by her male relatives. The wedding was surrounded what was seen as bad omens: the plague swept through parts of the nation, the city of Turku burned down, and people claimed to see bad omens and evil signs in the sky. The celebrations lasted for three days. When the court departed, the city of Vadstena burned down in a great fire, which was seen as another bad omen. There is little information of Catherine Stenbock as Queen. As such, she was, with the assistance of her head lady-in-waiting Anna Hogenskild, made responsible to supervise the female courtiers and her cousins, the royal children; in the case of the princesses, until they married, and in the case of the princes, until they were no longer children. It seems as if her relationship to her royal stepchildren was a good one, with the exception of Duke Charles. Her private relationship to the King is not much mentioned, and it has been said that she: "Accepted her part as Queen of Sweden with silent dignity" and without attracting too much personal attention. It is said, however, that the King did find their age difference too great and contemplated writing a law which would prevent any future marriage between: "Two people, of which one was young and one was old". As Queen, she was expected by her family to replace her aunt Queen Margaret in the role of acting as a loyal as a channel between her family and the King, preserving the influence of her family, a task she obediently fulfilled: in 1556, for example, she was asked by her aunt Martha Leijonhufvud of a document from the King regarding the rights to Läckö fief, a task she performed successfully. There are no information that she ever involved herself in any personal political agenda of any kind. One of the few incidents mentioned of her during her tenure as Queen was during the conflict between the young courtier Hogenskild Bielke and her brothers Erik and Olof, in which Bielke accused Olof and Erik of using their positions as brothers of the Queen to terrorize the other young male courtiers while being protected by Catherine. Her stepson John's lover Karin Hansdotter originally belonged to her court. In 1554 and in 1556, there were signs that she was pregnant, but no pregnancy was ever officially announced and none was ever confirmed. In 1555, she and