To Give to Airy Nothing a Local Habitation and a Name

At the very zenith of aristocratic power in Sweden in 1669 senior members of the powerful De la Gardie family submitted a petition to the teenage King Charles XI. ¹ The letter fumes with righteous indignation. The De la Gardies demanded an end to evil calumnies besmirching the memory of their grandfather Pontus De la Gardie who died in 1585. He had arrived as a condottiere in Sweden in 1565 and proceeded to a brilliant career. Now, however, it was claimed that he was not a nobleman but a simple shoemaker posing as an aristocrat. This surprising claim originated in a book published in 1605 by the Flemish Jacob Typotius. ² He had been a secretary to King John III and a contemporary of Pontus De la Gardie.