9. Magdalena Rudenschöld: The Swedish Countess who committed treason for love
Magdalena Charlotta Rudenschold was the daughter of Count Carl Rudenschold and his wife, Countess Christina Sophia Bielke. The family had close connections with the Swedish royal court, so in 1783, aged 17 Magdalena took her place there as the chief lady in waiting for King Gustav III’s sister, Sophia Albertina. Magdalena soon became popular. She was beautiful and lively and had many admirers. By the time she was twenty, however, she was involved in an affair with Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt, one of King Gustaf’s closest advisors. It was this affair that was to lead Magdalena down the path of treason.
In 1792, King Gustaf III was assassinated. The new king, Gustav IV was only 14, so a regency government was established. Nominally, the new King’s uncle, Duke Charles, was its head. However, the real power was Charles’s adviser, Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm. When Magdalena’s lover, Armfelt was denied a place in government by Reuterholm, he left the country, to set into motion a conspiracy to, overthrow Reuterholm with Russian aid and so head Sweden’s regency government himself.
Armfelt had essentially abandoned Magdalena. However, he continued to write to her and slowly began to draw her into the conspiracy. Magdalena attended receptions at the Russian embassy in Stockholm where she acted as a go-between for Armfelt with the Russians. The plan was to win over the young King to the conspirator’s side and persuade him to sign an agreement to the coup. This letter would then be handed over to the Russians, who would then step in and topple the guardian government.
However, Gustaf IV preferred to stay loyal to his Uncle and after months under surveillance, government agents arrested Magdalena on December 18, 1793. Initially, she was held under house arrest, but then she was transferred to a “terrifying prison where I saw neither sun nor moon.”Magdalena denied any involvement in the plot. However, as more and more of her letters emerged, it became difficult to deny her guilt.
On September 22, 1794, Magdalena Rudenschold was sentenced to death for treason. Her sentence was quickly commuted to public pillorying and then life imprisonment. She was stripped of her title and last name and spent two and a half years in prison in Stockholm. Finally, her royal patrons secured her release and pardon. Magdalena had her title restored, and the crown granted her a small estate and pension. She eventually had a son with one of her servants but she never married, for she continued to hold a torch for Armfelt for the rest of her life.