Countess Consort of East Frisia. Princess of Sweden, Vasa Dynasty, eldest daughter of King Gustav I and Queen Margaret. She was the autonomous regent of Berum and Norden in East Frisia (Ostfriesland) from 1599 to 1610. After the death of her mother in 1551, she and her siblings had been placed in the care of Lady Christina Gyllenstierna and then under her aunts Bridget and Martha Leijonhufvud before her father's remarriage to Queen Catherine Stenbock of Sweden. 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 Henry Mollerus, and thus presented on the European dynastic marriage market. The same year, her father presented East Frisia with a trade treaty and strategic marriage alliance. In 1558, Count Edzard came to Sweden to meet her and her sister Cecilia. Edzard chose Catherine, but the negotiations took a long time, so much so that her father King Gustav stated in his frustration that it was a blessing that his daughter was at least neither "lame nor blind". The wedding finally took place in Stockholm 1 October 1559, and i In November, she and her husband left for East Frisia. She arrived there April 1561. As Countess of East Frisia, she took an active part in policy and the affairs of state, fully using her family connections, asking her three consecutive ruling brothers in Sweden to intervene to her benefit. After her husband's death in 1599, Catherine lived at Berum Castle and took control over her dower lands Norden, Pewsum, Woquard Loquard, Campen and Neeuwarden. She refused to acknowledge her son Enno III's right to collect taxes and exert authority in her fiefs, causing a rift which remained unsolved at her death. When her son was asked why he was submissive to her he excused himself by saying: "Because she is a woman, because she is a widow, already seventy, because she is the daughter of a king and, which is the greatest reason to show her respect, because she is a mother."