Aurora Wilhelmina Koskull

Aurora Wilhelmina Koskull (22 November 1778 – 19 February 1852) was a Swedish lady-in-waiting and politically active salonist.

She was the daughter of the courtier Baron Otto Anders Koskull and Amalia Beata Silfversparre. Married in 1806 to Count Magnus Fredrik Brahe (1756–1826). Koskull became one of the first maids-of-honor appointed to the new queen, Frederica of Baden, in 1797. In 1800, the queen's unmarried ladies-in-waiting were dismissed by the king because of many scandals involving them. Impoverished, Koskull moved in with her aunt, Ulrika Katarina Koskull, and her aunt's husband Count Magnus Fredrik Brahe.

Koskull was admired as an accomplished singer during her participation in the amateur theatre society of Princess Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte at Rosersberg Palace in 1802. She was rumoured to have an affair with Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, during his stay in Stockholm in 1802–1803; according to Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte, William Frederick said to her, "If she [Koskull] were your daughter, I would marry her!"[1]

In 1806, half a year after the death of her aunt, she married her aunt's widower. She had two children, Ulrika Vilhelmina Brahe (1808–1836) and Magnus Brahe (1810–?). In 1811, she followed her spouse when he was sent as the Swedish envoy to Paris, where she attracted the attention of Napoleon, who called her la belle suédoise. She became a center of the aristocratic life of Stockholm, a position she kept as a widow; it was said that she "with noble dignity took the lead in the most notable salon of the Swedish aristocracy" and her salon was described as "a school, where youth took their knowledge in the art of good mannered socializing"; also in her old age, she was said to keep a "beautiful and majestic appearance".[2] She exerted an influence upon contemporary Swedish policy through her stepson, politician Magnus Brahe, who reportedly asked her for advice in matters of state.

References

  1. ^ Cecilia af Klercker (1927) (in Swedish). Hedvig Elisabeth Charlottas dagbok VII 1800-1806 (The diaries of Hedvig Elizabeth Charlotte VII 1800-1806). P. A. Norstedt & Söners förlag. ISBN 383107. 
  2. ^ Personhistorisk tidskrift 1898-1899, s. 174-175 (länk)