Florence Stephens
Florence Elisabet Stephens (5 October 1881 in Skatelövs församling, Kronobergs län – 2 April 1979) was a Swedish landholder, the owner of the estate Huseby. She was known as Fröken på Huseby ("The Huseby Lady") and the main figure of the Huseby Affair, one of the most media covered court cases in Sweden during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Florence Stephens was the eldest daughter and heir of the landholder Joseph Stephens and Elisabeth Kreuger; her paternal grandfather was from Liverpool in Great Britain. There are speculations that Florence Stephens was the natural daughter of king Oscar II of Sweden, and after her death, her correspondence with Oscar II was given to the Swedish royal archives. As a child, she and her sisters Mary and Maggie were given no education except what was considered suitable to make an aristocratic marriage; yet, Florence never married. When she inherited the large Huseby estates in 1934, she had no knowledge as to run it, and became completely dependent on advisors. As a royalist, she made Prince Carl Bernadotte her financial advisor and heir. Because of bad economic advice, Huseby and its lands was severely misused and drained of assets and in 1956, the municipal council applied for her to be placed under legal guardianship to prevent any further misuse of the property. In 1957, she was persuaded to give up her legal majority and be placed under a legal guardian. The process, however, was dragged out until 1962. Stephens was given sympathy from the public because of the humiliating treatment she was given by her guardian Berl Gutenberg. In parallel, the media coverage of her "escorts" was considered scandalous. Stephens was declared of legal majority again in 1975, but was not given back the control of her estate. Florence Stephens gave Huseby to the Swedish state in her will in 1979.
Sources
- This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the Swedish Wikipedia.