Margareta Eriksdotter Vasa

Nothing is known of her childhood, but it is known that she could speak both Swedish and German, that she could read and write (which was not a given thing even by members of the nobility in this period) and that she had a great interest in literature: she placed her own daughters in school at Sko Abbey at the age of five, and it is considered likely that she was herself also spent a period at convent school, which was at the time customary within the Swedish nobility.

Hardly given enough each day to keep their lives but they worked to be fed":[1] king Gustav I of Sweden used their treatment in captivity in his propaganda against Christian II and claimed that the Danish monarch starved the women and children who only survived by the mercy showed them by the queen of Denmark, Isabella of Austria.

[1] Whatever the truth of this, it is confirmed that many of the imprisoned women and children died, among them Margareta's mother Cecilia, sister Emerentia and cousin Magdalena, though the cause of death are given as the plague, at that point used to classify a number of different illnesses.

In August of that year, she was engaged to the German count John VII of Hoya and Brockenhusen, and the wedding took place 15 January 1525 in Stockholm.

[1] Margareta settled in Vyborg Castle in Finland in the spring of 1525 and was, as was the contemporary custom, made responsible for the office of her spouse and command of the fortress whenever he was absent on the frequent assignments given to him by the king.

Margareta disliked her life in Finland, was afraid of the Russians and asked for permission to return to Sweden, but he refused stating that he needed her there.

Margareta accompanied Johan to Germany with her children and their escape attracted attention and bad publicity about Gustav I around the Baltic Sea.