The Court in the Countryside: Privacy and Political Sociability in the Suburban Villas of Copenhagen’s Late Eighteenth-Century Court Elite

Abstract

In the early modern period, country house areas developed on the outskirts of resident towns throughout Europe. During summertime when the royal court withdrew from the capital to its summer palace, higher-ranking members of court would also retire to the suburbs. For members of the diplomatic corps or high nobility, keeping up with the politics and sociability of court life was crucial, even in the warmer months. The countryside was a recreational space, and the political function of the suburban villa was therefore different from that of the town. The suburban villa was characterised by a relative simplicity and intimacy in appearance, yet it was a highly political arena. Court members and royals were free from their urban duties, having retired to the privacy of the countryside, but this article argues that the political sociability of court life continued, adapting to a different setting. Indeed, the suburban villa was a space where relationships could be deepened, or vital political matters discussed on more private terms. Court members went on carriage rides, held pique-niques or even balls during these stays in the suburbs, often employing for political purposes the connection between privacy and sociability that was intrinsic to countryside existence. The article discusses the experiences and agency of men and women, and the dynamics of court and countryside on the outskirts of the Danish capital of Copenhagen in the late eighteenth century.

Notes

1 Hannah Greig and Amanda Vickery, ‘The Political Day in Georgian London, c. 1697–1834’, Past & Present (August 2021), pp.101-37.

2 Kristine Dyrmann, ‘Spa Diplomacy: Charlotte Schimmelmann at Bad Pyrmont, 1789–94’, International History Review, e-pub ahead of print, 21 June 2021. DOI:10.1080/07075332.2021.1934070.

3 I would like to thank My Hellsing for presenting a joint paper with me on the suburban villas outside Stockholm and Copenhagen at the Nordic Conference on Castles and Estates in 2019. I later presented my part of that paper at the Privacy at Court Conference in 2020, and I would like to thank Dustin Neighbors and the delegates of that conference, as well as those at the Nordic Historians’ Meeting in 2022, and the anonymous peer reviewers on this article for their feedback.

4 The Danish architectural historian Frederik Weilbach’s (1863–1937) overview of the suburban villas to the north of Copenhagen, ‘Nordsjællandske Landsteder i det attende Aarhundrede’, a special issue of Historiske Meddelelser om København (Copenhagen, 1926) still stands as the standard work on Danish suburban villas.

5 Chr. B. Reventlow, En dansk Statsmands Hjem omkring år 1800, vol. I: 1774–1800 (Copenhagen, 1902), p. 91, Frederikke Reventlow to Louise Stolberg, 25 May 1784.

6 Ole Feldbæk, Den lange fred 1700–1800, Gyldendals & Politikens Danmarkshistorie vol. IX (Copenhagen, 2003), pp. 234-7.

7 Reventlow, En dansk Statsmands Hjem, p. 92, Frederikke Reventlow to Louise Stolberg 13 June 1784.

8 I have discussed the collection, editorial choices, publication and subsequent historiography of Louis Bobé’s Efterladte Papirer fra den Reventlowske Familiekreds (10 vols, Copenhagen 1895–1931) in a previous journal article: K. Dyrmann, ‘Salondiplomati og politisk selskabelighed: Charlotte Schimmelmann i dansk historieskrivning fra Louis Bobé til New Diplomatic History’, 1700-tal: Nordic Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 1 (2020), pp. 99-124. The first volume of Charlotte Schimmelmann’s correspondence to Louise Stolberg, which may — presumably — have covered the years up to and including 1786, is missing from the archive, and I have therefore used Louis Bobé’s published excerpts of the letters from this period.

9 Charlotte Schimmelmann’s letters to Ernst Schimmelmann are held in the Schimmelmann Papers in the Copenhagen department of the Danish State Archives (hereafter DSA): Ernst Schimmelmann Archives: Correspondence with Schimmelmann’s two wives. For an extensive overview of the correspondence collections, see my PhD thesis, ‘Salondiplomati og politisk selskabelighed: Kvinderne i reformkredsen som politiske aktører, 1784–1797’, (‘Salon Diplomacy and Political Sociability: The women of the reform reign and their political agency, 1784–1797’), Aarhus University, 2021. The thesis is currently being revised for publication.

10 Jon Stobart, ‘“So agreeable and suitable a place”: The Character, Use and Provisioning of a Late Eighteenth-Century Suburban Villa’, Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 39:1 (2016), pp. 89-102, p. 89. DOI: 10.1111/1754-0208.12279.

11 Jacques-Francois Blondel, Cours d’architecture contenant les leçons données en 1750 et les années suivantes (Paris, 1771), cited by Claire Ollagnier, ‘La petite maison: un concept architectural au service d’une sociabilité nouvelle’, Lumen 35 (2016), pp. 37-46, p. 37. DOI: 10.7202/1035919ar.

12 Ollagnier, ‘La petite maison’, pp. 45-46.

13 Antoine Lilti, The World of the Salons: Sociability and Worldliness in Eighteenth-Century Paris, trans. Lydia G. Cochrane (Oxford 2015, translated and abridged version of Le Monde des Salons, Paris 2005), pp. 59-60.

14 Jon Stobart, Comfort in the Eighteenth-Century Country House (London 2022), pp. 46-48.

15 Ollagnier, ‘La petite maison’, p. 43; Stobart, ‘So agreeable and suitable a place’, p. 14.

16 Vickery and Greig, ‘The Political Day’, pp. 13-16.

17 Elaine Chalus, Elite Women in English Political Life, c. 1754–1790 (Oxford 2005).

18 Greig and Vickery, ‘The Political Day’, p. 13.

19 Henrik Horstbøll, Ulrik Langen and Frederik Stjernfeldt, Grov Konfækt: Tre vilde år med trykkefrihed 1770–1773 (Copenhagen, 2020).

20 Eva Krause Jørgensen, ‘The Feud of the Jutlandic Proprietors: Protesting Reform and Facing the Public in Late Eighteenth-Century Denmark’, Eighteenth-Century Studies 52:4 (2019), pp. 411-29. See also: Eva Krause Jørgensen, ‘Breaking the Chains: An Intellectual History of the Discursive Struggles over the Danish Agrarian Reforms, 1784–1797’, Ph.D. dissertation Aarhus University, 2015. Claus Bjørn, ‘Den Jyske Proprietærfejde: En Studie over Godsejerholdninger og Bondepolitik Omkring 1790’, Historie/Jyske Samlinger 13: 1–2 (1981), accessed online via https://tidsskrift.dk/historiejyskesamling/article/view/39246.

21 Michael Bregnsbo, ’Samfundsorden og statsmagt set fra prædikestolen: danske præsters deltagelse i den offentlige opinionsdannelse vedrørende samfundsordenen og statsmagten 1750–1848, belyst ved trykte prædikener: en politisk-idéhistorisk undersøgelse’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Copenhagen 1997; Juliane Engelhardt, Borgerskab og fællesskab: de patriotiske selskaber i den danske helstat 1769–1814 (Copenhagen, 2010). See also: Ellen Krefting, Aina Nøding and Mona Ringvej, En pokkers skrivesyge: 1700-tallets dansk-norske tidsskrifter mellom sensur og ytringsfrihet (Oslo, 2014) and Øystein Rian, Sensuren i Danmark-Norge : vilkårene for offentlige ytringer 1536–1814 (Oslo, 2014).

22 Elaine Chalus, ‘Elite Women, Social Politics, and the Political World of Late Eighteenth-Century England,’ The Historical Journal 43: 3 (2000), pp. 669–97, DOI:10.1017/S0018246X99001314; Lilti, The World of the Salons, pp.192ff, esp. pp. 211-12.

23 Weilbach, ‘Nordsjællandske Landsteder i det attende Aarhundrede’; Sys Hartmann, 50 Palæer og Landsteder (Copenhagen, 1976). On the histories of architectural design and interior décor of individual suburban villas or landsteder, see for example: Tove Clemmensen and Hanne Raabymagle, Brede Hovedbygning 1795–1806: etatsråd Peter van Hemerts sommerbolig (exhibition catalogue, the Danish National Museum, Copenhagen 1996); Harald Jørgensen, Møstings hus: fra eksklusivt landsted til attraktivt kulturhus (Frederiksberg, 1990); Jeppe Tønsberg, Sophienholm — Lyngbybogen (Lyngby, 2001).

24 Karen Klitgaard Povlsen, Salon på Sophienholm omkring år 1800 (Sophienholm, 2010), see pp. 11-16.

25 Claus Bjørn, Den gode sag: en biografi om Christian Ditlev Frederik Reventlow (Copenhagen, 1992), pp. 97, 108.

26 Anne Scott Sørensen, ‘Min Laterna Magica: Om Charlotte Schimmelmanns salon og Sølyst,’ in Anne Scott Sørensen (ed.), Nordisk salonkultur: et studie i nordiske skønånder og salonmiljøer 1780–1850 (Odense, 1998), pp. 77-100.

27 Bobé, Efterladte papirer, vol. IV, pp. 92-93. As mentioned in footnote 8, I have not been able to locate the first volume of correspondence from Charlotte Schimmelmann in the Brahetrolleborg Estate archives, so the letters from before 1786 are quoted from Louis Bobé’s published excerpts.

28 Bobé, Efterladte papirer, vol. IV, p. 90.

29 Harald Jørgensen, Fra Christiansborg til Amalienborg: En begivenhedsrig periode i den danske hofforvaltnings historie, 1784-1808 (Herning, 1996) p. 52.

30 Jens Engberg, Den standhaftige tinsoldat: en biografi om Frederik 6 (Copenhagen, 2009), p. 101.

31 Danish State Archives: Funen: Brahetrolleborg Estate Archives: Letters regarding Frederikke Louise Reventlow, 1746-1824: Letters from Charlotte Schimmelmann 1789-1803. [Hereafter I will refer to the unpublished, original letters by quoting their location as either “DSA; Brahetroleborg: Sender, recipient, date” ]: DSA, Brahetrolleborg Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, 25 April 1789; undated letter from Sølyst, 1789, ‘Seelust ce 12 May 1793’. Danish State Archives: Copenhagen: Ernst Schimmelmann Archives: Correspondence with Schimmelmann’s two wives [Hereafter I will refer to the unpublished, original letters as: “DSA, Schimmelmann: Sender, recipient, and date”]: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Ernst Schimmelmann 25 May 1790. Where excerpts of a letter are included in Bobé’s publication, it is mentioned after the reference. If not, the reference is followed by: [unpublished source material].

32 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, 12 May 1793, ‘que ne puis-je V_ montrer Seelust dans sa gloire Printanière ! – nous avons fuis la Ville a la Lettre, hier après un gr: dinner et nous voila ici en repos’ [unpublished source material].

33 Edvard Holm, Danmark-Norges udenrigske Historie under Den franske Revolution og Napoleons Krige fra 1791 til 1807 (2 vols, Copenhagen, 1875), p. 2. Bobé, Efterladte papirer, vol. IV, pp. 298-99.

34 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg undated letter, inserted in the bound archival volume between the 25 April and 9 May, 1789 [unpublished source material].

35 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, Seelust ce 19 7bre 89 [19 September 1789]. Excerpt in Bobé, Efterladte Papirer, vol. IV, p. 115.

36 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, Seelust ce 19 7bre 89 [19 September 1789]. Excerpt in Bobé, Efterladte Papirer, vol. IV, p. 115.

37 Dyrmann, ‘Salondiplomati og politisk selskabelighed’, p. 181.

38 Lilti, The World of the Salons, p. 59-60.

39 Ollagnier, ‘La petite maison’, p. 44.

40 Ollagnier, ‘La petite maison’, p. 39, 45-46.

41 Sørensen, ‘Min Laterna Magica’ in Anne Scott Sørensen (ed.), Nordisk Salonkultur, pp. 79, 82-83. Povlsen, Salon på Sophienholm, p. 94.

42 Sørensen, ‘Min Laterna Magica’, p. 79. Jens Engberg, Magten og Kulturen (Copenhagen, 2005), vol. I, p. 310.

43 Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, 7 November 1796: ‘ Qui je Vois ? [ en Verité ma Chambre est Comme une lanterne Magique ] -- je vois bien des personnes differentes et nous avons eus plusieurs diplomates - Krudn: vient asses souv:, les francais furent hier Ches moi --- ils parloient avec triomphe de la gr: defaite de Moreau -- je la crois un peu exagerée - - - ce Momt_ mon frere m’ecrit que les V: der Goes vont nous arrivers quil X X est nomé Min: ici’. An excerpt of the letter, but not the sentences cited here, is published in Bobé, Efterladte Papirer, vol. IV, p. 183. Bobé’s published excerpt interestingly mentions Baggesen and Schiller, the two poets emphasised in both Bobé’s and Scott Sørensen’s scholarship, and perhaps explaining why the ‘Laterna Magica’ quote has been associated with these two writers. The poet Jens Baggesen is mentioned in the letter, as is the Schimmelmanns’ private secretary, Niebuhr, but the sentences about Charlotte Schimmelmann’s social circle as a ‘magic lantern’ focuses on the diplomats.

44 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg. Letters from Charlotte Schimmelmann, vol. II. Excerpts of four letters written from Seelust, dated the 22 May, 4 August, 15 September and 25 September, 1789, have been included in Louis Bobé’s publications, while the archive holds 11 letters from the same location and year.

45 Bobé, Efterladte Papirer, vol. IV, pp. 91-92.

46 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Sybille Reventlow to Louise Stolberg, letter written from Christiansholm (the Reventlows’ suburban villa, owned by the Schimmelmanns), 15 July 1786 [unpublished source material].

47 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Sybille Reventlow to Louise Stolberg, Christiansholm 29 July 1786, ‘nous dinons tous demain à Springforbi ches [sic] Rasoumofsky [sic]’ [unpublished source material]. (NB: Here I have indicated that the spelling of Razumovsky comes from the original letters.) The diplomat would decades later be known as a patron of the arts during his residence in Vienna for the Congress of 1814-15. Mark Ferraguto, ‘Representing Russia: Luxury and Diplomacy at the Razumovsky Palace in Vienna, 1803–1815,’ Music and Letters 97: 3 (August 1, 2016), pp. 383-408, DOI:10.1093/ml/gcw050.

48 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Sybille Reventlow 15 July 1786, ‘[…] à Hellebeck ou nous allons cet apresmidi, cette partie me rend fort heureuse, quoi qu’elle ne sera pas tout a faite ce qu’elle pourait etre, il y aura grande Chasse d’Oges Sauvages lundi et grand dine [sic] le jour de demain ne sera pas entierement a nous non plus, car Rasoumuoffsky y sera deja alors. il est aureste de fort bonne Societé mais dans ce moment ci j’aurais preferé que nous eussions étés a nous, Ernst et Charl.[Charlotte] Cayus et Wilhelmine.’[unpublished source material]. NB: original spelling throughout.

49 Ole Feldbæk and Knud J.V. Jespersen, Revanche og neutralitet 1648-1814, Dansk Udenrigspolitiks Historie vol. 2, (Copenhagen 2006), 425.

50 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, 15 November 1794, ‘la journée a finie par l’hymne des Marseil:, mais chut la desus – quand Turpin l’a entoné, avec cette vivacité, cette energie d’un fran: republicain, je fus saisie – ils ont apeutres fait tout ce qu’ils promettent dans cette Chanson trop guerriere.’[unpublished source material].

51 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, New Year’s Day 1793 (Jour de l’an 1793): ‘Un sot propos de Hamb: et d’Altona quelle me mande ou je passe pr : furieuse democrate (passe pour cela, car je ne suis pas aristocr : et dans o stems l’on Confond), mais Notre Maison est dit-il sur cela le foyer de Revolution. C’est une detestable Calomnie dont je dois tracer la source car je serois une folle ou une Sotte – et mon Mari s’il le souffroit un peu traitre – j’avoue que cela m’a indignée’. An excerpt of the letter, including this quote, has been published in Bobé, Efterladte Papirer, vol. IV, pp. 136-37.

52 J.P. Bang and A. Th. Jørgensen, ‘Lavater, Johann Caspar’, in Christian Blangstrup (ed.), Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon (Copenhagen, 1923), vol. XV, pp. 538-539.

53 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, 21 June 1793. An excerpt of the letter, including the part quoted here, has been published in Bobé, Efterladte Papirer, vol. IV, pp. 143-44.

54 The historian Louis Bobé also published Johann Caspar Lavater’s diaries (in German) from his 1793 visit to Copenhagen. The diaries were published in 1898, with the financial support of Christian Einar count Reventlow: Johann Caspar Lavater and Louis Bobé, Johan Caspar Lavaters Rejse til Danmark i Sommeren 1793 (Copenhagen, 1898).

55 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, 21 June 1793, ‘j’avois mis un cerbere a la porte pr: eloigner toutes les visittes, et cepend: nous etions un cercle de pl: de 12 pers: ce n’est reellemt pas Comme cela qu’il faut voir Lavater’.

56 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelman, Seelust a vendredi [June 1793]. An excerpt of the letter, including this quote, has been published in Bobé, Efterladte Papirer, vol. IV, p. 145. The publication dates the letter 28 June 1793.

57 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, Seelust a vendredi [June 1793]. ‘il dit hier a mon mari, lorsqu’il avoit appris que le Pr: Roy: vouloit le voir encore une fois il dit avec une bonhomie Charmante a Ernst : dites moi s’il y a une ou plusieurs Choses que Vous Voudriés que je dise au Pr: Roy: que moi je pourrois lui dire parceque je vais partir, parceque je viens de Zurik [sic] et parceque je ne le reverrois pl:, dites le moi - si je restois je ne pourrois pas de pl: que Vous les lui dire’ ---- - la n’est-il pas Charmant’. An excerpt of the letter, including this quote, has been published in Bobé, Efterladte Papirer, vol. IV, p. 146.

58 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, ‘et Comme B: l’aime ! cela me rend B: encore pl: Cher. Lav: est dans cette maison ein democrat [sic], u: frey denker [sic]= C’est [de] lui seul que je le sais.’ An excerpt of the letter, including this quote, has been published in Bobé, Efterladte Papirer, vol. IV, p. 146.

59 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, 22 April 1793, ‘Nous avons donés un bal avant hier a la jeunesse qui a reussit a mieux car tous ont rajeunis avec les Enfans’ [unpublished source material]. Dyrmann, ‘Salondiplomati og politisk selskabelighed’, (Aarhus University 2021), p. 212 (see below, footnote 62). The ‘bal à la jeunesse’ seems to describe a ball held in honour of the young women, with their families, courtiers, and members of the diplomatic corps attending. I have retained the French term from the original source, ‘bal à la jeunesse’.

60 The following passage about the youth ball at Sølyst is based on a paragraph in my unpublished PhD thesis: Kristine Dyrmann, ‘Salondiplomati og politisk selskabelighed’, (Aarhus University 2021), pp. 209-14.

61 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, 6 April 1793 [unpublished source material].

62 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, 22 April 1793, ‘Nous avons donés un bal avant hier a la jeunesse qui a reussit a mieux car tous ont rajeunis avec les Enfans’ [unpublished source material]. Dyrmann, ‘Salondiplomati og politisk selskabelighed’, (Aarhus University 2021), p. 212.

63 DSA. Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, 1 May 1792, ‘une jeune fille aimable qu’on veut avoir partout [meme le Pr: Roy: a fait gouté Charl:]’[unpublished source material]. For an analysis of the importance of dancing at a comparable eighteenth-century court, see Hillary Burlock, ‘“Tumbling into the Lap of Majesty”: Minuets at the Court of George III’, Journal for eighteenth-century studies 44 (2021), pp. 205-24. DOI:10.1111/1754-0208.12755.

64 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg 23 November 1789. [unpublished source material].

65 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, 11 October 1793, ‘Nous avions le soir du 7 un petit bal a Seelust pr Louise B: et a 1h: quand tout le monde nous quitta – il s’eleva une temp: si affreuse, par une nuit si noire, que toute la caravane dansante a eus des aventures sans fin – malgré les flamb: les lanterns tout s’est passé sans la moindre suite, et chacun a ri des Scènes nocturnes qui auroient pu devenir funestres […] mais dieu merci tout a fini par des rires – et Bernst: même s’en est amuse. Nous avons cepend: promis de ne pl: donner un bal au mois d’oct:’. [unpublished source material].

66 Jens Engberg, Den standhaftige tinsoldat, p. 226. Charlotte Schimmelmann 28 June 1796. An excerpt of the letter, including this quote, has been published in Bobé, Efterladte Papirer, vol. IV, p. 168. Dyrmann, ‘Salondiplomati og politisk selskabelighed’, (Aarhus University 2021), p. 223.

67 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, Seelust 1 July 1796, ‘notre Courreur vint haletant me dire que la Reine etoit a Seel: le pauvre Ernst en prof: negl: la plume en Main fut obl: de paroitre - - car quoiqu’on eut dit a la R: - - que la Maison etoit vuide Elle voulut descendre […] S:M: etoit radieuse et de Couleur de rose comme je ne la vis jamais me donant Cordial: la Main a la promen: assise au milieu de nous tous sur son banc - - elle resta jusqu’après le Coucher du Sol: et retourna en Voit: ouverte par une soirée divine.’ An excerpt of the letter, including this quote, has been published in Bobé, Efterladte Papirer, vol. IV, p. 169.

68 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg 1 July 1796. Dyrmann, ‘Salondiplomati og politisk selskabelighed’, (Aarhus University 2021), pp. 207-9.

69 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, 1 July 1796, ‘Mais la Reine nous joue un tour perfide Elle s’annonce de celebrer par un dinner d’amitié le jour de naiss: jeudi de la duch: accouchée – et a insiste [sic] sur ce que nous en soyons […]’

70 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, 1 July 1796, ‘il est vray qu’on est victim [sic] de leurs bontés’.

71 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, 7 July 1796: ‘Nous eussions été inconsol: si a Seel: Elle eut connu le terme de sa vie […] Elle etoit hier d’une grace!’. An excerpt of the letter, including this quote, has been published in Bobé, Efterladte Papirer, vol. IV, p. 171.

72 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann to Louise Stolberg, 15 October 1789 [unpublished source material].

73 DSA, Brahetrolleborg: Charlotte Schimmelmann til Louise Stolberg, Seelust ce 4. Octobre 1794: ‘le mauv: tems nous fait penser a la ville, Comme Ernst doit tant etre sur le gr: Chemin, les Chr: Rev: y sont deja, et les B: y entrent auj. - nous comptons mercredi proch: nous y etablir . le Corps deja est assés decontenancé.’ [unpublished source material].

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Kristine Dyrmann

Kristine Dyrmann

Kristine Dyrmann has a PhD in History from Aarhus University in Denmark. She holds a Carlsberg Foundation Visiting Fellowship at the University of Oxford (from 2022 to 2024) to pursue research on women’s diplomatic and political spaces during the Napoleonic Wars. Her PhD thesis (2021) explored women’s involvement in political agency in 1780s and 1790s Denmark-Norway. Her research interests include women’s and gender history, and informal diplomatic and political practices in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Her work has been published in 1700-tal: Nordic Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies; The Scandinavian Journal of History and The International History Review.