Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp

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Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte(1759-1818), (In Swedish Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta), was the Queen-Consort of Charles XIII of Sweden and also a famed diarist, memoir-writer and witt.

Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte married her cousin, the future king, Charles, duke of Södermanland, in 1774 when she was fifteen years old. The marriage was arranged by king Gustav III of Sweden.

She became an important member of the vivacious court of Gustav III, where she was called "little duchess" and was noticed for her beauty and vividness and a center of social life with her wittiness a verbality; with these qualities she fulfilled the ideal of the aristocratic society of the time, and she is actually much more noted in history for her role in the court of Gustav III, than she is for her period as a Queen.

Her marriage was an aristocratic marriage of the time, and both she and her husband had numerous extramarital affairs; among her lovers were Count Axel von Fersen, future lover of queen Marie Antoinette of France; according to the gossip, she was also bisexual, but there is no reliabel mentionings of her eventual female lovers. She did have a son, but he died very early. In 1792, her husband was appointed regent, but the actuall power was in hands of his favorite, count Reuterholm, whom she mentions in her memoirs with great dislice and irony; although more interested in politics in these years, she had no influence on her husband.

In 1809, she became queen; her husbands declining mental state (he was showing signs of early senility) did not mean political power for her because of the new constitution of 1809, and the election of Jean Bernadotte to crownprince did not have her approval; she belonged to the "gustavian party", which wished for the return of Gustav IV Adolf or his son to power, and she received Charles XIV John with coldness in 1810, but soon became devoted to his personall charm. She did, however, receive his wife Desiree Clary with such coldness that she is often blamed for the fact that Desiree left the country again soon after her arival. Her foundness of Desires husband, on the other hand, grew, aspecially after the conquest of Norway in 1814, when she became queen of Norway.

She died soon after her husband in 1818.

Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte is most known for her famous diary, which is an historical source that describes the Swedish court between 1774 and 1818.