Maria Elisabeth Stenbock

Maria Elisabeth Stenbock

Maria Elisabeth Stenbock (died 1693) was a Swedish courtier; överhovmästarinna (Mistress of the Robes) to the queen of Sweden, Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark, from 1680 to 1693.

Born to count Fredrik Stenbock and Catharina De la Gardie, she married count Axel Axelsson Lillie in 1665. In 1680, she was appointed to the post of senior lady in waiting to the new queen, Ulrika Eleonora. She became a personal friend of the queen and are counted as belonging to the circle of intimate friends to the queen along with the royal chaplain confessor Johan Carlberg, Sophia Amalia Marschalk and Anna Maria Clodt.

There is a well known old legend associated with her death. The legend states that while the queen lay dying at Karlberg Palace in 1693, her favorite lady-in-waiting and Mistress of the Robes, Countess Maria Elisabeth Stenbock, lay sick in Stockholm. On the night the queen had died, Countess Stenbock visited Karlberg and was admitted alone to the room containing the remains of the queen. The officer in charge, Captain Stormcrantz, looked into the key hole and saw the countess and the queen speaking at the window of the room. He was so shocked by the sight that he started coughing blood. The countess, as well as the carriage she had arrived with, was gone the next moment. When the matter was investigated, it was made clear that the countess had been in bed, gravely ill that day and not left town. The King gave the order that the affair was not to be mentioned further. Whatever the explanation, it is true that countess Stenbock died of her illness a couple of weeks after the queen, and that captain Stormcrantz also did so shortly after the event he claimed took place.

References

• Anders Fryxell & Otto Sjögren: Berättelser ur svenska historien / 19. Karl den elftes historia. H. 5. Karl den elfte och hans samtida av konungahuset och af högadels- och råds-partierna