Anna Agriconia Åkerhielm

Anna Agriconia Åkerhielm wrote a highly unusual work for a woman, namely a travel and war diary. She was the daughter of a clergyman, but was orphaned at an early age and grew up with her siblings. As the close friend of and lady-in-waiting to Catharina Charlotta de la Gardie and wife of Field Marshal Otto W. Königsmarck, who in 1686 became Commander-in-chief of the army of the Republic of Venice, the two women accompanied him during his crusades against the Turks. The war took them from Venice to Athens, and Anna Agriconia Åkerhielm became well acquainted with the warfare and military strategies she describes in her diary and letters home to Sweden. The diary, which concerns the period from 1686 to 1691, should be regarded as the most interesting seventeenth century Swedish-language diary written by a woman.