Märta Erikdotter Leijonhufvud, (English: Martha) known as King Märta (24 December 1520 in Ödeby Lillkyrka, Ekeberg, Närke – 15 January 1584 in Stegeholm), was a Swedish noble. She was the sister of Queen Margaret Leijonhufvud and sister-in-law of king Gustav I of Sweden.
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Born to Erik Abrahamsson Leijonhufvud (d.1520), a man executed at the Stockholm Bloodbath, and Ebba Eriksdotter Vasa, and related to Gustav Vasa, who became king of Sweden in 1523. Her sister Margaret was engaged to Svante Sture, but the engagement was broken when king Gustav proposed to her and married her in 1536. Instead, Sture was married to Märta. There is a legend as to how this came about: Svante Sture threw himself at the feet of Margaret, and the king entered the room and discovered them. The king asked: "What is this?", and Margaret replied: "My lord Sture is asking me for the hand of my sister Märta", at which the king said: "Granted!".
Märta had at least fifteen children, of which ten became adults. The couple resided in Stegeborg Castle. In 1542, Stegeborg was besieged by Nils Dacke during the Dacke War, and Dacke offered the couple to become the king and queen of Sweden. They denied the offer.
Svante was often absent on his official missions: he became marschal in 1543 and commander in Finland in 1556, and governor of Livonia and Reval in 1562. During his absence, Märta took the responsibility for Stegeborg and his estates, and her dominance earned her the nickname King Märta, by which she is known in history.
In 1561, king Eric XIV of Sweden introduced the new title of count in Sweden at his coronation, and her husband was created one of Sweden's first three counts, making Märta the first countess in Sweden. King Eric, however, feared that the Sture family had desires on the throne, and during his reign, they also became a center of the opposition within the nobility.
In 1567, Eric imprisoned Märta's husband and sons. Märta sent an appeal for mercy to Karin Månsdotter, who sent for her and assured her that no harm would come to them, and that she would speak to the king on their behalf. This made Eric hesitate temporarily, but shortly after, he ordered for the murder of the three men all the same. This is known as the Sture Murders. Afterwards, the king ordered for a grand funeral and paid out fines of silver to Märta. In 1568, the nobility under the king's brothers rebelled against king Eric. Märta financed the rebellion with silver.
Her daughter, Malin (Magdalena), (1539–1610), was in love with her cousin, Erik Gustavsson Stenbock (1538–1602), and wished to marry him. Martha refused because they were cousins[1] In 1573, after ten years had past withouth any change in the matter, Erik convinced prince Charles to provide them with 200 men to help them elope. Erik asked Malin to take a trip on the sleigh with him, and when they were seated, the prince's guards came forvard and the couple departed from the estate.
Martha convinced her royal nephew the king to arrest Erik and confiscate his property. He was eventually released and his property was restored to him, after the siblings and spouse of the king as well as his own family, among them his aunt (and Martha's niece) Queen Dowager Katarina Stenbock, had united in convincing the king to conseed to it, and married Malin in 1574. According to the legend, it took one year of begging from the couples relatives to convince Malin's powerful mother to forgive the couple for defying her authority; the women of the family begged her "crying upon their knees" before she agreed to see her daughter; according to legend, her daughter had to crawl on her knees up to her while pregnant.