Died 1738 | ||
Anna Catharina Charlotta Wilhelmina von Bärfelt (1673 – Linköping, 2 April 1738), was a Swedish courtier and an influential royal favourite of Queen Hedwig Eleonora. She was immensely unpopular and rumoured to abuse her influence and position to receive bribes for influencing the queen and stealing from the royal possessions. She was convicted of theft and expelled from court.
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Royal favorite
Bärfelt was the daughter of Lieuntenant Colonel Bernhard Bärfelt. In 1687, she became seamstress and in 1695 the lady's maid of the Queen Dowager Hedvig Eleonora: this was, at that point, a position which could be filled by a member of the lesser nobility.
Bärfelt soon became a personal favorite of the Queen Dowager, which placed her in a position of power at court. She was rumored to accept bribes from supplicants. According to the French envoy, Jacques de Campredon, Anna Catharina von Bärfelt had accumulated a fortune amounting to the sum of 100.000 ecus from supplicants to the queen dowager. Among the supplicants were clients from both the nobility and the public, and she was able to secure positions for applicants through her influence.
Reportedly, she had the talent to caricature people, and made enemies by ridiculing them before the queen. Her position as a favorite made her unpopular, and she was exposed to slander. As a person, she was described as a cunning, bold, promiscuous and greedy character, and was accused of stealing from the royal residences and from the household of the queen dowager herself, and of using poison against her enemies. On one occasion, Anna Catharina von Bärfelt was attacked and mistreated on the street by unknown men.
Exile from court
In 1709, the Queen Dowager's alleged lover, count Carl Gyllenstierna, attempted to convince Hedvig Eleonora to exile Anna Catharina von Bärfelt from court. von Bärfelt retaliated by accusing Gyllenstierna of greed and embezzlement. This caused an open conflict, upon which Gyllenstierna openly gave the queen dowager an ultimatum: "Either miss Bärfelt leave or I will leave". The Queen Dowager reacted by leaving the room.
Carl Gyllenstierna now united with a party of von Bärfelt's enemies consisting of the Queen Dowager's confessor Molin, Arvid Horn, Christina Piper, Märta Berendes and Beata Sparre, and united in their request to Hedvig Eleonora that von Bärfelt should be investigated and banished. Hedvig Eleonora eventually relented and agreed to send von Bärfelt away from court. However, she refused any charges put against her and banned any one from searching the luggage of von Bärfelt to investigate of any stolen goods were there.
Carl Gyllenstierna gave the order that the door of Hedwig Eleonora be locked the last night Bärfelt was in the castle to prevent her from having any chance to gain access to the queen dowager and convince her to let her stay. Anna Catharina von Bärfelt left her position with a full royal pension. During her departure from the capital, she was reportedly followed by a mob of street urchins who sang insulting songs and threw stones after her.
Trial
After her departure, however, it was found that several of the missing goods she was suspected of having stolen, were stored by her friend, the royal court painter Andreas von Behn, and with her alleged lover, the Steward (office) of Karlberg Palace.
In 1712, Anna Catharina von Bärfelt was arrested and put on trial for theft despite the opposition of Queen Dowager Hedvig Eleonora. Her lover and accomplice committed suicide one he learned of her arrest. Among her possessions, several objects were found traditionally used for the practice of magic: a collection of tooths from pigs and snakes and feet of hares. Evidently, she had manufactured several magic objects and practiced a form of ritual magic to keep the affection of the queen dowager, and control which supplicants the latter should approve or turn down. Because of this, witchcraft were formally added to the accusation against her, but that point does not seem to have been regarded as very important: it was formally upon the accusation of theft the trial against her focused, and she was freed from the accusation of witchcraft.
Anna Catharina von Bärfelt was sentenced guilty of the theft of a velvet jacket. While in prison awaiting the final verdict, she sent a letter of appeal to the court in which she included a counter accusation against Carl Gyllenstierna of the same charges she was herself trialed. She was sentenced to death. However, in July 1712, the sentence was soon after commuted to fourteen days on water and bread followed by imprisonment in a work house.
In May 1715, her property was restored and she was by that time evidently released from prison. From 1721, Anna Catharina von Bärfelt lived a life of poverty in Linköping.