Anna Catharina von Bärfelt

Anna Catharina Charlotta Wilhelmina von Bärfelt (1673 – Linköping, 2 April 1738), was a Swedish courtier and an influential royal favourite of Queen Hedwig Eleonora. She was immensely unpopular and rumoured to abuse her influence and position to receive bribes for influencing the queen and stealing from the royal possessions. She was convicted of theft and expelled from court.

Bärfelt was the daughter of Lieuntenant Colonel Bernhard Bärfelt. In 1687, she became seamstress and in 1695 the lady's maid of the Queen Dowager Hedvig Eleonora: this was, at that point, a position which could be filled by a member of the lesser nobility.

Bärfelt soon became a personal favorite of the Queen Dowager, which placed her in a position of power at court. She was rumored to accept bribes from supplicants. According to the French envoy, Jacques de Campredon, Anna Catharina von Bärfelt had accumulated a fortune amounting to the sum of 100.000 ecus from supplicants to the queen dowager. Among the supplicants were clients from both the nobility and the public, and she was able to secure positions for applicants through her influence.

Reportedly, she had the talent to caricature people, and made enemies by ridiculing them before the queen. Her position as a favorite made her unpopular, and she was exposed to slander. As a person, she was described as a cunning, bold, promiscuous and greedy character, and was accused of stealing from the royal residences and from the household of the queen dowager herself, and of using poison against her enemies. On one occasion, Anna Catharina von Bärfelt was attacked and mistreated on the street by unknown men.

In 1709, the Queen Dowager's alleged lover, count Carl Gyllenstierna, attempted to convince Hedvig Eleonora to exile Anna Catharina von Bärfelt from court. von Bärfelt retaliated by accusing Gyllenstierna of greed and embezzlement. This caused an open conflict, upon which Gyllenstierna openly gave the queen dowager an ultimatum: "Either miss Bärfelt leave or I will leave". The Queen Dowager reacted by leaving the room.

Carl Gyllenstierna now united with a party of von Bärfelt's enemies consisting of the Queen Dowager's confessor Molin, Arvid Horn, Christina Piper, Märta Berendes and Beata Sparre, and united in their request to Hedvig Eleonora that von Bärfelt should be investigated and banished. Hedvig Eleonora eventually relented and agreed to send von Bärfelt away from court. However, she refused any charges put against her and banned any one from searching the luggage of von Bärfelt to investigate of any stolen goods were there.

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