Ulrika Eleonora Stålhammar (1683 in Svenarum – 16 February 1733 at Björnskog in Hultsjö), was a Swedish corporal and crossdresser who served in the Great Northern War.
They relied on the charity of relatives and entered into arranged marriages with people whom they considered to be below their standards in order to support themselves: within four years of her father's death, all her sisters were married.
Ulrika, who had watched her sisters enter unpleasant marriages, did not wish to marry, and in March 1713, she dressed herself in her father's clothes, stole a horse from the stable and ran away from home.
[1] Ulrika Eleonora Stålhammar finally enlisted in the army as an artillerist in Kalmar on 15 October 1715 under the name of Vilhelm Edstedt.
This was permitted and acceptable, though somewhat unusual among common soldiers, who normally preferred not to spend their meager salary on special sleeping arrangements.
It was later reported that Löhnman thought that Stålhammar was impotent, but that she was content to live without sex, as she had previously been the victim of rape.
She wrote to her wealthy aunt, the widow of her late uncle, the landowner Sofia Drake, and asked for protection for Maria and herself.
[4] At one point, the couple managed to meet at the estate of the royal equerry Silfversparre at Gullaskruv, were Maria were temporarily given refuge: it is not mentioned under which circumstances they met.
In midsummer 1728, on the advice of her family, Ulrika went to Helsingör in Denmark, and wrote a letter of confession to the Swedish government and asked for its pardon.
[3] Stålhammar asked the King for pardon because of: "My weak sex, who if only with the deepest humility, loyalty and steadfastness in ten years served the Swedish crown".
After consulting the Bible, Stålhammar was charged with having "violated the order of God" by dressing as a man, and with "making a mockery of marriage" by marrying a member of the same sex.
When the court asked Stålhammar how she could have lived a married life for ten years without men, she replied that: "as she, thanks to God, never had any debauched thoughts and even less so any natural lust, there was never any need for her to associate with any male person".
Ulrika Eleonora Stålhammar lived at Hultsjö Manor outside Sävsjö, with her Elisabet Ramsvärd, widow after colonel lieutenancy Erik Silfversparre: her daughter Margareta Elisabet was married to Ulrika Eleonora's cousin Otto Fredrik Stålhammar, the son of Sofia Drake.
Maria Löhnman was employed as a housekeeper to Stålhammar's aunt, Sofia Drake af Torp och Hamra, at Salshult Manor outside Vetlanda.
[2] Contemporary to Ulrika Eleonora Stålhammar, Anna Jöransdotter and Margareta Elisabeth Roos both served in the army of Charles XII of Sweden during the Great Northern War: in the case of Roos it was unconfirmed, as she was never put on trial, but Anna Jöransdotter served under the name Johan Haritu until she was discovered in 1714,[2] and a third woman is known to have been whipped for her service as a soldier during the campaign in Norway, but continued to be seen in male clothing on the streets of Stockholm until the 1740s, where she was known as "The Rider".
[6][7] There was a certain awareness about the phenomena among the public: in 1715, during a trial against male homosexuality, the soldier Jürgen Wiess defended himself by claiming that the only reason why he had reacted willingly to the sexual advances of a male corporal was because he believed the corporal to be a woman in disguise, as it was known that there were several disguised women among the soldiers.