Leonora Christina Ulfeldt - Literary Contribution

Literary Contribution

During her imprisonment and for the twelve years she lived afterwards, she composed the book that made her famous, Jammersminde (literally, "A Memory of Lament"), which was, however, only published in 1869. Now regarded as a classic of 17th century Danish literature, it explores her prison years in detailed and vivid prose, recounting her crises, confrontations, humiliations, self-discipline, growing religious faith and serenity, together with fascinating descriptions of hardships she endured or overcame.

She also wrote in French an account of her happy youth, La Lettre à Otto Sperling (Letter to Otto Sperling), completed in 1673 and smuggled out of the Tower. Seeking the inspiration to endure her ordeal, she had sought out and translated tales of women in adversity. Heltinders Pryd ((Praise of Heroines), was penned in 1683 as a compilation of biographical sketches describing the different kinds of courage and endurance summoned by women whose struggles left an imprint on history. In the process she became something of a proto-feminist from the perspective of some later literary and political critics.

Leonora Christina's fate, and especially her memoir, have made her a national cultural heroine in Scandinavia. She has sometimes been portrayed as of saintly stature, both poets and prelates hailing her as the ideal Danish woman: loyal, patient, resolute, and resourceful. Kristian Zahrtmann (1843-1917) has memorialized her story in a series of 18 monumental paintings, the first of which was shown in 1871. These were published as illustrations to her book in an 1890 edition, and released as individual prints in a 1907 edition.

Only recently have sceptics focused on other perceived aspects of the Countess's personality: arrogance, stubbornness, blind devotion to an unworthy husband, and a disingenuous cleverness seen as taking the literary form of a tendency toward self-absorption and self-absolution that somehow never casts her in a negative light. For all these flaws, real or imagined, the saga of the prisoner of the Blue Tower — the fall of a mighty woman and her rise from despair to an even greater intellectual and spiritual might, as told against the backdrop of Europe during the Reformation — remains deeply compelling, even inspiring, as much to artists and the devout as to historians, patriots and feminists.

Through her son Count Leo Ulfeldt (1651-1716), an Austrian soldier, her descendants not only include some of the most influential German and Slavic noble families of Europe, but also: King Simeon II of the Bulgarians (born 1937), King Michael of Romania (born 1921), Prince Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein (born 1945), Emperor Karl I of Austria-Hungary (1887-1922), King Peter II of Yugoslavia (1923-1970), King Manuel II of Portugal (1889-1932), King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony (1865-1932), Marie Christine, Princess Michael of Kent, (born 1945), Christoph, Cardinal von Schönborn (born 1945), Maximilian, Duke of Hohenberg (1902-1962), Johannes, Prince of Thurn and Taxis (1926-1990), and the Earls of Clanwilliam. Also notable among her descendants is Isabelle, comtesse de Paris (1911-2003)), whose life, aside from imprisonment, resembled Leonora Christina's in several respects: Daughter of a morganatic union, she lived in exile with and remained staunchly faithful to a faithless husband, signed away valuable property for his sake, wrote biographies of historically significant women, and penned a memoir (Tout m'est Bonheur, 1978) that celebrated life's blessings in the face of life's travails.