The death sentence against the soldier Mats Ersson
She lived as a man, served as a soldier and married a maid. In Stockholm in 1679, it cost her her head.
On 12 November 1679, the royal court in Stockholm confirmed a death sentence against a woman who had lived as a man for years. Under the name Mats Ersson, Lisbetha Olsdotter had worked as a farmhand, drawn pay as a soldier and married a woman.
She came from the parish of Östuna in Uppland, was married and had two children. In 1672 she left her husband, according to her own account because of abuse and infidelity. In Stockholm she first found work as a maid. In the autumn of 1676 she put on men's clothes and from then on called herself Mats. A skipper who discovered the secret exploited it and placed her with the army for money. To keep up the disguise, she wore a horn in her trousers.
Before marching off, Mats Ersson married the maid Kerstin Ersdotter in church. The priest and the congregation suspected nothing. But Kerstin soon noticed that something was wrong, felt deceived and took the matter to the authorities.
The indictment listed everything that challenged the order of the time: the abandoned husband, the forbidden men's clothing, the deception of the bride and the church, the fraudulently obtained pay. Both women denied that there had been anything more between them. In any case, sex between women was not explicitly prohibited under Swedish law. Kerstin was regarded as a victim and went unpunished.
Because the case was so unusual, the sentence had to be confirmed at the highest level. Lisbetha Olsdotter was then beheaded on Hötorget, the Haymarket. The court had even prescribed her clothing: men's clothes on her body, a woman's bonnet on her head. To the very end, it was to remain visible which boundary she had crossed.
How she saw herself, as a woman in disguise or as a man, the records do not reveal. They only show how harshly a society reacted that had no place for a life beyond the roles.