her husband and son
was so strong that only her death, which occurred in 1685, released
Leonora.
The Memoir of her life in prison terminates with this event, and her
after-life does not offer any very remarkable incidents.
Nevertheless, a few details, chiefly drawn from a MS. in the Royal
Library at Copenhagen, recently published by Mr. Birket Smith, may
serve to complete the historical image of this illustrious lady. The
MS. in question is from the hand of a Miss Urne, of an ancient Danish
family, who managed the household of Leonora from 1685 to her death
in 1698. A royal manor, formerly a convent, at Maribo, on the island
of Laaland, was granted to Leonora shortly after her release from the
Blue Tower, together with a sufficient pension for a moderate
establishment.
'The first occupation of the Countess,' says Miss Urne, 'was
devotion; for which purpose her household was assembled in a room
outside her bed-chamber. In her daily morning prayer there was this
passage: "May the Lord help all prisoners, console the guilty, and
save the innocent!" After that she remained the whole forenoon in her
bedchamber, occupied in reading and writing. She composed a book
entitled the "Ornament of Heroines," which Countess A. C. Ulfeldt and
Count Leon took away with them, together with many other rare
writings. Her handiwork is almost indescribable, and without an
equal; such as embroidering in silk, gold embroidery, and turning in
amber and ivory.'
It will be seen from Leonora's own Memoir that needlework was one of
her principal occupations in her prison. Count Waldstein still
possesses some of her work; in the Church of Maribo an altar-cloth
embroidered by her existed still some time ago; and at the Castle of
Rosenborg, in Copenhagen, there is a portrait of Christian V. worked
by Leonora in silk, in return for which present the King increased
her annual pension. Miss Urne says that she sent all her work to
Elizabeth Bek, a granddaughter of Leonora, who lived with her for
some years. But she refused to send her Leonora's Postille, or manual
of daily devotion, which had been given Leonora on New Year's Day, in
the last year of her captivity, by the castellan, Torslev, who is
mentioned in Leonora's Memoir, and who had taught her to turn ivory,
&c. This book has disappeared; but amongst the relics of Leonora
Christina, the Royal Library at Copenhagen preserves some leaves
which had been bound up with it, and contain verses, &c., by Leonora,
and other interesting matter.
Her MS. works were taken to Vienna after her death. It is not known
what has become of some of them. A copy of the first part of the book
on heroines exists in Copenhagen. Miss Urne says that she possessed
fragments of a play composed by her and acted at Maribo Kloster; also
the younger Sperling speaks of such a composition in Danish verse;
but the MS. seems to be lost now.
Several of Leonora's relations stayed with her from time to time at
Maribo; amongst them the above-mentioned Elizabeth Bek, whose mother,
Leonora Sophie, famous for her beauty, had married Lave Bek, the head
of an ancient Danish family in Skaane. After Ulfeldt's death Lave Bek
demanded of the Swedish Government the estates which Carl Gustav had
given to Ulfeldt in 1658, but which the Swedish Government had
afterwards confiscated, without any legal ground. Leonora Christina
herself memorialised the Swedish King on the subject, and at least
one of her memorials on the subject, dated May 23, 1693, still
exists; but it was not till 1735 that these estates were given up to
Lave Bek's sons. Leonora's eldest daughter, Anne Catherina, lived
with her mother at Maribo for several years, and was present at her
death. She had married Casetta, a Spanish nobleman, mentioned by
Leonora Christina in her Memoir, who was with her in England when she
was arrested. After the death of Casetta and their children, Anne
Catherina Ulfeldt came to live with her mother. She followed her
brother to Vienna, where she died. It was she who transmitted the MS.
of Leonora's Memoir of her life in the Blue Tower to the brother,
with the following letter, which is still preserved with the MS.:--
'This book treats of what has happened to our late lady mother in
her prison. I have not been able to persuade myself to burn it,
although the reading of it has given me little pleasure, inasmuch
as all those events concern her miserable state. After all, it is
not without its use to know how she has been treated; but it is
not needful that it should come into the hands of strangers, for
it might happen to give pleasure to those of our enemies who
still remain.'
The letter is addressed 'A Monsieur, Monsieur le Comte d'Ulfeldt,'
&c., but without date or signature. The handwriting is, however, that
of Anne Catherina Ulfeldt, and she had probably sent it off to Vienna
for safety immediately after her mother's death, before she knew that
her brother would come to Maribo himself. Miss Urne says, in the MS.
referred to, that the King had ordered that he was to be informed
immediately of Leonora's demise, in order that she might be buried
according to her rank and descent; but she had beforehand requested
that her funeral might be quite plain. Her coffin, as well as those
of three children who had died young, and whose coffins had been
provisionally placed in a church at Copenhagen, was immured in a
vault in the church of Maribo; but when this was opened some forty
years ago, no trace of Leonora's mortal remains could be found,
though those of the children were there: from which it is concluded
that a popular report, to the effect that the body had been secretly
carried abroad, contains more truth than was formerly supposed. Count
Waldstein states that in the family vault at Leitsmischl, there is
one metal coffin without any inscription, and which may be hers. If
so, Leonora has, as it were, after her death followed her husband
into exile. At any rate, the final resting-place of neither of them
is known with certainty.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF
LEONORA CHRISTINA
1673.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
Sir,[06]--To satisfy your curiosity, I will give you a short account
of the life of her about whom you desire to be informed. She was born
at Fredericksborg, in the year 1621, on June 11.[07] When she was six
weeks old her grandmother took her with her to Dalum, where she
remained until the age of four years; her first master there being
Mr. Envolt, afterward a priest at Roeskild. About six months after
her return to the Court, her father sent her to Holland to his
cousin, a Duchess of Brunswick, who had married Count Ernest of
Nassau, and lived at Lewarden.
[06] This autobiographical sketch is written in the form of a
letter to Dr. Otto Sperling the younger, the son of Corfits
Ulfeldt's old friend, who was for some years Leonora's
fellow-prisoner in the Blue Tower.
[07] It is curious that Leonora seems for a long time to have been
under a mistake as to the date of her birthday. The right date is
July 18, new style.
Her sister Sophia, who was two years and a half older than herself,
and her brother, who was a year younger, had gone to the aforesaid
Duchess nearly a year before. I must not forget to mention the first
mischances that befell her at her setting out. She went by sea in one
of the royal ships of war; having been two days and a night at sea,
at midnight such a furious tempest arose that they all had given up
any hope of escaping. Her tutor, Wichmann Hassebart (afterwards
Bishop of Fyn), who attended her, woke her and took her in his arms,
saying, with tears, that they should both die together, for he loved
her tenderly. He told her of the danger, that God was angry, and that
they would all be drowned. She caressed him, treating him like a
father (after her usual wont), and begged him not to grieve; she was
assured that God was not angry, that He would see they would not be
drowned, beseeching him again and again to believe her. Wichmann shed
tears at her simplicity, and prayed to God to save the rest for her
sake, and for the sake of the hope that she, an innocent girl,
reposed in Him. God heard him, and after having lost the two
mainmasts, they entered at dawn of day the harbour of Fleckeroe,[08]
where they remained for six weeks.
[08] On the South Coast of Norway.
Having received orders to proceed by sea, they pursued their route
and arrived safely. Her sister being informed of her arrival, and
being told that she had come with a different retinue to
herself--with a suite of gentlemen, lady preceptor, servants and
attendants, &c.--she burst into tears, and said that she was not
surprised that this sister always insinuated herself and made herself
a favourite, and that she would be treated there too as such. M.
Sophia was not mistaken in this; for her sister was in greater favour
with the Duchess, with her governess, and with many others, than she
was herself. Count Ernest alone took the side of M. Sophia, and this
rather for the sake of provoking his wife, who liked dispute; for M.
Sophia exhibited her obstinacy even towards himself. She did all the
mischief she could to her sister, and persuaded her brother to do the
same.
To amuse you I will tell you of her first innocent predilections.
Count Ernest had a son of about eleven or twelve years of age; he
conceived an affection for her, and having persuaded her that he
loved her, and that she would one day be his wife, but that this must
be kept secret, she fancied herself already secretly his wife. He
knew a little drawing, and by stealth he instructed her; he even
taught her some Latin words. They never missed an opportunity of
retiring from company and conversing with each other.
This enjoyment was of short duration for her; for a little more than
a year afterwards she fell ill of small-pox, and as his elder
brother, William, who had always ridiculed these affections, urged
him to see his well-beloved in the condition in which she was, in
order to disgust him with the sight, he came one day to the door to
see her, and was so startled that he immediately became ill, and died
on the ninth day following. His death was kept concealed from her.
When she was better she asked after him, and she was made to believe
that he was gone away with his mother (who was at this time at
Brunswick), attending the funeral of her mother. His body had been
embalmed, and had been placed in a glass case. One day her preceptor
made her go into the hall where his body lay, to see if she
recognised it; he raised her in his arms to enable her to see it
better. She knew her dear Moritz at once, and was seized with such a
shock that she fell fainting to the ground. Wichmann in consequence
carried her hastily out of the hall to recover her, and as the dead
boy wore a garland of rosemary, she never saw these flowers without
crying, and had an aversion to their smell, which she still retains.
As the wars between Germany and the King of Denmark had been the
cause of the removal of his aforesaid children, they were recalled
to Denmark when peace was concluded. At the age of seven years and
two months she was affianced to a gentleman of the King's Chamber.
She began very early to suffer for his sake. Her governess was at
this time Mistress Anne Lycke, Qvitzow's mother. Her daughter, who
was maid of honour, had imagined that this gentleman made his
frequent visits for love of her. Seeing herself deceived, she did not
know in what manner to produce estrangement between the lovers; she
spoke, and made M. Sophia speak, of the gentleman's poverty, and
amused herself with ridiculing the number of children in the family.
She regarded all this with indifference, only declaring once that she
loved him, poor as he was, better than she loved her rich
gallant.[09]
[09] Count Christian Pentz, to whom Sophia was married in 1634.
At last they grew weary of this, and found another opportunity for
troubling her--namely, the illness of her betrothed, resulting from a
complaint in his leg; they presented her with plaisters, ointments,
and such like things, and talked together of the pleasure of being
married to a man who had his feet diseased, &c. She did not answer a
word either for good or bad, so they grew weary of this also. A year
and a half after they had another governess, Catharina Sehestedt,
sister of Hannibal.[10] M. Sophia thus lost her second, and her
sister had a little repose in this quarter.
[10] Hannibal Sehestedt afterwards married Leonora's younger sister
Christiana; he became a powerful antagonist of Ulfeldt, and is
mentioned often in the following Memoir.
When our lady was about twelve years old, Francis Albert, Duke of
Saxony,[11] came to Kolding to demand her in marriage. The King
replied that she was no longer free, that she was already betrothed;
but the Duke was not satisfied with this, and spoke to herself, and
said a hundred fine things to her: that a Duke was far different to a
gentleman. She told him she always obeyed the King, and since it had
pleased the King to promise her to a gentleman, she was well
satisfied. The Duke employed the governess to persuade her, and the
governess introduced him to her brother Hannibal, then at the Court,
and Hannibal went with post-horses to Moen, where her betrothed was,
who did not linger long on the road in coming to her. This was the
beginning of the friendship between Monsieur and Hannibal, which
afterwards caused so much injury to Monsieur. But he had not needed
to trouble himself, for the Duke never could draw from her the
declaration that she would be ready to give up her betrothed if the
King ordered her to do so. She told him she hoped the King would not
retract from his first promise. The Duke departed ill satisfied, on
the very day the evening of which the betrothed arrived. (Four years
afterwards they quarrelled on this subject in the presence of the
King, who appeased them with his authority.)
[11] Frantz Albrecht, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, the same who in the
Thirty Years' War alternately served the Protestants and the
Imperialists. In the battle of Luetzen he was near Gustav Adolf when
he fell, and he was regarded by many as the one who treacherously
fired the fatal shot.
It happened the following winter at Skanderborg that the governess
had a quarrel with the language-master, Alexandre de Cuqvelson, who
taught our lady and her sisters the French language, writing,
arithmetic, and dancing. M. Sophia was not studious; moreover, she
had very little memory; for her heart was too much devoted to her
dolls, and as she perceived that the governess did not punish her
when Alexandre complained of her, she neglected everything, and took
no trouble about her studies. Our lady imagined she knew enough when
she knew as much as her sister. As this had lasted some time, the
governess thought she could entrap Alexandre; she accused him to the
King, said that he treated the children badly, rapped their fingers,
struck them on the hand, called them bad names, &c., and with all
this they could not even read, much less speak, the French language.
Besides this, she wrote the same accusations to the betrothed of our
lady. The betrothed sent his servant Wolff to Skanderborg, with
menaces to Alexandre. At the same time Alexandre was warned that the
King had sent for the prince,[12] to examine his children, since the
father-confessor was not acquainted with the language.
[12] That is, the King's eldest son Christian, who was elected his
successor, but died before him.
The tutor was in some dismay; he flattered our lady, implored her to
save him, which she could easily do, since she had a good memory, so
that he could prove by her that it was not his fault that M. Sophia
was not more advanced. Our lady did not yield readily, but called to
his remembrance how one day, about half a year ago, she had begged
him not to accuse her to the governess, but that he had paid no
attention to her tears, though he knew that the governess treated
them shamefully. He begged her for the love of Jesus, wept like a
child, said that he should be ruined for ever, that it was an act of
mercy, that he would never accuse her, and that from henceforth she
should do nothing but what she wished. At length she consented, said
she would be diligent, and since she had yet three weeks before her,
she learnt a good deal by heart.[13] Alexandre told her one day,
towards the time of the examination, that there was still a great
favour she could render him: if she would not repeat the little
things which had passed at school-time; for he could not always pay
attention to every word that he said when M. Sophia irritated him,
and if he had once taken the rod to hit her fingers when she had not
struck her sister strongly enough, he begged her for the love of God
to pardon it. (It should be mentioned that he wished the one to
strike the other when they committed faults, and the one who
corrected the other had to beat her, and if she did not do so
strongly enough, he took the office upon himself; thus he had often
beaten our lady.)
[13] In the margin the following addition is inserted: 'She had at
that time an unusual memory. She could at one and the same time
recite one psalm by heart, write another, and attend to the
conversation. She had tried this more than once, but I think that
she has thereby spoilt her memory, which is not now so good.'
She made excuses, said that she did not dare to tell a lie if they
asked her, but that she would not accuse him of herself. This promise
did not wholly satisfy him; he continued his entreaties, and assured
her that a falsehood employed to extricate a friend from danger was
not a sin, but was agreeable to God; moreover, it was not necessary
for her to say anything, only not to confess what she had seen and
heard. She said that the governess would treat her ill; so he replied
that she should have no occasion to do so, for that he would never
complain to her. Our lady replied that the governess would find
pretext enough, since she was inclined to ill-treat the children; and
anyhow, the other master who taught them German was a rude man, and
an old man who taught them the spinette was a torment, therefore she
had sufficient reason for fear. He did not give way, but so persisted
in his persuasion that she promised everything.
When the prince arrived the governess did not forget to besiege him
with her complaints, and to beg him to use his influence that the
tutor might be dismissed. At length the day of the examination having
come, the governess told her young ladies an hour before that they
were to say how villanously he had treated them, beaten them, &c. The
prince came into the apartments of the ladies accompanied by the
King's father-confessor (at that time Dr. Ch(r)estien Sar); the
governess was present the whole time.
They were first examined in German. M. Sophia acquitted herself very
indifferently, not being able to read fluently. The master
Christoffre excused her, saying that she was timid. When it came to
Alexandre's turn to show what his pupils could do, M. Sophia could
read little or nothing. When she stammered in reading, the governess
looked at the prince and laughed aloud. There was no difference in
the gospel, psalms, proverbs, or suchlike things. The governess was
very glad, and would have liked that the other should not have been
examined. But when it came to her turn to read in the Bible, and she
did not hesitate, the governess could no longer restrain herself, and
said, 'Perhaps it is a passage she knows by heart that you have made
her read.' Alexandre begged the governess herself to give the lady
another passage to read. The governess was angry at this also, and
said, 'He is ridiculing me because I do not know French.' The prince
then opened the Bible and made her read other passages, which she
did as fluently as before. In things by heart she showed such
proficiency that the prince was too impatient to listen to all.
It was then Alexandre's turn to speak, and to say that he hoped His
Highness would graciously consider that it was not his fault that M.
Sophia was not more advanced. The governess interrupted him saying,
'You are truly the cause of it, for you treat her ill!' and she began
a torrent of accusations, asking M. Sophia if they were not true. She
answered in the affirmative, and that she could not conscientiously
deny them. Then she asked our lady if they were not true. She replied
that she had never heard nor seen anything of the kind. The
governess, in a rage, said to the Prince, 'Your highness must make
her speak the truth; she dares not do so, for Alexandre's sake.'
The Prince asked her if Alexandre had never called her bad names--if
he had never beaten her. She replied, 'Never.' He asked again if she
had not seen nor heard that he had ill-treated her sister. She
replied, 'No, she had never either heard or seen it.' At this the
governess became furious; she spoke to the prince in a low voice; the
prince replied aloud, 'What do you wish me to do? I have no order
from the King to constrain her to anything.' Well, Alexandre gained
his cause; the governess could not dislodge him, and our lady gained
more than she had imagined in possessing the affection of the King,
the goodwill of the Prince, of the priest, and of all those who knew
her. But the governess from that moment took every opportunity of
revenging herself on our lady.