Ingeborg Tott

She functioned as the de facto queen consort of Sweden for over three decades and participated in state affairs during the reign of her spouse.

In 1470, Sten Sture the Elder was elected Regent of Sweden after the death of his uncle Charles VIII.

[3] During the Battle of Brunkeberg in 1471, Ingeborg called the poor of Stockholm to the Royal Castle of Tre Kronor, where she distributed food among them in exchange for their prayers of victory for the Swedes over the Danes, after which she and her ladies-in-waiting watched the battle from the castle wall, praying for victory.

In 1483, during the absence of the Regent on Gotland, a riot took place in Stockholm, when the noble Sten Kristiansson Oxentstierna murdered a commoner and the public tried to lynch him as retaliation.

On this occasion, Ingeborg ventured out upon the street in an attempt to calm the situation, but she fell to the ground and was almost trampled to death in the crowd.

She acted as a patron of science and literature, and gave donations to finance libraries and the printing and translations of books.

Stockholm, which was defended against the rebels by the queen of Denmark, Christina of Saxony, surrendered to the Swedish forces after a siege on 9 May 1502.

The purpose was to have Svante Sture elected Regent without any trouble from either the part of the Danish monarch or of Ingeborg and her followers.

[3] Lady Ingeborg was thus not informed of the death of her spouse until the party had reached the capital, and was thus incapable of taking any action.

Ingeborg did turn over the castle strongholds of Sweden and Finland to him, but not until she had them emptied of weapons and supplies of the garrison.

The Princess in the group of sculptures Saint George and the Dragon in Storkyrkan in Stockholm, which were made in 1471–1475, is considered to bear the features of Ingeborg.