Born: 5 April 1723, Sweden
Died: 24 March 1763
Country most active: Sweden
Also known as: Catharina Charlotta Taube
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
Catherine Charlotte De la Gardie was influential in popularising smallpox vaccination in Sweden, as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu had been in England. Catherine also successfully forestalled the country’s last witch trial. When she became aware that a local governor had ordered the arrest, interrogation, and torture of eighteen people, she used her connections to contact authorities in the capital and have it stopped. No one in Sweden had been executed for witchcraft in fifty years; the parliament investigated, freed the prisoners, and jailed the governor. Catherine also helped the victims obtain legal assistance and ensured they were granted compensation from the state, as the torture had left them incapable of working.