Görvel Fadersdotter was born on 1509 or 1517, at Hjulsta Manor in Uppland, Sweden. She was the daughter of Fader Nilsson and Bodil Knutsdotter of Mörby. She was an early orphan and a great heiress through both her parents. Her maternal grandfatherKnut Alvsson was the greatest landholder in Norway. When he rebelled against the Danish King and sided with the Swedes in 1501, his estates were confiscated by the Danish crown after he was slain. This property, consisting of 200 estates in Norway and Denmark, was later given to Görvel Fadersdotter. Görvel Fadersdotter was married and widowed three times; in 1532 to Swedish riksråd Peder Nilsson Grip ; in 1534 to Danish riksråd Truid Gregersen Ulfstand ; and in 1547 to Danish riksråd Lave Brahe. She had one child; her son Nils Ulfstand,, who died of the plague during a trip with his stepfather. During her second marriage, she left Sweden for Varberg Fortress in then Danish Halland, where her spouse was county administrator. During the Count's Feud Görvel Fadersdotter was held as prisoner there and confronted with various legal claims of her lands from her Norwegian and Swedish relatives and stepchildren. In the 1530s, she had the Danish monarch appointed her guardian to further protect her interests. At the death of her son in 1548, she was in sole control of large territories.
Landowner
Görvel Fadersdotter was described as clever, sensible and was reportedly successful in her ambitions. In 1574, she renounced her claims on the debts owed to her by the crown, and was in exchange granted the fief Troll's Manor as county administrator. She later exchanged her Norwegian properties with King Frederick II of Denmark for equivalent compensation in Skåne. Between 1582 and 1599, she granted the Danish crown her Norwegian holdings in Nordenfjeldske; Giske, Finne and Bjarkøy . In 1582, she received the fief Börringekloster] in Skåne and some minor parishes. In 1601, she made King Christian IV of Denmark the heir to her Danish and Swedish lands. Her Swedish holdings had been confiscated during the Northern Seven Years' War, but were given back at the time of the Danish-Swedish treaty at Flakkebäck in 1603. Görvel Fadersdotter managed her estates with the help of good tenants, obtained huge profits from her lands, and constructed the Torup Castle in Skåne after her own drawings. She only visited Norway once, but was from the 1530s a frequent guest of the Danish King, as he was of her. Among her estates, she preferred to live at Börringeklost, where she acted as the guardian of many daughters of the nobility. She died at her favourite estate on 20 April 1605.
