Gunilla Bielke (1568 – 1597) was a Swedish Queen consort, the second spouse and queen consort of king John III of Sweden. She was a politically influential queen.
Gunilla Bielke was the daughter of the king's cousin, the former governor of Östergötland, Johan Axelsson Bielke, and had been raised at the royal court since she was ten years old as a playmate of the king's daughter, Princess Anna. In 1582, she was made lady-in-waiting to the queen. J...
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Gunilla Bielke (1568 – 1597) was a Swedish Queen consort, the second spouse and queen consort of king John III of Sweden. She was a politically influential queen.
Gunilla Bielke was the daughter of the king's cousin, the former governor of Östergötland, Johan Axelsson Bielke, and had been raised at the royal court since she was ten years old as a playmate of the king's daughter, Princess Anna. In 1582, she was made lady-in-waiting to the queen. Just like two of the previous queens, Margareta Leijonhufvud and Katarina Stenbock, she was engaged when the king decided to marry her, and initially refused the king's proposal; the king was so enraged by this that he slapped her in the face with his gloves. But her family forced her to agree, the engagement was broken, and she was married to the king in 1585, to the rage of the king's sisters, who considered it a misalliance despite the fact that their own mother was also a noblewoman; the king's brothers and sisters all refused to attend....
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