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About Countess Christina Piper
Christina Piper, née Törne (1673 in Stockholm – 1752 in Krageholm Castle, Scania), was a Swedish countess, landowner and entrepreneur, married to the statesman and military count Carl Piper. During the tenure of her spouse in office, she played a considerable political role. Christina Piper became known in history as a landowner and builder. She is known as one of the most successful female entrepreneurs in contemporary Scandinavia, and as one of the greatest builders in the history of Scania.
Biography
Christina Piper was born to the very wealthy merchant and city official Olof Hansson Törne and Margareta Andersen. Her father was ennobled by the name Törnflycht in 1698, but as she married eight years before this, she never carried that name herself. On 13 February 1690, she married the royal official Carl Piper, who was 26 years her senior and the stepbrother of her father. The marriage was arranged for economic reasons: her husband was in need of funds, and as a relative with a good career (he had been ennobled during his career in royal service) he was seen as a good asset to keep in the family. The couple had eight children.
Political activity
In 1697, her spouse was appointed statsråd and the following year baron and count, and it became clear he had replaced Bengt Gabrielsson Oxenstierna as the perhaps most favored of the advisers of the monarch, a position he kept until 1709.
As was normal for the wife of a politician at the time, this gave Christina Piper an influential role, as she was seen as a potential channel to her spouse, and she began to host a receptions and participate in court life, where she was besieged by diplomats and supplicants attempting to reach her spouse (and by him the King) through her.
During the 1700s, Christina Piper and Carl Piper played a similar role as Magdalena Stenbock and Bengt Gabrielsson Oxenstierna in the 1680s and 1690s, and as Margareta Gyllenstierna and Arvid Horn in the 1720s and 1730s: that of a married couple acting as political colleagues.
Carl and Christina Piper gained a notorious reputation by their contemporaries for being corrupted by bribes. It is noted that Carl Piper were often offered gifts in exchange for making recommendations for posts to the monarch on behalf of diplomats and supplicants, which was not unusual in that period, but that he normally refused to accept gifts. However, he did accept and even encouraged petitioners to give gifts to his wife: she would then make the recommendations on behalf of the petitioners to him, often successfully. This was, not an unusual method for contemporary officials - their predecessors as a political power couple, Bengt Oxenstierna and Magdalena Stenbock, had in fact done the same - and one reason to why they were given such a notorious reputation because of it may have been the fact that they, being members of a very recently ennobled noble family, were resented by the older nobility as upstarts.
In 1700, Carl Piper left Sweden in the entourage of Charles XII to participate in the Great Northern War, leaving Christina in charge of the family affairs. She visited him in the Swedish military headquarters on two occasions: the first one in Rawicz in 1705, and the second time in Altranstädt in 1707.
On her first visit, she was received by the Polish queen Catherine Opalińska and introduced at the Polish court at Rydzyna Castle. Carl Piper was contemplating to visit Sweden for his health, as he was ill at the time, but she persuaded him to stay.
During her second visit, in 1707, Carl Piper was approached by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, who allegedly offered him a pension in exchange for advising Charles XII to attack Russia. After the Battle of Poltava, which became disastrous for Sweden, Carl Piper was blamed for having ultimately caused the defeat by persuading Charles XII to the Swedish invasion of Russia having been bribed by Marlborough. Carl Piper denied having accepted the bribe, but he did admit that he had accepted a gift of two valuable earrings from the Duke to his wife Christina Piper, who also admitted having accepted them, but denied having done so as a bribe.
One her way home, she was escorted by the Prince of Württemberg and a large entourage, and visited Berlin, where she was given a grand welcome by the King of Prussia and the royal Prussian court. During her visit, a statue celebrating the Prussian victory over the Swedes at the Battle of Fehrbellin was removed after she had expressed a dislike for it, and she was given a brilliant bracelet as a gift by the King.
Back in Sweden, she participated in court life, where she was a member of the group consisting of herself, Arvid Horn, the queen dowager's priest Molin, Beata Sparre, and Märta Berendes, who evicted the favourite Anna Catharina von Bärfelt from court by forming an alliance with Carl Gyllenstierna.
At the Battle of Poltava 1709, Carl Piper was taken as a prisoner to Russia, where he remained until his death seven years later. When the disastrous news of the Swedish defeat reached the capital of Stockholm, panic erupted, and the bank was emptied: Carl Piper was blamed for having persuaded the King to attack Russia. According to the reports of the Danish and French envoys, Christina Piper was attacked by a mob and forced to flee the capital. She managed negotiations with the government to trade her spouse for Russian prisoners in Sweden, which did not succeed. According to contemporary unconfirmed rumours, she did, in fact, not wish for him to return, as she liked the independence she had in his absence. Carl Piper died in captivity in Russia in 1716; his remains were brought home in 1718 and were finally buried in 1719.
Later life
When her husband was taken prisoner, Christina Piper lost all influence over state affairs: she was not popular in the capital, and her connections were of no use after the fall of Carl Piper. For the rest of her life, she devoted herself to her position as a respected matriarch and her affairs as a major landowner and travelled between her estates, having her base at Krageholm Castle in Scania. Krageholm was, however, still claimed by the Danish family that had owned it before the Scanian War (the Krabbe-Thott family), and continuous lawsuits with the heirs prevented Christina Piper from rebuilding the severely war-damaged castle and turning it into a grander design. Because the lawsuits were only settled in Christina Piper's favour in the 1720s, she realised her grand design by building Christinehof Castle at Andrarum instead.
Piper used her position as a landowner to influence local politics and became an important figure in the national economy: she was one of the greatest financiers of the Great Northern War. After the death of her daughter Charlotta (d. 1727), she became the foster mother of Charlotta's children: Eva Charlotta, Nils Adam and Christina Sofia (Magdalena Rudenschöld's mother or grandmother).
In 1712, Christina Piper moved from the capital to her estates in Scania because of the expenses entailed by city life. She acquired many additional estates to the ones she already owned and became known as a leading figure in Scanian architecture and construction. Numerous wars had ravaged Scania and Christina Piper dedicated much time and energy to rebuilding what had been laid waste. She owned and managed the following estates: Sturefors Castle, Krageholm Castle, Björnstorp Castle and Östra Torup.
In 1725, she acquired an estate in the village of Andrarum and then turned the alum works in this village into an ever bigger enterprise than before, now with 900 employees. She started up schools, retirement homes, a prison, a court and hospitals for her employees; she also founded a coin factory, which produced coins with the stamp of her initials, "C.P.", which were only possible to use in the shops on her estate. On this estate, she had Christinehof Castle built (1740). Christina Piper also created six entailed estates that could not be sold but only be inherited by male heirs.
Om Grevinna Christina Piper (svenska)
http://www.foretagskallan.se/foretagskallan-nyheter/lektionsmateria...
https://skbl.se/sv/artikel/ChristinaPiper
Christina Törnflycht, född 1673-01-01 i Stockholm, död 1752-03-25 på Krageholm och begraven 1753-05-08 i Piperska familjegraven i Ängsö kyrka, dotter av kommersrådet Olof Hansson Törne, adlad Törnflycht, och Margareta Andersen. ‘Grevinnan Piper besökte sin man tvenne gånger utrikes, nämligen 1705 i Rawitz och 1707 i Sachsen samt hade vardera gången med sig en syster, vilka då blevo gifta, den ena med greve Arv. Bernh. Horn och den andra med greve Joh. Aug. Meijerfeldt, då ock konungarna Carl XII och Stanislaus bevistade bröllopen.
Har slutligen skänkt predikstol till Grebo kyrka och altartavla till Vists kyrka, båda i Östergötlands län samt stiftat Kristinehov, vilket hon låt bygga vid Andrarums alunbruk i Skåne, jämte Andrarum, Torup, Högestad och Baldringe till ett fideikommiss samt Ängsö till ett annat, bägge för sin son och dennes manliga avkomlingar, dock så, att båda fideikommissen ej fingo innehavas av en och samma person, varför Ängsö efter första innehavarens död övergick till dennes yngste son, varjämte hon gjorde Sturefors med Viggbyholm Östergötlands län till fideikommiss för äldsta dotterns avkomlingar eller grevarna Bielke, och Sörby med Gärstaberg Södermanlands län för yngsta dotterns efterkommande eller grevarna Löwen.'
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Piper
http://home.swipnet.se/hogesta/hist.htm
https://www.riddarhuset.se/verksamhet/stipendier-och-stod-2/andraru...
Christina Piper, född Törne 1673, död 1752, dotter till Olof Törne, adlad Törnflycht och gift 1690 med Carl Piper.
Instiftade år 1747 fideikommisset Sturefors slott till förmån för sin dotterson Nils Adam Bielke.
Christina Törne-Piper, som härstammade från Bureätten, ägde också slottet Toppeladugård i Genarps socken, Skåne
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Countess Christina Piper's Timeline
| 1673 |
February 1, 1673
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Stockholm, Stockholm County, Uppland, Sweden
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| 1691 |
July 2, 1691
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Stockholm, Stockholm County, Sweden
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| 1692 |
June 1692
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Stockholm, Stockholm County, Uppland, Sweden
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| 1693 |
September 24, 1693
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Stockholm, Stockholm County, Uppland, Sweden
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September 24, 1693
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Stockholm, Stockholm County, Uppland, Sweden
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| 1695 |
September 1695
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Stockholm, Stockholm County, Uppland, Sweden
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| 1697 |
August 11, 1697
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Stockholm, Stockholm County, Sweden
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| 1698 |
October 26, 1698
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Sweden
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| 1700 |
February 20, 1700
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Stockholm, Stockholm County, Uppland, Sweden
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