Princess Sophia of Sweden also Sofia Gustavsdotter Vasa (29 October 1547 – 17 March 1611), was a Swedish princess, daughter of King Gustav Vasa of Sweden and Margareta Leijonhufvud, a Swedish noble

Swedish nobility

The Swedish nobility were historically a legally and/or socially privileged class in Sweden, part of the so-called frälse . Today, the nobility is still very much a part of Swedish society but they do not maintain many of their former privileges...

. She was formally Duchess consort  of Saxe-Lauenburg as the spouse of duke Magnus II of Saxe-Lauenburg.

Biography

Princess Sofia is by many historians called the unhappiest of all the children of Gustav Vasa. She was married to Duke Magnus II of Saxe-Lauenburg, in a discreet ceremony in the shadow of her half-brother King Eric XIV

Eric XIV of Sweden

-Family and descendants:Eric XIV had several relationships before his marriage. With Agda Persdotter he had four daughters:#Margareta Eriksdotter , married 1592 to Olov Simonsson, vicar of Horn....

's wedding to Karin Månsdotter

Karin Månsdotter

Karin Månsdotter was Queen of Sweden, first a mistress and then the spouse of King Eric XIV of Sweden...

 on 4 July 1568. The marriage became extremely unhappy; the duke was an alcoholic known to mistreat his subordinates and his servants, and he abused her both mentally and physically in such a violent way that she became insane. It seems that the reasons for this was severe jealousy; according to the cronicle of Aegidius Girs, Magnus: " ...showed his princess all unkindness, spit and shamefull slander, that she of the sorrow was caused great weakness of the head."

The unhappy union was finally dissolved after ten years when her brother King John III

John III of Sweden

-Family:John married his first wife, Catherine Jagellonica of Poland , house of Jagiello, in Vilnius on 4 October 1562. In Sweden, she is known as Katarina Jagellonica. She was the sister of king Sigismund II Augustus of Poland...

 forced her husband to leave the country in 1578. After his accession, John also gave her the fiefs Ekolsund and Vänngarn.

Princess Sofia lived the rest of her life in seclusion at Ekolsund Castle

Ekolsund Castle

Ekolsund Castle is a castle in Sweden. It was in 1578-1611 the residence of Princess Sophia of Sweden....

. She remained mentally unstable, but recuperated enough to run her own household, which she did in a somewhat lively way; she changed head butler twenty-one and housekeeper twenty-three times during these years. In 1597, she was granted the fiefs Lagunda and Håbo

Habo

Habo is a locality and the seat of Habo Municipality, Jönköping County, Sweden with 6,244 inhabitants in 2005. Habo Church lies around 4km to the south-west.- References :...

. She became a widow when her absent husband died in 1603.

Her only son Gustaf, (1570-1597), was made governor in Kalmar

Kalmar

Kalmar is a city in Småland in the south-east of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 62,767 inhabitants in 2010 and is the seat of Kalmar Municipality. It is also the capital of Kalmar County, which comprises 12 municipalities with a total of 233,776 inhabitants .From the thirteenth to the...

 and died unmarried at the age of twenty-seven.

Ancestors