Brita Tott

Brita Olovsdotter Tott (or Thott), (d. after 1498), called the Lady of Hammersta, was a Danish and Swedish noblewoman, spy and forger, judged for treason and for the forgery of the forgery of seals.

Brita was born child of the Danish nobles Olov Axelsson Tott and Karen Jensdotter Falk and was from 1442 married to the Swedish noble Ehrengissle Nilsson the Younger Natt och Dag. She was related to the regent consort Lady Ingeborg Tott. Brita was commonly known as the "Lady of Hammersta" after her husband's property Hammersta.

During a war between Sweden and Denmark in the 1452, she corresponded with the enemies of king Charles VIII of Sweden and became involved in a plot against the king. Her husband was during the war the governor of Örebro, and when the Danes invaded Västergötland, Brita Tott corresponded with the enemy and informed them of every movement of the Swedish army, which among other things enabled the Danish army to capture the fortress of Lödöse and avoid to be cast out by the Swedish army. For this, she was put on trial for treason against the crown at the assembled court in Stockholm of 1452 and was judged guilty of high treason and sentenced to be burned at the stake. The sentence was then changed to being walled alive into a brick wall in Kalmar. In reality, this was never literary realized; she simply spent a period of time as a guest in the nunnery of Kalmar. After her release, she financed the paintings of Ösmo Church in Södermanland as a penance; one of the paintings there is said to be her own image.

Brita Tott was also active as a forger, and acquired large amounts of money by forging seals of both living and dead people. There was so many of them, that at one occasion, the secretary of her husband was to have thrown an abundance of them in the water stream outside Hammersta mansion. In 1469, she became a widow and managed the estate herself aside form her great activity as a forger. In 1479, she was put on trial for forgery and judged guilty, but received mercy and was released. In 1494, she left Sweden and mowed to Denmark, where she is confirmed to have still been alive in 1498. In her will, she left the estate both to Sten Sture the Elder and to Uppsala Cathedral, which aroused great confusion.

See also

* Anna Leuhusen
* Magdalena Rudenschöld

References

* http://runeberg.org/sqvinnor/0417.html
* http://www.nynashamn.se/kommunen/miljoochsamhallsbyggnad/fornlamningarochkulturmiljoer/hammersta.4.6f017df6112ae0dea21800040242.html
* http://www.formonline.se/kyrkor/osmo/16osmo_valv2_nadastol.html
* http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:y7WiEibUunAJ:fornvannen.se/pdf/1930talet/1932_193.pdf+brita+tott+1452&hl=sv&ct=clnk&cd=14&gl=se
* http://runeberg.org/nfbj/0675.html
* http://books.google.se/books?id=fJwCAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA170&lpg=RA1-PA170&dq=brita+tott+&source=web&ots=_RKnXnRi9v&sig=QOAlarwwlTFv5RqfcK3Px25bmYA&hl=sv&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result