ABSTRACT
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, noble women in Denmark (and Norway and Sweden) could be found holding the office of crown fief holder, that is, an individual who administered part of the royal estate, ranging from a few manors and villages to an entire county. They thus held the power and authority that came with that office, something that appears unique to Scandinavia among non-royal women, but which was ignored by later historians. This chapter tells the story of two noblewomen in sixteenth-century Denmark, sisters-in-law who confronted each other in a dispute over a crown fief they had inherited jointly—a dispute that was also affected by several more hidden agendas, including that of a king in love.
