Sophie Lykke

Sophie Lykke (d. 1570), was a Danish county administrator, landholder and noble.

Daughter of riksråd Peder Hansen Lykke (d. 1535) and Kirsten Pedersdatter Høg (d. 1542), sister of Jørgen Lykke, Denmark's last knight; married before 1534 to riksråd Jacob Hardenberg (d. 1542).

As a widow, she managed the large estates left to er by her spouse, and the estates of her three minor daughters. She was known for her many conflicts with the law; in 1544, she was sued by the peasants for abuse of power but it was retracted after she threatened the witnesses; in 1551, the estate Holme Kloster was confiscated by the crown, and in 1556, she was sued for having broken the laws of import and export. She was forced to leave her lands to her sons-in-law in exchange for a pension in 1557, but was freed from punishment upon the will of the queen, Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg. When the pension was never paid she sued them to the crown in 1560. The monarch granted her Lister County in Norway to make her leave Denmark; after having been charged with abuse of power as administrator and for breaking the law of lumber export she was deposed as county administrator in 1563, but as the sister of Jørgen Lykke, sister-in-law of royal marshal Otte Krumpen and mother-in-law of three riksråd, her position was given back the same year by use of nepotism.