Maria Sofia De la Gardie

Maria Sofia De la Gardie

Tyresö Castle

Maria Sofia De la Gardie, as married Oxenstierna of Croneborg (1627–1694), was a Swedish noble (countess) and entrepreneur. She has been called the first female grand entrepreneur of her country.

Biography

Born to count Jacob De la Gardie and Ebba Brahe, she was the sister to Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie and sister-in-law to Princess Countess Palatine Maria Eufrosyne of Zweibrücken. She was born and raised in Swedish Estonia, where her father was governor of the Swedish province. In 1643, she married Gustaf Gabrielsson Oxenstierna, nephew of regent Axel Oxenstierna, who succeeded her father as governor of Estonia. Both hers and her husband's family were extremely wealthy.

At the death of her husband in 1648, she became the guardian of her underage children and became responsible of the vast estates of the family. At her father's death (1652), she also managed a huge inheritance after him.

In 1649, there was reports of a possible marriage with the heir to the throne, future king Charles X of Sweden: the plans was never realized, but the rumours continued until 1652, possibly staged by Queen Christina of Sweden. Maria Sofia was first lady-in-waiting and hovmastarinna of the queen in 1651-1654.

Maria Sofia resided in Tyresö Palace, from where she managed her estates around the Baltic Sea. She made a study trip to the Netherlands, on her brother's suggestion, to study the industrial life. She was interested in cattlebreeding and gardening. She managed glovemaking and a brassmakery. Her most successful enterprise was a textile industry; by the energy of waterfalls on her estate, she manufactured the broadcloth and textiles which equipped to the army. She took part in the pacification of Skåne (1658) by acquiring several estates; in 1667, she bought Krapperup Castle and managed a colliery for export. She built ships, exported timber and grain, founded papermills and fabricated linseed oil.

During the famous Katarina witch trial in Stockholm in 1676, the main witness Lisbeth Carlsdotter, inspired by the Gävle-Boy, tried to implicate her and her sister-in-law Maria Eufrosyne for witchcraft, which damaged the credibility of the witness to such a point that eventually led to the end of the whole witch hunt.

At the reduction of king Charles XI of Sweden in the 1680s, most of her property was confiscated by the royal family. She died in 1694.

See also

• Margaretha Donner
• Margareta von Ascheberg
• Margareta Brahe

References

• Ellen Fries: Svenska Kvinnor (Swedish women), utg av S.Björklund, (1920) (Swedish)
• http://runeberg.org/sqvinnor/0133.html (Swedish)
• http://www.lansmuseum.a.se/utstallningar/annatliv/annatliv3.cfm?in_idnr=p05&in_idnr=p05 (Swedish)
• Jan Guillou: Häxornas försvarare (Defender of the witches) (Swedish)
• Wilhelmina Stålberg: Anteqningar om Svenska kvinnor (Notes on Swedish women) (Swedish)

Persondata
Name	Gardie, Maria Sofia
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1627
Place of birth
Date of death	1694
Place of death