Skip to content
VitrineRoyal Houses of Europe
Sign in

Sophie Amalie Moth

1654–1719

Born
28 Mar 1654, Copenhagen
Country of birth
Denmark
Died
17 Jan 1719, Jomfruens Egede
facts
7
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

  • Birth28 Mar 1654, CopenhagenProbable1 source
  • Death17 Jan 1719, Jomfruens EgedeProbable1 source
  • ParentPaul MothConfirmed1 source
  • ParentIda BureneesConfirmed1 source

A life in time

  1. Born · Copenhagen

    Birth, Copenhagen

  2. Child born: Christiane Gyldenloeve

    Birth, Odense

  3. Child born: Christian Gyldenløve

    Birth, Copenhagen

  4. Child born: Sophie Christiane Gyldenløve

    Birth

  5. Child born: Ulrik Christian Gyldenløve, Count of Samsø

    Birth, Samsø

  6. Died · Jomfruens Egede

    Death, Jomfruens Egede

What was it like?

The world around Copenhagen, 1654: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Peasant men often wore knickers made from tanned buckskin, and both men and women typically wore clogs for everyday and festive activities.

Fashion

Everyday footwear and trousers

Peasant men often wore knickers made from tanned buckskin, and both men and women typically wore clogs for everyday and festive activities.

Around 1640–1649

Cost of footwear and livestock

In the 1640s, a pair of new shoes was valued at one daler, while an ox cost between 8 and 13 daler.

Music

Minuet arrives in Denmark

The minuet began to establish itself as a fashionable dance in Denmark around 1667, appearing in wedding poetry.

Town musicians held exclusive performance rights

Privileged town musicians held a monopoly on all paid musical performances for citizens and farmers, often charging for their services at weddings and feasts.

Getting around
Around 1653–1653

Introduction of passenger mail coaches

In 1653, the Danish postal service began operating mail coaches that carried both passengers and parcels twice a week.

Cost of travel and accommodation

For official travel, the cost of an overnight stay with meals was 17 skilling, equivalent to what a good worker earned in two weeks of labor on Copenhagen's fortifications.

Daily life

Dark and Smoky Homes

Ordinary homes often lacked chimneys, relying on open fires on the floor with smoke escaping through holes in the roof, making interiors dark, smoky, and stifling.

Limited and Specialized Schooling

Schooling was not universal; in rural areas, children often only attended school in winter, while in places like Nyboder, boys were trained as future naval workers with rye as part of their pay.

Food

Beer consumption in daily life

Beer was an essential part of the daily diet, consumed morning, afternoon, and evening by people of all social classes. Adults typically consumed at least twelve barrels of beer per year.

Common breakfast of beer porridge

A common breakfast for many, including school children, consisted of warm beer and bread porridge, sometimes served with butter.

Prices and wages

Daily Wages for Workers

In the 1650s, a laborer typically earned about 16 to 24 skilling per day, while a master mason could earn 36 to 40 skilling daily.

Food Costs in the 1650s

A pound of coarse rye bread usually cost 1 to 2 skilling, while a pound of pork cost about 5 skilling in the 1650s.

Work

Common jobs in 17th-century Danish towns

In cities like Ribe, most of the population consisted of manual workers, including craftsmen, skippers, merchants, and unskilled laborers, while a significant portion of the urban population lived in poverty.

Structure of the daily workday

A working day typically lasted between 8 and 13 hours depending on the season, with tasks strictly divided by gender and household hierarchy. Common rural labor included plowing and harvesting for men, while women managed dairying, baking, and textile production.

News and letters

Organized postal routes and costs

The national postal service used fixed routes served by mail coaches and riders, though postage costs remained high for ordinary people.

Around 1625–1649

Establishment of the Danish Postal Service

Denmark's formal postal service, established by Christian IV in 1624, connected major cities with routes like the one from Copenhagen to Hamburg. Initially, mail was mostly carried by foot, but the use of mounted riders increased significantly after 1640.

During their lifetime

  1. 1659

    Plague epidemic strikes Denmark in 1659

    A plague epidemic broke out in 1659, causing the death of 25% to 30% of the population.

  2. 1660

    Denmark becomes an absolute monarchy in 1660

    The Danish state transitioned to an absolute monarchy in 1660, centralizing power and changing how the state collected taxes.

  3. 1661

    Marriage tax introduced in 1661

    A tax on marriage was introduced in 1661, known as kopulationspenge.

  4. 1676

    Battle of Lund fought in 1676

    During the Skåne War, a bloody battle at Lund on 4 December 1676 resulted in the deaths of approximately 6,000 men.

  5. 1709

    1709 rye crop failure causes price surge

    Following a harsh winter, a severe rye crop failure in 1709 caused the price of a tonne of rye to rise to 5 Rdlr. 2 Mk., a significant sum for the time.

  6. 1711

    1711 bubonic plague kills thousands in Copenhagen

    In 1711, a bubonic plague epidemic struck Copenhagen, killing approximately 23,000 people, which was about one-third of the capital's population.

Family

Parents

Children

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.