About half a year after the death of his first queen in 1583, John III chose her to be his next consort, after first having considered Sigrid Brahe. Bielke is described by her contemporaries as a beautiful blonde, though the portraits preserved by her are considered to be too stylistic to give a true image of her appearance. It was acknowledged that the reason to the marriage was that the king was attracted to her beauty, and this was also the reason John III himself stated for his reason to marry a member of his own nobility rather than a foreign princess. Asked why he did not marry a member of a princely house, he openly stated that he wished to have a beautiful consort and that portraits of foreign princess was not to be trusted. Therefore, it would be wiser: "To marry a person in this country, of which whom you have already seen".