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Margareta von Ascheberg (1671 – 1753) was a Swedish land owner, noble and acting regiment colonel during the Great Northern War. #CelebratingWomen
She was the youngest child of Field Marshal Rutger von Ascheberg and Magdalena Eleonora Busseck. In 1691, she married colonel count Kjell Christopher Barnekow in Malmö.
As was the custom of the Swedish nobility as that time, she kept her name after marriage and style herself »Grevinnan Ascheberg» (Countess Ascheberg). The couple had four children.
She accompanied her spouse on his military commissions: she gave birth to their youngest sons during the Bombardment of Brussels in 1695.
When her husband died, very suddenly, of a fever, Margareta von Ascheberg was left with the responsibility of her four small children and the management of their estates as well as the other responsibilities of her late spouse.
This included the task of the command and equipment of his Scanian regiment. In 1702, she had performed the task of a colonel by having organized and equipped the regiment and appointed its officers ready for inspection by the royal command and ready to serve in the war.
She also sat at the inspection office of the regiment when it was sent to war from Kristianstad. During the war, she took care of the continued equipment and affairs of the regiment, and exchanged letters with Charles XII of Sweden about its appointments and promotions.
She was called "Coloneless" or Madame Colonel. She was admired for: "the energy and care with which she performed her unusual task, a circumstance, which in other cases would seem impossible for a woman".
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