Ebba Stenbock

She led the defense of the stronghold Turku Castle for the loyalists of Sigismund III Vasa during the siege by Charles IX of Sweden in succession of her spouse Clas Eriksson Fleming (1530–1597), governor of Finland.

In 1573, she married Clas Eriksson Fleming in the house of her sister, the Queen Dowager in Stockholm, and moved with him to Finland.

[5] In April 1597, after having subdued the Cudgel War and preparing to resist the expected invasion of Duke Charles, Fleming died.

In August 1597, Duke Charles and his army invaded Finland, took Åland, which was the fief of her sister Queen Dowager Catherine, and besieged Turku Castle.

Like many other wives and daughters of the exiled loyalists to Sigismund, whose estates had been confiscated by Charles, they took refuge with Queen Dowager Catherine Stenbock at Strömsholm.