DAUGHTER of CHRISTIAN IV. of DENMARK WRITTEN DURING HER IMPRISONMENT IN THE BLUE TOWER AT COPENHAGEN 1663—1685 Translated by F. E. Bunnètt LONDON Henry S. King & Co., 65 Cornhill 1872 LONDON: PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET All rights reserved...

In placing the present translation of Leonora Christina Ulfeldt’s Memoirs before the English reading public, a few words are due from the Publishers, in order to explain the relation between this edition and those which have been brought out in Denmark and in Germany. The original autograph manuscript of Leonora Christina’s record of her sufferings in her prison, written between the years 1674 and 1685, belongs to her descendant the Austrian Count Joh. Waldstein, and it was discovered only a few

When, in the summer of 1858, I visited the graves of my Danish ancestors of the family of Ulfeldt, in the little village church at Quærndrup, near the Castle of Egeskov, on the island of Fyn, I resolved to honour the memory of my pious ancestress Leonora Christina, and thus fulfil the duty of a descendant by publishing this autograph manuscript which had come to me amongst the heirlooms left by my father. It is well known that the last male representative of the family of Ulfeldt, the Chancellor

Amongst the women celebrated in history, Leonora Christina , the heroine as well as the authoress of the Memoirs which form the subject of this volume, occupies a conspicuous place, as one of the noblest examples of every womanly virtue and accomplishment, displayed under the most trying vicissitudes of fortune. Born the daughter of a King, married to one of the ablest statesmen of his time, destined, as it seemed, to shine in the undisturbed lustre of position and great qualities, she had to sp

Sir, [6] —To satisfy your curiosity, I will give you a short account of the life of her about whom you desire to be informed. She was born at Fredericksborg, in the year 1621, on June 11. [7] When she was six weeks old her grandmother took her with her to Dalum, where she remained until the age of four years; her first master there being Mr. Envolt, afterward a priest at Roeskild. About six months after her return to the Court, her father sent her to Holland to his cousin, a Duchess of Brunswick

Beloved children, I may indeed say with Job, ‘Oh, that my grief were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea.’ My sufferings are indeed great and many; they are heavy and innumerable. My mind has long been uncertain with regard to this history of my sufferings, as I could not decide whether I ought not rather to endeavour to forget them than to bear them in memory. At length, however, certain reasons have induced me,

OR, A REMINISCENCE OF ALL THAT OCCURRED TO ME, LEONORA CHRISTINA, IN THE BLUE TOWER, FROM AUGUST 8 OF THE YEAR 1663, TO JUNE 11 [57] OF THE YEAR 1674. The past is rarely remembered without sorrow, for it has been either better or worse than the present. If it was more joyous, more happy, and full of honour, its remembrance justly saddens us, and in proportion as the present is full of care, unhappiness, and dishonour. If past times were sadder, more miserable, and more deplorable than the presen