Renowned in Denmark since the 19th century for her posthumously published autobiography Jammers Minde, written secretly during two decades of solitary confinement in a royal dungeon, her intimate version of the major events she witnessed in Europe's history, interwoven with ruminations on her woes as a political prisoner, still commands popular interest and scholarly respect, and has virtually become the stuff of legend as retold and enlivened in Danish literature and art.

Nonetheless, she grew up with her parents in Copenhagen's royal palace (across the courtyard from the tower where she would eventually be imprisoned) on familiar terms with her three elder half-brothers – including the future King Frederick III – sons of the late Queen Anne Catherine of Brandenburg.

Upon the death of a king, that body would negotiate fresh limitations upon the royal authority, only ratifying the nominee's accession to the throne in return for concessions of rights and privileges.

Tradition upheld the King's impartiality and dignity among the nobility by not permitting members of the royal family to marry his subjects, reserving princesses for foreign alliances.

But the morganatic status of Leonora Christina and her sisters rendered them useful domestic tools of state, so Christian IV sought to bind the loyalty of powerful or promising nobles by bestowing upon them the hands of these semi-royal daughters, endowed with rich dowries.

At the accession to the throne in 1648 of her half-brother, the couple's position was threatened by the resentment of her husband's dominance by Frederick III and, especially, by his queen, Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg, who now became Leonora Christina's relentless enemy.

She sometimes spent weeks disguised as a man, once fending off arrest from Danish pursuers at gunpoint, and another time the caresses of an infatuated barmaid, the latter proving the more difficult escape.

They escaped separately to Copenhagen where he was promptly arrested, and she shared his harsh imprisonment in the castle Hammershus on the isle of Bornholm 1660–1661, until they ransomed themselves by deeding over most of their properties.

When Ulfeldt was again being sought for treason by the Danes, Leonora Christina went to England to solicit repayment from King Charles II of money her husband had loaned him during his exile.

She was taken to a holding cell, and thrice cross-examined by court officials, but refused to attest to any crimes on her husband's part, or to join her signature to his abandoning their family's lands in return for her freedom.

She deduced that the others were her nephew's Queen, Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel), and his sister Anne Sophie, wife of the Electoral Prince Johan Georg of Saxony.

Eventually the King had Leonora Christina moved to more spacious quarters in the tower, installed a stove against the cold of Copenhagen winters, and commanded that her window be opened.

On the morning of 19 May 1685 Leonora Christina was informed that a royal order had been issued by Chancellor Frederick von Ahlfeldt (he who had reluctantly escorted her into the Tower) for her release.

But she refused the guard's offer to unlock her cell until, at 10 o'clock that night, denied a final private audience with the Queen and fetched by Sophie Amalie Lindenov, the daughter of her long-dead sister Elisabeth Augusta Lindenov, the destitute Countess left the Blue Tower forever under cover of darkness and a veil, denying even a glimpse of her face to the curious crowd that had gathered in the courtyard (the Queen and her ladies watched from the palace balcony).

Now regarded as a classic of 17th century Danish literature, it explores her prison years in detailed and vivid prose, recounting her crises, confrontations, humiliations, self-discipline, growing religious faith and serenity, together with descriptions of hardships she endured or overcame.

Heltinders Pryd (Praise of Heroines), was penned in 1683 as a compilation of biographical sketches describing the different kinds of courage and endurance summoned by women whose struggles left an imprint on history.

Only recently have sceptics focused on other perceived aspects of the Countess's personality: arrogance, stubbornness, blind devotion to an unworthy husband, and a disingenuous cleverness seen as taking the literary form of a tendency toward self-absorption and self-absolution that somehow never casts her in a negative light.