Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht

Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht
Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht painted by Ulrika Pasch
Born	28 November 1718
Died	29 June 1763
Cause of death	cancer or suicide
Residence
Occupation	writer and poet
Known for	Swedish poet and salon hostess.
Spouse(s)	Jacob Fabricius

Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht (, Sweden, 28 November 1718 – Stockholm, Sweden, 29 June 1763) was a Swedish poet, feminist and salon hostess.

She was the youngest of five children of the wealthy official Anders Andersson Nordbohm (1675–1734) and Christina Rosin. Her father was ennobled as Nordenflycht in 1727. After the retirement of her father in 1730, the family settled on the estate Viby. She was sporadically tutored by Henning Tideman, the teacher of her brother Anders Nordenflycht (1710–1740), in Latin and German, and studied philosophy and theology as an autodidact, being otherwise only educated in domestics and accomplishments. In 1734, she was engaged against her will to Johan Tideman (1710–1737), a pupil of Christopher Polhem and supporter of the Wolffian philosophy. Johan Tideman and his naturalism and philosophy made a great impact upon her development and satisfied her intellectually, but she opposed their engagement because she did not find him physically attractive. The engagement was, however, broken by the early death of Tideman.

On 23 April 1741 she married Jacob Fabricius (1704–1741), who had been her French language teacher, and was appointed chaplain of the admiralty at Karlskrona prior to their marriage. This marriage was not arranged and is described as a mutually happy love match: it was in fact opposed by her brother, who wished for a more socially and economically advantageous marriage which could benefit his own career, but she was supported by her mother. She had no children during her marriage. Before here departure to Karlskrona, she wrote the poetic collection Cronstedtska poemboken, which was a gift to her friend countess Margaretha Beata Cronstedt.

The death of her spouse in December 1741, only a couple of months after their wedding, caused a severe depressive chock. She retired to a rented cottage at Lidingö outside Stockholm to mourn, during which she wrote the Den sörgande turtur-dufvan, poems describing her longing for her lost love and the nature of sadness and loss.

Nordenflycht returned to Stockholm after her mourning period, where she settled. Her economic situation had at that point deteriorated: her late spouse had no fortune and the inheritance after her father had been wasted by her brother. She was forced to support herself and decided to do so through her literary talent.