Cecilia of Sweden (Swedish: Cecilia Gustavsdotter Vasa; 16 November 1540 – 27 January 1627), was Princess of Sweden as the daughter of King Gustav I and his second wife, Margaret Leijonhufvud, and Margravine of Baden-Rodemachern as the wife of Christopher II, Margrave of Baden-Rodemachern. She is the most famous daughter of Gustav I, known for a courtship scandal in connection with a sister's wedding and for a lengthy stay in England under Elizabeth I where her first child was born.
Cecilia was described as the most beautiful of the daughters of Gustav I, and was frequently mentioned because of her beauty. She has been referred to as somewhat of a Black Sheep of the family, because of the scandals she was involved in. During her early childhood, she, as well as her siblings in the royal nursery, were primarily under the care of her mother's trusted nurse, Brigitta Lars Anderssons, her mother's cousin Lady Margareta and the noble widow Ingrid Amundsdotter. After the death of her mother in 1551, she as well as her siblings were placed in the care of Christina Gyllenstierna and then under her aunts Brita and Martha Leijonhufvud before her father's marriage to Catherine Stenbock. They were then under the responsibility of their stepmother and, more precisely, the head lady-in-waiting Anna Hogenskild.
In 1556, she and her sisters were given a dowry of 100.000 daler, had their portraits painted and their personal qualities described in Latin by the court poet Henricus Mollerus and presented on the dynastic marriage market. The same year, her father presented Ostfriesland (East Frisia) with a trading treaty and a marriage alliance. Ostfriesland was chosen because it was strategically placed toward Denmark, and because the Calvinistic Emden was a rival to Lubeck and a treaty could break the domination of the Hanseatic league in Sweden. In 1557, the trading treaty was completed, and in 1558, Edzard II, ruler of East Frisia visited Sweden to meet Cecilia and her sister Catherine Vasa and chose one of them to complete the marriage treaty, and Edzard chose Catherine.
The wedding between Catherine and Edzard took place in Stockholm 1 October 1559. In November, Catherine and Edzard left for Ostfriesland. Upon their journey through Sweden, they were accompanied by Cecilia and the brother of Edzard, John II of Ostfriesland. While staying at the residence of Prince Magnus in Vadstena Castle on the way, a great scandal erupted when John was discovered in Cecilia's chamber without his trousers. The scandal became famous under the name Vadstenabullret (Vadstena Rumble). The king had been reluctant to let Cecilia follow, as there were at the time negotiations of a marriage between her and George John of Palatine Veldenz, and asked for her to return early: he also asked Catherine and Edzard to remain in Sweden for the winter, so he asked Magnus to delay their departure.
Several nights in a row, the palace guards observed a man climbing in through the window of Cecilia's bedroom. After this had happened four times a row, they informed her brother Prince Eric, who asked his brother Magnus and his courtiers to advise him. They decided to keep Cecilia's window under guard, so that the man in question could not be in a position to deny the matter if he was caught. When the same thing happened the night of 13–14 December, Eric sent Charles de Mornay with some guards to arrest the man, and when they entered Cecilia's bedroom, they found the brother of the groom, John II of Ostfriesland, in Cecilia's bedroom without any hose (pants) on. Eric had John imprisoned, held interrogations then sent John to the king, who imprisoned him in Örbyhus Castle. The 17 December, Catherine and Edzard were sent to Västerås Castle and placed under house arrest, while Eric and Cecilia were both recalled to Stockholm.
Cecilia accused her father of having beaten her and ripped her hair off. The king is said to have cried when he told the story to his wife. He accused Catherine and Erik for not having restrained Cecilia as they should, he had Charles de Mornay arrested and reprimanded Erik for having caused the scandal by his way of handling the whole affair by not having dealt with it in secret but instead exposed it in public. Catherine was allowed to see the king in June 1560: she acted as mediator and tried to issue John's, her own and her consort's release, protested against the confiscation of Cecilia's jewelry and asked the queen, Catherine Stenbock to speak for her, which it seems as the queen did. The mother of John had several foreign powers send ambassadors to Sweden to speak for John's release. Erik suggested that Cecilia and John be forced to marry each other, but the king did not like the idea and it is unknown whether the suggestion was ever presented to the two. In the summer of 1560, John was released after having been forced to swear before the monarch and the royal council that nothing sexual had taken place between him and Cecilia. The brothers of Cecilia stamped a coin which pictured her as Susanna in the bath, indicating that she was as innocent as the legendary Susanna of the Bible.
In 1563, Eric XIV discovered Cecilia and her sister having a party in their rooms in the middle of the night. This led to an argument between Cecilia and Eric. It is presumed that it was because of this incident, as well as the Vadstena scandal, that Eric issued a new protocol for the royal court, in which his sisters were to be placed under more a strict observation to prevent them from damaging their reputation, such as leaving the palace at night or early morning or accepting guests at night or letters without permission. This was particularly in regard to Cecilia, as Eric accused her of mixing with questionable people. The rules also banned the princesses from receiving supplicants and meddle in politics on their behalf, or to in any way interfere in affairs of state: the same year, Cecilia, Anna and Sophia had sent a letter of protest to Eric regarding his imprisonment of their brother John, something he had a very negative reaction to. Cecilia had protested openly toward these regulations.
Cecilia and her sister Anna were long supposed to be married to Louis of Palatine-Simmern, George John of Palatine-Veldenz or Poppo of Henneberg. The purpose was to make the Vasa Dynasty related to the more influential German families. The negotiation with Georg John was advanced when he chose Anna over her after the Vadstena scandal. In 1561, she was proposed to by Henry, the earl of Arundel. She was willing to accept, but Eric does not seem to have given it much consideration. In 1561 Polish magnate count Jan Tęczyński, who was sent by the Polish king on a diplomatic mission to Sweden and Finland. While at the Swedish court, he fell in love with Cecilia and began courting her. Eric liked the idea, and according to Cecilia, he forced her to agree. After obtaining preliminary consent for the marriage, Jan Tęczyński returned to Poland. In September 1563, he set out by sea with his cousin, also Jan, Tęczyński (the starost of Rohatyn) and their accompanying retinue to finalize his efforts to win Cecilia’s hand. However, the wedding never took place. On their way to Sweden, Tęczyński was imprisoned by the Danes, who were then at war with the Swedes, and died in December 1563 in a prison in Copenhagen.
Cecilia married Christopher II, Margrave of Baden-Rodemachern (1537–1575), in June 1564 in Stockholm. It is noted that the wedding was far less luxurious than that of her sister Anna, and that it seem to have taken place without much negotiation: the first contract had been signed as late as March the same year. Neither does there seem to have been any political purpose behind the marriage.
Immediately after the wedding, she traveled to England on an official state visit. She arrived in the autumn of 1565 after traveling some 400 miles by water and 750 miles on ice and snow. Cecilia had been engaged in a correspondence with Elizabeth for several years and seems to have felt admiration for her on a personal level. She successfully asked Elizabeth for an invitation to England already in 1562, and learned to speak English from English people in Sweden. Cecilia traveled to England through Estonia, Prussia, Poland and Germany (without visiting the home of her consort) to Antwerp in the Spanish Netherlands. She managed to meet her imprisoned brother John before her departure, and when she arrived in Swedish Estonia, Eric asked his governor in Reval to keep her under supervision, as he suspected her to be more loyal to their brother John than to him. In the Duchy of Prussia, she successfully asked the duke to work with the Danish monarch to free her brother John. During her stay with her sister Catherine in East Frisia, she is believed to have discussed the imprisonment of John, as Catherine soon after sent Eric a furious letter about his imprisonment of John.