Countess Magdalena "Malla" or "Malin" Charlotta Rudenschöld (1 January 1766 – 5 March 1823 in Stockholm, Sweden) was a Swedish lady-in-waiting and conspirator.
When her father lost his parliament seat in 1766 and the family experienced economic difficulties, her mother received a secret allowance from the Kingdom of France in exchange for benefiting French interests through her influential connections.
[2] In 1784, Magdalena was appointed hovfröken (maid of honor) to the King's sister, Princess Sophia Albertine of Sweden.
Arfvidsson consulted her coffee leaves and stated that the man of whom Rudenschöld was thinking (Armfelt) had recently left the country in anger over a child (the King) and a small man (the regent, Duke Charles), whom he would soon scare by an agreement with a woman with a non-royal crown on her head (Catherine the Great).
At one occasion, Baron Carl Hierta made a remark about a paper claiming that the Russian monarch would turn her attention toward Sweden after having conquered Poland, and asked Rudenschöld: "Would you say we are unhappy enough to have a Swedish Potocki?
[12] At a ball, Magdalena Rudenschöld handed the under age monarch a letter, in which Armfelt asked for his permission to make any move necessary to assure the safety of the King.
Upon a second attempt to obtain his permission, he turned the letter back with the words that Armfelt had his eternal friendship as long as he was loyal also to his uncle.
[16] The correspondence of Rudenschöld and Armfelt, however, fell into the hands of acting-regent Reuterholm and regent-in-name Duke Charles through the Hamburg post office, which had been making copies of the letters and selling them.
The overwhelming hostility shown to her by the Duke and Reuterholm also gained her public sympathy, however, when Rudenschöld was confronted with better evidence in April 1794, she confessed, saying she had only participated because of her unlimited confidence in Armfelt.
Princess Sophia Albertina intervened and asked the regent to show mercy,[17] and she avoided being charged for abortion, which had been suggested at first.
[18] On 22 September 1794 Magdalena Rudenschöld was convicted and sentenced to death for treason, together with Armfelt, in his absence (being still abroad), and two other co-conspirators, Ehrenström and Aminoff.
The audience was reported to have felt sorry for her, according to Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp, because of, "her youth, her tragic fate and possibly because of the remains of her former beauty".
After her reprieve from hanging, a carriage came to take her to jail and she fainted, according to writer Märta Helena Reenstierna "with the same grace and decorum as Mrs. Olin once had in Acus and Galathea" (the opera).
I remained unconscious all the way to the workhouse, some distance from Hornstull, and did not open my eyes until the afternoon, where I found myself alone lying on the floor in a dark cell with a bowl of water and a glass of wine beside me.
When she left the workhouse, she wrote on the prison wall (in French): She was given back her name and the property, the small manor Stenstugu gård on Gotland, as compensation for her loss of a pension.
In 1801, she moved to Switzerland and was taken under the protection of Germaine de Stael, at the recommendation of Armfelt, who also arranged for her son to be educated in Saint Petersburg in Russia and supported her financially.