Leonora Christina Ulfeldt
Leonora Christina, Countess Ulfeldt, born "Countess Leonora Christina Christiansdatter" til Slesvig og Holsten, was the daughter of King Christian IV of Denmark and wife of Steward of the Realm, traitor Count Corfitz Ulfeldt. Renowned in Denmark since the 19th century for her posthumously published autobiography, Jammers Minde, written secretly during two decades of solitary confinement in a royal dungeon, her intimate version of the major events she witnessed in Europe's history, interwoven with ruminations on her woes as a political prisoner, still commands popular interest, scholarly respect, and has virtually become the stuff of legend as retold and enlivened in Danish literature and art.
Portrait of Leonora Christina Ulfeldt by Gerrit van Honthorst (1647). Frederiksborg Museum.
Portrait of Leonora Christina Ulfeldt and her husband Corfitz by Jacob Folkema (c. 1746).
Painting by Karel van Mander; Frederiksborg Museum
Leonora Christina in Blåtårn by Kristian Zahrtmann, 1891
Christian IV was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years and 330 days is the longest in Scandinavian history.
Portrait by Pieter Isaacsz, c. 1612
Frederiksborg Castle, c. 1585.
At the death bed of Niels Kaas. The 17-year-old Christian IV receives from the dying chancellor the keys to the vault where the royal crown and sceptre are stored. History painting by Carl Bloch, 1880.
The coronation of King Christian IV on 29 August 1596 History painting by Otto Bache, 1887.