Inger Ottesdotter Rømer

Who was Inger Ottesdotter Rømer?

Ingerd Ottesdotter was her era's wealthiest landowner in Norway, a daughter and ultimate heiress of the Younger Rømer family of Norway, a political intriguer, and her fame was the inspiration for Henrik Ibsen's play Lady Inger of Ostrat.

Lady Ingerd's parents had her marry Lord Nils Henriksson, whose family also had some claim to Austrått. Thus the important manor of Austrått manor, in the Trondheimsfjord, with its associated lands, were settled to be Inger's share of the family inheritance. Her husband became both Chancellor and Lord High Steward of Norway. She was widowed in 1523.

Her interests also targeted Swedish politics, in addition to Norway's. In 1526 she received the exiled chancellor Peder Sunnanväder. And, later she practically joined attempts to dethrone Gustav I of Sweden. In 1528 the knight who claimed to be Nils Sture, the elder son of Sten Sture the Younger, the 1512–20 Regent of Sweden, fled to Norway after his defeat and enjoyed the hospitality of Lady Inger. She had plans to obtain the crown of Sweden for him, taking it from the Stures' kinsman king, Gustav Vasa.