A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Ulrica, Eleonora

4121216A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography — Ulrica, Eleonora

ULRICA, ELEONORA,

Second daughter of Charles the Eleventh of Sweden, was born in 1688, and governed the kingdom during the absence of her brother, Charles the Twelfth; after his death she was proclaimed queen in 1719. The following year she resigned the crown to her husband, Frederic of Hesse-Cassel, with whom she shared the honours of royalty; but such was the ascendancy of the nobles, that they obliged their sovereigns to acknowledge their right to the throne as the unbiassed election of the people. Ulrica, by a wise administration, contributed to restore peace and prosperity to the nation, and was greatly beloved and respected. She died in 1741. Her mother, the wife of Charles the Eleventh, also bore the name of Ulrica, and died in consequence of the chagrin which her husband's brutal treatment had occasioned.