Vendela Skytte

Growing up in an environment where humanists such as Thomas More, Erasmus of Rotterdam and Juan Luis Vives were popular, she was given the same education as her brothers by her father – her sister Anna Skytte also became respected for her learning.

She studied theology, ethics, history, philology and geology, and mastered Latin, French, German and Greek.

Her spouse later became governor of Österbotten, but during the lifetime of Vendela, he was in the service of the army of Gustav II Adolf during the Thirty Years' War.

According to the legend, Vendela Skytte conducted a religious debate with learned Catholic males from the Jesuit College in Braunsberg in East Prussia "by which she with superior skill in Latin questioned the most sacred ideals of the Catholic religion",[4] and won the debate in perfect Latin.

[5] Vendela Skytte died of the plague with her newborn child shortly after having given birth in Stralsund while visiting her spouse during his military service in Germany.