Margareta Gyllenstierna
Margareta Gyllenstierna af Fogelvik (died 1740), was a politically active Swedish countess, married to Arvid Horn, the President of the Privy Council Chancellery (1710–1719 and 1720–1738) and one of the leading figures of the Swedish Age of Liberty.
Gyllenstierna was the daughter of count Nils Karlsson Gyllenstierna and the heir of great estates in Småland and Östergötland. She married Horn in 1710. Margareta Gyllenstierna maintained a political correspondence with the queen of France, Marie Leszczyńska, and the former Polish queen, Catherine Opalińska, both of whom were known as acquaintances of Horn since their stay in Sweden in 1709-1714.
Gyllestierna was among the influential political spouses who collaborated with the French ambassador Charles Louis de Biaudos de Casteja, who was known to engage female agents in Sweden for France, such as Charlotta von Liewen and Hedvig Catharina Lillie. Casteja often mentions her in his reports and refers to her influence of her powerful spouse by describing the political views of Count Horn as the views of the Count and Countess Horn, as if they were one joint politician who shared the position of Arvid Horn. Margareta Gyllenstierna gave Casteja information and analyses about which people who was in a politically favourable position and in favour, and she further more accepted supplicants through Casteja. The collaboration between Gyllenstierna and Casteja was broken on her initiative when the policy of Horn clashed with French interests and she chose the interests of Horn before that of France; she demonstrated her change of attitude by a public show of displeasure when Casteja congratulated her spouse at one of his political achievements.
References
- Norrhem, Svante (2007). Kvinnor vid maktens sida : 1632-1772. (Women alongside power: 1632-1772) Lund: Nordic Academic Press. Libris 10428618. ISBN 978-91-89116-91-7 (Swedish)