page_title: Jammers Minde
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Jammers Minde / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: First page of the manuscript of the autobiography in French of Leonora Christina.
context_page_description: Jammers Minde, translated into English as Memoirs of Leonora Christina, is an autobiography completed in 1674 by Leonora Christina, daughter of Christian IV of Denmark and Kirsten Munk. The work, first published in 1869, is included in the Danish Culture Canon. It is considered to be the finest piece of prose work written in 17th-century Denmark. It relates a partly fictionalized account of Christina's time during captivity, with a detailed personal account of prison life, often drawing upon biblical references and black humour, and contrasting the comical with the macabre. Radical for its period in its personal account, it is considered an existential religious writing.
context_section_description: Married to Corfitz Ulfeldt, Leonora Christina was imprisoned from 1663 to 1685 in the Blue Tower of Copenhagen Castle for presumed knowledge of her husband's treachery. When Christian V came to the throne in 1670, the conditions of her imprisonment were improved and she was given books and writing materials.
  After writing a short autobiography in French in 1673, she embarked on Jammers Minde which she completed after her release from prison in 1685. As the manuscript was secretly held abroad for many years, the work remained unknown until it was finally published in 1869, attracting considerable attention.
caption: First page of Leonora's autobiography in French (1673)
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