Ebba Brahe
Ebba Brahe ( born March 16, 1596 Lerjeholm, historical province of Västergötland, † January 5, 1674 in Stockholm) was a Swedish lady in waiting and businesswoman.
After her mother's death, the daughter of Count Magnus Brahe Empire bailiff came in 1611 as a maid of honor of the queen widow Christine to the Swedish royal court. The young King Gustavus Adolphus fell at once into the young woman of extraordinary beauty. In March 1613 he asked her in a letter for an interview with her father.
However, the Queen Mother turned vehemently against this connection. Ebba Brahe could not prevail against them and eventually married in 1618 the Reich Marshal Jacob De la Gardie. She had 14 children with him, which she devoted the following years of their lives.
After the death of her husband in 1652, she took the family's wealth into their hands and increased it prudently. She bought an estate after another, sometimes well with plenty of feisty means. In 1667 she was in a property lawsuit against Johan Axelsson Oxenstierna, the son of the Chancellor, involved. When iron ore was found on two of their goods, they tried successfully in the production of iron, which they could use their considerable wealth even further enlarge.