Charlotte Stierneld

Charlotte Stierneld was the daughter of count Nils Philip Gyldenstolpe and Jacquette Elisabet De Geer af Leufsta.

She and served as hovfröken (maid of honour) to Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotte prior to her marriage.

During her tenure as maid of honour, she belonged to the favorites of duchess Charlotte and participated in the demonstration of Jeanna von Lantingshausen against the Union and Security Act of 1789.

Alongside Sophie von Fersen, Countess Ulrica Catharina Brahe and Hedda von Fersen, she was most likely inducted as a member of a Freemasonic adoption lodge for women at court in 1776, when Princess Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotte was initiated by her consort Duke Charles as Grand Mistress of the female lodge.

[1] In 1801, she was also inducted a member of the Yellow Rose (society) of Carl Adolf Boheman, described as a Masonic adoption lodge, alongside count Erik Ruuth, Charlotte Wahrendorff, count Magnus Fredrik Brahe, Catharina Ulrica Koskull and the mother of the queen: at this point, she was described as already a member of the Freemasons, which is interpreted to mean that she was among those women inducted in the 1776 ceremony.

Christina Charlotta Gyldenstolpe, on stage as a member of the Amateur Theater of king Gustav III, by Pehr Hilleström , Nationalmuseum .