Princess Sophia of Sweden

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Sofia Vasa (1547-1611), was a Swedish princess, daughter of King Gustav Vasa of Sweden and Queen Margareta Leijonhufvud.

Princess Sofia is by many historians called the most unhappy of all the children of Gustav Vasa. She was married to Duke Magnus of Sachsen-Lauenburg in a discreet ceremony in the shadow of her brother Eric XIV's wedding to Karin Månsdotter in 1568. The marriage became extremely unhappy; the duke abused her both mentally and physically in a such violent way that she became insane. The unhappy union was finally dissolved when her brother King John III forced her husband to leave the country in 1578.

Princess Sofia lived the rest of her life in seclusion at Ekolsund Castle. She remained mentally unstable, but recuperated enough to run her own household, which she did in a firm way; she changed head butler twenty-one and housekeeper twenty-three times during these years.

Her only son Gustaf was made governor in Kalmar and died unmarried at the age of twenty-seven.