Hedvig Catharina Lillie

Hedvig Catharina Lillie, also called Lilje, as married Hedvig Catharina De la Gardie, (1695–1745), was a Swedish noble and salonist. She was politically active during the age of liberty in favour of the Hats (party) and a pro-French policy through her connections and a known political figure of her time. She was the grandmother of Count Axel von Fersen the Younger.

Cultural and political salonist

Hedvig Catharina Lilje was born child of count Axel Johan Lillje and Agneta Wrede and married in 1709 to count Magnus Julius De la Gardie. The family of her future spouse was had economic troubles since the reduction made by Charles XI of Sweden in the 1680s, and the marriage was arranged by her mother to save the finances of the De la Gardie family with her personal fortune. Her spouse was an important member of the Hats (party), which was even said to have been founded in his home; he introduced the political salon in Sweden, for which Hedvig became the host. Hedvig Catharina was described as an intelligent beauty, and soon became one of the leading (though informal) party-members of the Hats.

Her salon was also the center of the noble amateur theatre which flourished in Stockholm in the decades before the Swedish national stage was founded in 1737; Hedvig's daughter Brita Sophia (1713–1797) was an amateur-actress and the female star of the amateur-troupe "Count De la Gardies Comedians". When the national stage was founded in 1737, two of Sweden's first professional native actresses of the new theatre was recruited from the maids of the De la Gardie family.

She was the most openly political woman of her time, and wore ribbons which singalled her political wievs. Her salon was frequented by Hat-members and the pro-French. Especially during the 1730s, she participated in politics and in the conflicts and struggle for power between the cap's and the other ruling parties during the rule of the estates. Her political activism exposed her to the same criticism as other politicians, and libelous pamphlets circulated about how she let her love affairs inflict her political sympathies. Fryxell spread the rumour about her alleged affair with a young noble of the Sture family.

In 1734, she was given the assignement by Carl Gyllenborg to negotiate with France through the French ambassador in Stockholm, Charles Louis de Biaudos de Casteja, in financing the Hat-party with French funds.^[1] Casteja was pointed out as her lover to explain her pro-French sympathies, and she was caricatured as "a beautiful and well bred horse", which "had long been running along with a stallion from Gaulle" - pointing out her and Casteja,^[2] and anonymous comments were made that "The French have so thoroughly penetrated the senses of some of our woman- ministers, that they have willingly given them their trust".

The politically active salon-holders were criticized in the press, and Lillie was especially exposed to critics. In 1733, Olof von Dahlin carictured the political salon-woman in his paper Den Swänska Argus; she was named "Fru Kättia Sällskapslik" (In English: "Mrs Lusty Society") and criticised for "laughing at virtue" by spending so much time with males and exhanging flirtatious jokes with them. ^[3]

After the death of Daniel Niklas von Höpken in 1741, she became the informal leader of the Carl Gyllenborg party fraction. The same year, however, Magnus Julius died, which ended her political life.

Later life

As a widow, she moved to Paris in France, where she converted to Catholicism and became heavily indebted. She reportedly spent a sum of one million in Paris, where she participated in the aristocratic high society and became "an every day guest at court" in Versailles. Hedvig Catharina Lilje had six children; she was the mother of the famous scientist Eva Ekeblad, mother-in-law to Cathérine Charlotte De la Gardie and, through her youngest daughter Hedvig Catharina De la Gardie the grandmother of Axel von Fersen the Younger. He eldest daughter, former amateur-actor Brita Sophia, followed her to Paris, where she converted to Catholicism, became a nun and died in 1797.

Context

During the age of liberty, many women took part in politics as debate leaders, salon-holders, writers and play-writes, such as Magdalena Elisabeth Rahm, Baroness Buddenbrock, who was an opinion leader in favour of the Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743), and Henrika Juliana von Liewen, active as an opinion-leader within the cap-party as a salonist and the participant of the party-paper of 1755–1756: it was even said that women was the true leaders of the political parties.^[4]

Especially France was active in acquiring agents and establishing contacts with politically influential women and offering them secret allowances from the French state to benefit French interests in Sweden : ambassador Casteja upheld contacts with among others the wife of Arvid Horn, Margareta Gyllenstierna, as well as Charlotta von Liewen. During the last years of the age of liberty, in the late 1760s, three women, among them Eva Helena Löwen were among the list of nine identified people paid by the French state to benefit French interests in Sweden.^[5]

See also

• Sophia Elisabet Brenner
• Magdalena Stenbock

References

• http://runeberg.org/sqvinnor/0267.html
• http://runeberg.org/sqvinnor/0266.html
• Tryggve Byström (In Swedish): Svenska komedien 1737-1754 (In English: Swedish comedy 1737-1754) (1981)
• http://runeberg.org/sqvinnor/0343.html

Notes

1. ↑ Norrhem, Svante (in Swedish): Kvinnor vid maktens sida : 1632-1772 (In English: "Women by the side of power: 1632-1772") (2007) Lund (Nordic Academic Press)
2. ↑ Norrhem, Svante (in Swedish): Kvinnor vid maktens sida : 1632-1772 (In English: "Women by the side of power: 1632-1772") (2007) Lund (Nordic Academic Press)
3. ↑ Norrhem, Svante (in Swedish): Kvinnor vid maktens sida : 1632-1772 (In English: "Women by the side of power: 1632-1772") (2007) Lund (Nordic Academic Press)
4. ↑ Norrhem, Svante (in Swedish): Kvinnor vid maktens sida : 1632-1772 (In English: "Women by the side of power: 1632-1772") (2007) Lund (Nordic Academic Press)
5. ↑ Norrhem, Svante (in Swedish): Kvinnor vid maktens sida : 1632-1772 (In English: "Women by the side of power: 1632-1772") (2007) Lund (Nordic Academic Press)