Christina Gyllenstierna, born to riksråd Nils Eriksson Gyllenstierna and Sigrid Eskilsdotter (Banér) of Venngarn, Heir of Lindholm, was a great-granddaughter of King Charles VIII of Sweden through her father, a younger son of Christina Karlsdotter Bonde, for whom she was named.
She is from a family of Danish origin.
Her grandfather Erik Eriksen of Demstrup ("Gyldenstjerne") was Danish, but became acquainted with Sweden, because the two realms were united in the Kalmar Union.
When Sweden and Denmark began to fight over control of the Union, Erik had allied with the Swedish claimant, Charles VIII.
As a reward, Charles's daughter, the heir of Fogelvik, had been married to him and he ultimately became the High Steward of Charles' court.
Through her mother, Christina is the half-sister of Cecilia Månsdotter of Eka, mother of the future king Gustav I, through her mother's other marriage.
Her father is Niels Eriksen, Lord of Tullgarn (also written Nils Eriksson, and surnamed "Gyllenstjerna" by later historians).
Her family belongs to the highest Swedish nobility of this "Regency" era.
Christina was first engaged to Nils Gädda (d. 1508), governor of Kalmar and Lycka, but the marriage never took place due to his death.
She had married the nephew of her former betrothed, Sten Sture the Younger, son of Svante, the regent of Sweden, in Stockholm on November 16, 1511.
She has had five children during her marriage: Nils in 1512, Iliana in 1514, Magdalena 1516, Svante 1517 and Anna 1518, as well aa son after the death of her spouse, who will live only eighteen months.
She has two sons from her first marriage: Nils and Svante Stensson Sture.
After the death of her father-in-law, regent Svante, in 1512 one year after her marriage, Sten Sture had been elected regent of Sweden.
During this period, Sweden is formally a part of the Kalmar Union of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, with the Danish monarch customarily elected king of all three kingdoms.
This has created an opposition in Sweden to the Danish dominance within the union, and during most of the second half of the fifteenth-century, Sweden had been governed almost continuously by "Regents": the father-in-law of Christina, Svante Nilsson, was regent in 1504–1512.
Sten was eighteen years old at the death of his father.
High Councilor Eric Trolle, who supports union with Denmark, had been chosen as regent by the council.
However, young Sten had utilized the castles and troops enfeoffed to him by his late father and staged a coup.
After Sten promised to continue union negotiations with Denmark, the High Council had accepted him as regent instead of Trolle.
Lord Sten intends to keep Sweden independent of Denmark.
He has taken the Sture name, a legacy from his great-grandmother, because it symbolizes independence of Sweden as reminder of Sten Sture the Elder, his father's third cousin.
Regent Sten had already in 1504 been proposed as a candidate in the election of a new king of Sweden as a replacement for king John, King of Denmark, who had been elected king of Sweden in 1497 but who had been ousted from Sweden in 1502.
Upon the death of John in 1513, the question had again been raised to elect regent Sten as king of Sweden rather than the son of John, Christian II of Denmark, and Sten has been making preparations to arrange an election, among them seeking support from the pope.
