Mette Dyre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mette Iversdotter (Dyre) (In Swedish:Mätta (or Märta) Ivarsdotter), (c. 1465 in Tirsbæk on Jylland in Denmark- c. before 1533), was a Danish, Norwegian and Swedish noblewoman, married to the Svante, Regent of Sweden, over whom she was thought to have political influence.
Mette Iversdatter was born daughter of the Danish knight Iver Jenssen (Dyre) and Christine Persdotter. In about 1483, she married the Norwegian knight and stateman Anders van Bergen (d.1491). As a widow, she married the Swedish nobleman Knut Alfsson (Tre Rosor) (d.1502) in about the year 1499. Her third marriage, to the Swedish nobleman Svante Nilsson, took place in Stockholm 17 November 1504 and it was during this marriage that she was to be known in history; Nilsson was the regent of Sweden, which was formally in union with Denmark but in reality a free nation, and Mette thereby became Queen consort of the court in all but name.
Mette was politically active as her husband's advisor and thereby became a target for slander and rumors; she was among other things rumored of taking part in plots to murder Sten Sture the Elder. She was an influential power in the counsel, took part in the defense of Stockholm in 1507 and was her husbands messenger in Finland in 1510. After her husband's death in 1512, the new regent, her step-son, Sten Sture the Younger, accused her of having stolen the silver and gold he would have inherited after his mother, and they also disputed about her dowry. About forty of Mette's letters to Svante Nilsson are preserved.
She returned to Denmark after 1512. In 1515 King Christian of Denmark appointed her Sheriff (Lensmand) of the Bishopal Fief of Hørby near Holbæk and as Chancellor of the Convent of Saint Agnete in Roskilde, a position she kept until c. 1527. She was born between 1460 and 1465 and died earliest 1527 and latest 1533.
