Background
Ingeborg Skeel was born at Nygaard between Vejle and Kolding, the daughter of Niels Skeel(1480–1561) and Karen Globsdatter Krabbe (-1586).
Ingeborg Skeel was born at Nygaard between Vejle and Kolding, the daughter of Niels Skeel(1480–1561) and Karen Globsdatter Krabbe (-1586).
She resided at Voergaard, a large estate which she expanded into a fine Renaissance castle between 1588 and 1591. A talented business women, she personally managed her estates and held several lifelong endowments. In her own day, she had an infamous reputation for greed and cruelty but there is no historical evidence for any of the rumours associated with her name.
On 31 August 1560, at Nygaard and in the presence of King Frederick II, Ingeborg Skeel was married to Otte Eriksen Banner, the son of former Rigsmarsk Erik Eriksen Banner and Mette Rosenkrantz.
In 1578, after several years of negotiations, Ingeborg Skeel and her mother acquired the large Voergaard estate from the Crown in exchange for Nygaard. The estate received status as a local judicial unit, Voer Birk, a so-called birkeret, for the parishes of Voer, Albæk og Skæve.
In the 1686, after she had become a widow, Ingeborg Skeel carried out an extension of Voergaard, possibly with the assistance of master builder and sculptor Philip Brandin. She died on 17 October 1604 at Voergaard.
Ingeborg Skeel was an industrious women.
She seems to have personally managed her estate and her holdings were regularly expanded through new acquisitions. Voergaard alone comprised more than 300 farms. Otte Banner and Ingeborg Skeel were granted ownership of Sejlstrup for life and after Banner"s death in 1575 Skeel held it alone.
From 1586, she was also granted lifelong ownership of Amtofte in Thy and Strekhals on Mors.
She was very active in trade with grain and other goods and in 1587 citizens of Aalborg complained that she was guilty of unauthorized trade in the town"s market rights (so-called "landprang"), and that she kept a tent at markets, selling German beer and other items. She restored and partly refurnished the churches which belonged to Voergaard and Asdal.
She also financed the limewash frescos in Skæve Church. In her old age she took two orphaned children of noble descent into her care.
There is no historical evidence for any of the rumous associated with her name.