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Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden

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  Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden

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  Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden

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  Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden

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  Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden

Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden

Births, Marriages, Deaths

Ulrika Eleonora
Queen of Sweden (more...)
Reign	30 November 1718 – 29 February 1720
Predecessor	Charles XII
Successor	Frederick I
Coronation	17 March 1719
Consort	Frederick I
Royal house	House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken
Royal motto	I Gud mitt hopp ("In God my hope")
Father	Charles XI
Mother	Ulrike Eleonora of Denmark
Born	23 January 1688 Stockholm Palace, Sweden
Died	24 November 1741 (aged 53) Stockholm, Sweden
Burial	Riddarholmen Church, Stockholm

Ulrika Eleonora (23 January 1688 – 24 November 1741), also known as Ulrika Eleonora the Younger, was Queen regnant of Sweden from 30 November 1718 to 29 February 1720, and then Queen consort until her death.

She was the youngest child of King Charles XI and Queen Ulrika Eleonora the Elder and named after her mother. After the death of her brother King Charles XII in 1718, she claimed the throne over the rights of her nephew Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, the only son of her late elder sister, on basis of being the closest surviving relative of the deceased king (the idea of proximity of blood) and the prejudice of Queen Kristina, though not his heiress in primogeniture. The succession discussions ultimately ended in her favour after she had agreed to abolish the absolute monarchy. She abdicated the Swedish throne in 1720 and was succeeded by her consort, Landgrave Frederick I of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel).

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Princess and regent

Ulrika Eleonora lived most of her life under the shadow of others, outshone by her brother the king, and by her beautiful sister, who was her brother's informal heir. In 1700, there were negotiations about a marriage to Frederick William I of Prussia, but nothing came of it. A princess and spinster, she took care of her dominating grandmother, Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, during her brother's absence in the Great Nordic War. During this period, her older sister, Princess Hedvig Sophia of Sweden, Duchess of Holstein-Gottorp, was the heir to the throne.

Her situation began to change after the death of her older sister in 1708. As her brother refused to marry, and as she was the only royal representative in Sweden, she was in 1713 named as regent during the king's absence by the government and by her grandmother, and thus became the puppet to many powers struggling for influence in a country without a real heir. The choice now stood between Princess Ulrika Eleonora and her nephew, her older sister's son, the duke of Holstein-Gottorp. Her accession as regent and president of the parliament was treated with great enthusiasm. The parliament was in opposition to her brother as they wanted to abolish the absolute monarchy and reinstate the power of the parliament.

After her grandmother's death in 1715 she became the center of the court, and this was most likely one of the most happy periods of her life. It was during this period, in the year of 1715, that she married, but the marriage, which on her side was a marriage of love, was to be but another one of the many attempts to use her as a political puppet. Her husband had married her with the intent to reach the throne through her, and immediately started to work to get her appointed as heir to the throne before her nephew, and the "Hesse-party" and the "Gottorp-party" stood against each other in the struggle to the throne.

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Queen regnant

In 1715 she had married Landgrave Frederick I of Hesse-Kassel, whose counsel she constantly sought in political matters. He had strong ambitions, and aided her in her way to the throne. When her brother the king was killed in 1718, the "Hesse-party", as they were called, secured Ulrika Eleonora's succession to the throne before her nephew, the duke of Holstein-Gottorp. They managed to secure the support of the opposition, who wanted to abolish the absolute monarchy from 1680 and reinstate the rule of the parliament. Her reign took place in the middle of the last years of the Great Nordic War.

In her accession, she had to give her consent to a new constitution, which greatly limited the power of the monarch, to accomplish this. Thereafter, she was formally elected monarch and crowned in Uppsala in March 1719. During her short period as monarch, she created one hundred and eighty one noble-families in fifteen months to secure support, more than any other monarch in Swedish history; she created one count, two barons and eight nobleman every month she was in power, and had seven field marshals where her brother only had between three and five. Her favorite was Emerentia von Düben (1669-1743), her old nurse which had ben nobled and made lady-in-waiting in 1707 and with whom she had a close relationship all her life; Düben acted as her advisor, her comfort and support, and was not said to have abused her influence-they were described as sisters.

Queen Ulrika Eleonora was strongly in favor of an absolute monarchy, and had agreed to the new constitution only to secure the throne from her nephew. She supported her husband's political ambitions and wanted him to become co-regent, following the example of King William III of England and Queen Mary II of England, but this was not permitted by the parliament, as co-reigning had been forbidden in Sweden since the 15th century, and she therefore abdicated in his favour after just one year of her reign, which succession was confirmed by the Riksdag of the Estates. She often talked about her abdication as the great sacrifice of her life. Frederick thereafter succeeded her on the Swedish throne as King Frederick I in 1720.

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Queen consort

Ulrika Eleonora had married for love, but the love was not answered by her husband, who became more and more open with his adultery after he lost his real power as a king and had nothing else to do. In 1730, he became the first king in Swedish history to have an official mistress, the young noble girl Hedvig Taube, who was given the title countess of Hessenstein; of course, many Swedish kings have had mistresses, but the French way of having an official mistress had never been practiced in Sweden before, which was a great humiliation for Ulrika Eleonora. In 1735 she had the bishops lecture both Frederick and Hedvig and in 1739 she attempted to have Hedvig expelled; when the king stopped Hedvig on her way out of the country, the Queen was close to making a scandal by bringing her complaints before the government, but in the end, she was forced to resign and accept the matter. She retired to religion and charity, although she was several times named as titular regent during her husband's stays abroad.

Ulrika Eleonora was interested in jewellery, music and collected coins, and she also hired German and French theatre companies to perform in Bollhuset, but withdrew her support to the theatre when she became more religious; she could interrupt a parliamentary session to pray and at the receptions of the court she interrogated the young girls about the Bible and gave them gifts if they answered correctly. She was a stern believer in her royal pride and pretended to be sick and locked herself in her rooms when she was offended.

Queen Ulrika Eleonora died of smallpox in 1741 after a childless marriage. The succession thereafter was marked by recurring plotting. The reigns of Ulrika Eleonora and her husband saw the birth of the era of Swedish history traditionally known as the Age of Liberty, when the monarch had to give up most of his power to the aristocracy.

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Ancestors

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References

• Herman Lindqvist (2006). Historien om alla Sveriges drottningar (in Swedish). Norstedts Förlag. ISBN 9113015249. -'Affair of all Sweden queens' in English-
• Olof Jägerskiöld, Lovisa Ulrika
• http://runeberg.org/sbh/dubeneme.html

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Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden

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