Helga de la Brache, née Aurora Florentina Magnusson, was a Swedish con artist. She obtained a royal pension by convincing the authorities that she was the secret daughter of King Gustav IV of Sweden and Queen Frederica of Baden. She claimed that they had married again, secretly, in a convent in Germany.
About Helga de la Brache in brief
Helga de la Brache, née Aurora Florentina Magnusson, was a Swedish con artist. She obtained a royal pension by convincing the authorities that she was the secret daughter of King Gustav IV of Sweden and Queen Frederica of Baden. She claimed that they had married again, secretly, in a convent in Germany, which resulted in her birth in Lausanne in 1820. She was raised by her alleged father’s aunt, Princess Sophia Albertine of Sweden. When the Princess died in 1829, she was taken to the Vadstena asylum, so that the secret of her birth would be concealed as she would be thought to be insane. She managed to escape from the asylum, and was taken under the care of charitable people, who supported her despite persecution.
She received great financial support from private benefactors. In March 1861, the king allowed her an annual pension from the foreign department of 2,400 Swedish riksdaler a year,. He also promised to provide her with the furniture of a princess. In 1870, however, an article in a newspaper by C. Norrby, one of herbenefactors, appeared, resulting in an investigation. In 1876–77, it was proved that she had been born in Stockholm as Aurora FloreninaMagnusson. She named her biological parents both of whom belonged to the upper classes: Count De Geer, and her mother as a Count Förnö fröm. This has been confirmed one way or the other, but it is nevertheless believed to have affected her greatly.
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This page is based on the article Helga de la Brache published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 18, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
