Sigrid Banér

Sigrid Gustafsdotter Banér (17 January 1592, Djursholm Castle - 22 October 1669), was a Swedish nobleman, letter writer and scholarship founder. She is most known in history for her letters to her sister Anna, in which she described the last days of her father Gustaf Banér, who was executed during the Linköping Bloodbath.^[1]

Gustaf Banér bids farewell to his family
painting by Fanny Brate

Life

Sigrid Banér was born to Gustaf Banér and Kristina Svantesdotter Sture (1559-1619) and was a sister of (among others) Per Gustafsson Banér and Johan Banér. She never married, and after the death of her mother, she lived with her sister Anna Gustafsdotter Banér (1585-1656) and her brother-in-law count Gabriel Bengtsson Oxenstierna (1586-1656), tutoring her numerous nieces and nephews.

Legacy

Sigrid Banér was described as an autodidact who enjoyed reading and writing. She wrote genealogical research of her family and made notes on the lives of her family members, particularly the childhood of her brothers. In 1653, she donated the income from two farms to finance scholarships for students in theology at the Uppsala University.

The street Jungfrugatan ('Maiden Street') at Östermalm and Ladugårdsgärdet in Central Stockholm, where she owned a property, is named after her.^[2]