Sources:
Abraham Brahes Tidebok, published by Count Carl Magnus Stenbock and P. A. Norstedt and Sons, 1920
Alla riksdagars och mötens beslut 1521-1721, volume 1, Anders Anton von Stiernman, 1728
Anteckningar af Johannes Thomæ Agrivillenis Bureus, article in Samlaren, volume 4, 1883
Carl Carlsson Gyllenhielm och Vasa-huset, article written by Erik Granstedt for Personhistorisk tidskrift, volume 42, 1943
Christina, Königinn von Schweden und ihr Hof, volume 1, by Wilhelm Heinrich Grauert, 1837
Christina, Queen of Sweden: The Restless Life of a European Eccentric, by Veronica Buckley, 2004
Comenius' School of Infancy, by Johannes Amos Comenius, English translation by Will Seymour Monroe, 1893
Des Pfalzgrafen Johann Casimirs, Schwagers K. Gustav Adolphs, und Vaters K. Carl Gustavs in Schweden, 48. eigenhändige Schreiben an Ludwig Camerarius, Kön. schwedischen Rath und Ambassadeur bey den General-Staaten, von den Jahren 1622 bis 1639, in Neues patriotisches Archiv für Deutschland, volume 1, F. C. von Moser, 1792
Drottning Christina: en biografi, by Marie-Louise Rodén, 2008
Drottning Christina: gravöppningen i Rom 1965 av Carl-Herman Hjortsjö, by Dr. Carl-Herman Hjortsjö, 1967
Expressions of power: Queen Christina of Sweden and patronage in Baroque Europe, by Nathan Alan Popp, PhD., University of Iowa, Autumn 2015:
Famous Affinities of History, volume 1, Lyndon Orr, 1912
Gustav-Adolfs Gemahlin Maria-Eleonora von Brandenburg: Eine biographische Skizze, Fortsetzung I, article written by Dr. Fritz Arnheim for Hohenzollern Jahrbuch: Forschungen und Abbildungen zur Geschichte der Hohenzollern in Brandenburg-Preußen, volume 8, published by Paul Seidel, 1904
Healthline.com:
Informatorium maternum, eller Moder-Schola, by Johannes Amos Comenius, translated by Ericus Schroderus, 1642
Kristina: Brev och skrifter, edited by Marie Louise Rodén, translated by Cecilia Huldt and Viveca Melander, published by Svenska Akademien, 2006
Kvinnokungen, by Kristina Sjögren, 2017
Livrustkammaren (The Royal Armoury), Stockholm, photos by Erik Lernestål and Helle Kobbernagel Hansen:
Mémoires concernant Christine, volume 3, by Johan Arckenholtz, 1759
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), of the United States:
Per Brahe: grefve till Visingsborg, friherre till Kajana, herre till Rydboholm, Lindholmen, Brahelinna och Bogesund, Sveriges rikes råd och drots samt lagman öfver Västmanland, Bergslagen och Dalarna, by Petrus Nordmann, 1904
Per Brahes Tänkebok, efter dess i Skoklosters Bibliotek förvarade originala handskrift, by Count Per Brahe, published in 1806
Riksarkivet, Riksregistraturet, Augusti-December 1626
Riksarkivet, Skrivelser till konungen 1500-1800t, Skrivelser till Kristina och förmyndarregeringen för henne 1600t, D-K
Rikskansleren Axel Oxenstiernas skrifter och brefvexling, senare afdelningen, femte bandet: Jakob de la Gardies bref 1611-1650, published by the Royal Scientific Academy of History and Antiquities and P. A. Norstedt and Sons, 1893
Rikskansleren Axel Oxenstiernas skrifter och brefvexling, senare afdelningen, tredje bandet: Gabriel Gustafsson Oxenstiernas bref 1611-1640, Per Brahes bref 1633-1651, published by the Royal Scientific Academy of History and Antiquities and P. A. Norstedt and Sons, 1890
Above: There are no portraits of Kristina as a baby, but I have put in this 17th century portrait of a royal baby in the cradle to establish and represent the general theme of this post (painter unknown).
Although I do have the 1966 book "Queen Christina of Sweden: Documents and Studies", which contains the English translation, albeit somewhat abridged, of Dr. Carl-Herman Hjortsjö's report on his 1965 exhumation and examination of Kristina's remains in Rome and a history and analysis of her/his/their illnesses, anatomy, physical appearance and death, my current circumstances force me to make my own translation of the selected passages shown here from said report (I got the original Swedish publication of the report at Christmas 2021). The book containing the translation, along with some others in my Kristina book collection, is unfortunately and currently in indefinite storage until further notice since we suddenly moved house in November 2019, I couldn't take the book around anyway due to its age, and nothing in that storage will be able to come out unless we move house again because there's so much in there...
From my two-part analysis of Kristina's childhood and adolescence:
Our story begins at Kristina's birth in December 1626. Most or some accounts from the time, even the letter announcing the birth, list the date as December 7, according to the Julian (Old Style) calendar then in use in Sweden, but Kristina always knew her/his/their birth date as December 8, or December 18 in the Gregorian (New Style) calendar that was in use in Italy, where she/he/they wrote the autobiography. In their respective diaries, Abraham Brahe, Johannes Bureus and Count Per Brahe the Younger wrote about the birth without mentioning anything unusual about the baby or the parents, except Per Brahe mentions that Kristina's father, King Gustav II Adolf, was ill at the time.
Abraham Brahe's account:
"7 Decembris. En fiärdings Timme [efter] 8 [för] effter middagen foddes konungens dotter frochen Cristina på Stocholms Slått..."
"December 7. At a fourth of an hour after 8 in the afternoon, the King's daughter, Lady Kristina, was born at Stockholm Castle..."
Johannes Bureus's account:
"7 [Dec.] — wart D. Maria Eleon. förlos[sad], och fik en dotter 7 ¹/ (8 h.) pom."
"December 7 — Queen Maria Eleonora was delivered of a daughter at 8 o'clock."
Abraham's nephew Per Brahe's account, with the update on Kristina's status added after 1632, is the slightly more detailed one of these three. Two versions exist, one written in the third person and with the wrong birth date, and another written in the first-person with the date of birth corrected:
"När fröken Christina, Sweriges Rijkes arff furstinna och sedermehra regerande drotningh, föddes den 6 Decemb. på Stockholms Slåth, tå lågh konungen af en starck skelfwe sooth, then han om hösten bekom i Pryssen, och qwaldes ther af i 3 timmar inom lyckta dörrar..."
"At the time when Lady Kristina, Hereditary Princess and later Queen regnant of Sweden, was born on December 6 at Stockholm Castle, the King lay very ill with the tremors, which he had gotten in the autumn in Prussia, and which plagued him for 3 hours behind locked doors..."
"1626 den 8 December vid klockan 8 om aftonen blef den Högborna Fröken Christina född, Sveriges Rikes Arfförstinna och Drottning. ... Då var jag hos Konungen i hans kammare ensammen, och alle dörrarne voro tillykta; hade då Konungen en stark skälfvesot (tertiana), hvilken han om hösten fick i Preussen."
"On December 8, 1626, at 8 o'clock in the evening the High-Born Lady Kristina, Hereditary Princess and Queen of Sweden, was born. ... At that time I was alone with the King in his chambers, with all the doors locked; the King then had a bad case of the tremors, which he had gotten during the autumn in Prussia."
Above: Kristina's parents, King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden and Princess Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, Queen Consort of Sweden.
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Above: Johannes Bureus.
Above: Count Per Brahe.
55 years later, Kristina wrote in her/his/their autobiography about Maria Eleonora's fertility history and why this new pregnancy was so important:
"Cette Princesse, qui avoit quelque beauté, accompagnée des bonnes qualités de son sexe, vécut avec le Roi dans une union assez douce, à laquelle rien ne manquoit, sinon la succession, la Reine, ma Mere, n'ayant donné qu'une Fille au monde, qui étoit morte. Elle s'étoit depuis encore blessée d'un Fils de peu de mois; ce qui rendit ma naissance si importante. Le Roi obtint enfin ce qu'il avoit si fort desiré dans un voyage qu'il fit en Finlande, où la Reine, qui l'accompagna, se trouva grosse de moi dans Abo; ce qui leur donna à tous les deux une fausse joye, puisqu'ils se persuadérent que le Ciel leur donneroit un héritier. La Reine ma Mere m'a assuré que tous les signes la trompérent, & lui persuadérent qu'en accouchant de moi, elle accoucheroit d'un Fils. Elle eut des songes qu'elle crut mystérieux, & le Roi en eut de-même. Les Astrologues, qui sont toujours prêts à flatter les Princes, l'assurérent que la Reine étoit enceinte d'un successeur."
"This princess, who had some beauty, accompanied by the good qualities of her sex, lived with the King in a rather sweet union, in which nothing was lacking except the succession, with the Queen, my mother, having given only one daughter to the world, who died. She later miscarried a son a few months into the pregnancy, which made my birth so important. The King finally obtained what he had so desired while on a journey he made to Finland, where the Queen, who accompanied him, found herself pregnant with me while in Åbo, which gave them a false joy, as they persuaded themselves that Heaven would give them an heir. The Queen, my mother, assured me that all the signs were deceiving her and persuaded her that by giving birth to me, she would give birth to a son. She had dreams which she believed to be mysterious, and the King had the same dreams. The astrologers, who are always ready to flatter princes, told the Queen that she was pregnant with a successor."
Indeed, I have found some hilarious-in-hindsight evidence of what was not just the hope, but the belief, that the royal baby would be a boy. This evidence is in the form of part of a letter written by the Grand Steward Gabriel Gustafsson Oxenstierna's letter to his brother, the Grand Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, on November 27/December 7, not long before the birth:
"... Belangande H. M:tt Dråttningen, så går H. M:tt alt ähnu uppe och ähr ingen dagh frij. Gudh förlähne H. M:tt en nådigste förlosningh och välsigne vårt fäderneslandh medh en ung prins."
"... As for Her Majesty the Queen, she is still up and doesn't have a day of freedom. God give Her Majesty a good delivery and bless our Fatherland with a young prince!"
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Above: Gabriel Gustafsson Oxenstierna, Grand Steward of Sweden.
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Above: Axel Oxenstierna, Grand Chancellor of Sweden.
Kristina went on to describe her/his/their birth:
"Je nâquis coëffée depuis la tête jusqu'aux genoux, n'ayant que le visage, les bras, & les jambes de libres. J'étois toute velue, j'avois la voix grosse & forte: Tout cela fit croire aux femmes, occupées à me recevoir, que j'étois un garçon. Elles remplirent toute la Palais d'une fausse joye, qui abusa le Roi même pour quelques momens. L'espérance & le desir aidérent à tromper tout le monde; mais ce fut un grand embarras pour les femmes, quand elles se virent trompées. Elles étoient en peine comment desabuser le Roi. La Princesse Catherine, sa Sœur, se chargea de cette commission. Elle me porta entre ses bras en état de me faire voir au Roi, & de lui faire connoître ce qu'elle n'ôsoit lui dire. Elle donna au Roi le moyen de se desabuser de lui-même.
Ce grand Prince n'en témoigna aucune surprise, il me prit entre ses bras, il me fit un accueil aussi favorable que s'il n'eût pas été trompé dans son attente. Il dit à la Princesse:
«Remercions Dieu, ma sœur. J'espère que cette fille me vaudra bien un garçon. Je prie Dieu qu'il me la conserve, puisqu'il me l'a donnée.»
La Princesse, pour lui faire sa cour, voulut le flatter qu'il étoit encore jeune; que la Reine l'étoit aussi, & qu'elle lui donneroit bientôt un héritier; mais le Roi lui répondit dérechef:
«Ma sœur, je suis content, je prie Dieu qu'il me la conserve.»
Après cela, il me renvoya avec sa bénédiction, & il parut si content, qu'il étonna tout le monde. Il commanda qu'on chantât le Te Deum, & qu'on fit toutes les réjouissances accoutumées dans les naissances importantes des premiers mâles."
"I was born covered in a caul from head to knee, having only my face, arms, and legs free. I was completely hairy, my voice was great and strong. All this made the women who received me believe that I was a boy. They filled the whole castle with a false joy, which deceived even the King for a few moments. Hope and desire helped to deceive everyone; but it was a great embarrassment for the women when they saw themselves deceived. They were at a loss as to how to undeceive the King. Princess Katarina, his sister, took charge of this commission. She carried me in her arms in such a way as to show me to the King and to show him what she did not dare tell him. She thereby gave the King the means to undeceive himself.
This great prince did not show any surprise, he took me in his arms, and he gave me a welcome as favourable as if he had not been deceived in his waiting. He said to the Princess:
'Let us thank God, my sister. I hope this girl will be as good for me as any boy. I pray that God will preserve her for me, since He has given her to me.'
The Princess, wanting to congratulate him, flattered him and told him that he was still young, that the Queen was too, and that she would soon give him an heir; but the King replied immediately:
'My sister, I am content; I pray to God that He keep her for me.'
After that, he sent me away with his blessing, and he looked so happy that he astonished everyone. He ordered that the Te Deum be sung, and that all the usual celebrations be made as they would on the important births of male children."
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Above: Princess Katarina of Sweden, Countess Palatine of Kleeburg.
And so Kristina's arrival into the world was greeted with 48 rounds of cannon fire salute, as was the custom. Interestingly, her/his/their aunt Katarina and Chancellor Oxenstierna's wife, Lady Anna Bååt, had even assisted the midwives with the birth, and it must have been a great consolation for Maria Eleonora to have her sister-in-law be there for her through the labour pains and to be among the first to see the new baby.
On December 10/20, Katarina's husband and Kristina's paternal uncle by marriage, Count Palatine Johan Kasimir of Kleeburg, wrote the following letter to his friend Ludwig Camerarius:
"Stockholm den 10. Dec. 1626.
Monsieur Camerarie. Jch zweifle nicht meine unterschiedliche im Nov. datirte, sonderlich aber die von hinnen aus abgegangene Schreiben werden Euch numehr wohl zukommen seyn, und Jch also bey selbiger Gelegenheit gewiße und gründliche Nachricht von allem erlangen. Wie es dann allhier Gottlob! in gutem Zustand und zweifle nicht, Jhr werdet mit erfreutem Gemüth die glückliche Niederkunft Jhrer Majestät der Königin vernehmen, indem dieselbe den 7. dieses Abends bald nach 8. Uhren gnädig entbunden und mit einer jungen Tochter und Prinzessin erfreuet und begabet worden. Der Allmächtige wolle Jhren Majestäten zu völligen Kräften helfen und das liebe Fräulein, welches Gottlob! mit der Fraumutter, der Gelegenheit nach, sehr stark und frisch, zu seinen Ehren und der Königlichen Eltern Trost laßen aufwachsen, auch solchen Ehe-Seegen durch seine göttliche Gnad je länger je mehr vermehren. Und weilen Jhr der zukünftigen Kindtauf und Gevatterschaft halben umständlichen informiret werdet, so will ich Euch damit ferners nicht aufhalten, indem Euch auch bekannt die præparationes, welche allhier mit Ernst getrieben werden. ... Gott wolle ferner alle gute intentiones seegnen, mit welchem Wunsch beschließend bin und bleibe Jch
Euer allzeit vertraut obligirter guter Freund
J. C. Pf."
"Stockholm, December 10, 1626.
Mr. Camerarius,
I have no doubts about my various letters, dated November, but especially the letters sent from there will now have reached you, and I will therefore have certain and thorough information about everything on the same occasion.
What good condition all is in here, thanks be to God; and I have no doubt that you will happily hear of the happy delivery of Her Majesty the Queen, as she graciously gave birth on the evening of the 7th, soon after 8 o'clock, and was pleased and gifted with a young daughter and princess. May the Almighty help Their Majesties to full strength and let the dear little Lady, who, thank God, and along with her Lady Mother, is very strong and fresh in the circumstances, grow up in His honour and for the consolation of the royal parents, and may God also multiply such marital blessings through His divine grace, the longer the more.
And because you will be informed about the future baptism and godparenthood half-awkwardly, I don't want to hold you back with it, because you also know the preparations, which are being carried out here with all seriousness. ...
May God bless you with all good intentions, with which wish, in ending, I am and remain
Your always faithful and obliged good friend
Johan Kasimir, Count Palatine."
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Above: Johan Kasimir, Count Palatine of Kleeburg and Zweibrücken.
A few days later, Kristina was baptised and christened by Bishop Johannes Rudbeckius on December 17/27. She/he/they was named Kristina Augusta, after her/his/their maternal grandmother Christina of Holstein-Gottorp, the Dowager Queen of Sweden, who had died a year earlier, as well as her/his/their own older sister Kristina, the baby who only lived for a year; and the middle name after her/his/their father, Augusta being an anagram of the name Gustava. Years later, in an undated letter from sometime shortly after Kristina came of age, her/his/their paternal half-uncle, the Grand Admiral Carl Carlsson Gyllenhielm, briefly and proudly recalled how he carried her/him/them to the font during the ceremony:
"... Iagh och den ähran haffuer hafftt, att på Högstbemälte min Salige Konungs befallning och wälbehagh, vndfånga och bära E. K. M:tt på mina armar till sin Christendom och thett Helige Dopet, vthi Churfurstens af Saxens ställe."
"... I have also had the honour of, at the highest command and pleasure of my aforementioned late King, receiving and carrying Your Royal Majesty in my arms to your Christianhood and holy baptism, in the place of the Elector of Saxony."
Above: Carl Carlsson Gyllenhielm.
As an adult Kristina made a claim (addressing God) about her/his/their baptism that she/he/they saw as an auspicious foreshadowing of her/his/their eventual conversion to Catholicism:
"Le Ministre Luthérien, qui me baptisa (c'étoit le grand Aumônier du Roi), me marqua le front du signe de la Croix avec l'eau du Baptême, & m'enrolla, sans savoir ce qu'il faisoit, dans votre milice dès ce moment heureux. Car il est certain que ce qu'il fit, étoit contre le cérémonial ordinaire des Luthériens. On lui en fit même une affaire comme d'une superstition, dont il se tira comme il pût."
"The Lutheran minister who baptised me (he was the King's great chaplain) marked me with the sign of the Cross on my forehead with the baptismal water, and enrolled me, without knowing what he was doing, in Your militia in that happy moment. For it is certain that what he did was against the ordinary ceremonial of the Lutherans. They even made it an affair of a superstition, from which he extricated himself as best he could."
According to the autobiography, Gustav Adolf said proudly about the newborn:
"Elle va être habille; car elle nous a tous trompés."
"She will be clever, for she has fooled us all."
—
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Amazingly, the cap that the newborn Kristina wore at her/his/their baptism and even the pillow that Grand Admiral Gyllenhielm had carried her/him/them on both still exist, and in good condition. They are kept at the Royal Armoury (Livrustkammaren) in Stockholm. The baptism cap is made of silver fabric with a rounded top, a flat, round middle and lining in white silk fabric, and is decorated with clover and floral patterns in silver thread and fabric. The pillow is made of gold fabric with trim of gold thread and a floral pattern sewn in red, green, blue and dark yellow silk thread. Both were donated to the museum by Otto Axel Povel Ramel.
—
Since Kristina's own lifetime it has been rumoured and presumed, and the possibility seriously considered by doctors, that she/he/they was biologically intersex, or at least (and more likely) had malformed genitals and/or some hormonal condition or imbalance that caused her/him/them to have more male-dominant hormones and physical characteristics. A 1965 exhumation and examination of her/his/their skeletal remains at the hands of Dr. Carl-Herman Hjortsjö and his team concluded that she/he/they was biologically female, but it was otherwise inconclusive and unable to either prove or disprove the intersexuality claim due to the lack of soft tissue remains and no signs of it in the bones or skeletal structure, and Kristina's doctors wrote of regular menstruation.
As for hormonal conditions, the main candidate is polycystic ovarian syndrome, and both Kristina biographer Veronica Buckley and myself have also suggested congenital adrenal hyperplasia, which would have to have necessarily been a mild case, otherwise Kristina would have died due to complications. But some intersex conditions mean that a person could have the genitalia of the sex they were assigned at birth while having the hormones, voice, body hair, physique, etc., of the opposite sex. It is also possible that Kristina was born with clitoromegaly, or an enlarged clitoris, which in an infant would resemble a penis, and which reasonably could therefore, in the case of a baby on whose sex the future of an entire and relatively young dynasty depended, lead to said baby, a girl, being excitedly mistaken for a boy. It is also often linked with some hormonal conditions, including polycystic ovarian syndrome, but it does have some symptoms in common with that condition. I go into much further detail on this in a previous post, but there I have theorised that Kristina might have had some form of congenital adrenal hyperplasia, the various forms of which could account for her/his/their deep voice and possible infertility, as well as obesity and a greater and more prominent than normal amount of facial hair in later adult life.
But on the other hand, as Kristina biographer Marie-Louise Rodén has suggested, perhaps the entire confusion over Kristina's sex at birth was merely the result of the power of the sheer expectation, wishful thinking and desire for the royal baby to be a boy, an heir to the throne, and that the midwives already made that announcement before removing the caul and washing Kristina off. In my mind, this could still probably have been the case even if the physiological anomaly were present, which then, perhaps, was just a very remarkable coincidence. We will never know for sure whether or not Kristina had any of these conditions or was even intersex at all, but the mere possibility is interesting.
As one can infer, the story of how the King reacted to the sex reveal was likely exaggerated or softened up by the adults when telling a young Kristina the story. According to Buckley, Gustav Adolf's calm acceptance of the baby's sex — if it really was calm — was likely either just because of his fever or relief to have at least one living child with his wife. His prayer of "God preserve her for me" greatly attests to the latter explanation. In reality he probably just smiled a wistful smile rather than an excited one and said something like, "She'll just have to do." The same cannot be said for Maria Eleonora. Of her reaction, Kristina wrote:
"... On tarda à desabuser la Reine, jusques à ce qu'elle fût en état de souffrir un tel déboire. ... La Reine, ma Mere, qui avoit toutes les foiblesses, aussi-bien que toutes les vertus de son Sexe, étoit inconsolable. Elle ne pouvoit me souffrir, parce qu'elle disoit que j'étois fille & laide: & elle n'avoit pas grand tort, car j'étois basanée comme un petit Maure. Mon Pere m'aimoit fort, & je répondois aussi à son amitié d'une manière qui surpassoit mon âge. Il sembloit que je connoissois les différences de leurs mérites & de leurs sentimens, & que je commençois de rendre justice par eux, dès le berceau."
"... They delayed undeceiving the Queen until she was in a good enough condition to bear such a disappointment. ... The Queen, my mother, who had all the weaknesses as well as all the virtues of her sex, was inconsolable. She could not stand me, because she said that I was a girl and an ugly one. And she was not very wrong, for I was as swarthy as a little Moor. My father loved me dearly, and I also responded to his amity in a way that surpassed my age. It seemed that I knew the differences of their merits and their feelings, and that I began to do justice through them, even from the time I was in the cradle."
After the trauma of two miscarried pregnancies and a daughter who only lived for a year, plus the fresh disappointment of another daughter instead of a longed-for son, and already in deeply troubled mental health, anxiety and depression due to being a foreigner who felt unpopular and unwelcome in her new country and unable to get used to it, as well as having to deal with her husband's constant and long absences during which he was unfaithful to her and always put his life in danger, there is a possibility that Maria Eleonora was suffering from postpartum depression in the time after Kristina's birth. For those who do not know, postpartum depression is a mood disorder which most often affects new mothers and whose symptoms include extreme sadness, low energy, anxiety, exhaustion, crying episodes, irritability, and changes in sleeping or eating patterns. If it is severe enough, either by itself or in the much more serious postpartum psychosis, it can interfere with the mother's ability to take care of herself or her baby, and she might also blame her troubles on said baby, be jealous of it, and think about harming either it or herself.
If Maria Eleonora had simply been suffering from the baby blues, then she might not have resented Kristina so strongly or for so long after birth. If left untreated, postpartum depression can last for months or even years, impeding the mother's ability to emotionally connect and bond with her child and having consequences for the child's sleeping, eating and behaviour. For a few years indeed, Maria Eleonora seems to have hardly paid Kristina any mind other than open dislike and possible jealousy, and even years later they were never very close (although Kristina did have genuine respect and love for her/his/their mother; and although their relationship was certainly troubled, it turned out to not be as severely strained as it has often been reputed to be).
Gustav Adolf, on the other hand, was delighted with the new baby and doted on her/him/them. Before Kristina was even two years old, he would often take her/him/them along when reviewing the troops, and he also took the baby along on official engagements, such as trips to see the copper mines and inspect ships...
Or rather, that is the portrait of the two parental personalities, and namely that of the mother, that Kristina chose to give to posterity and that most biographers and historiographers have perpetuated and accepted as fact. In truth, Maria Eleonora's letters reveal that she was a far more caring and loving mother than Kristina believed she was, which we will soon see. Any disappointment that Kristina was a girl must have been only fleeting in reality if Maria ever felt it, and it would have been outweighed by the relief to have a living baby again after all the pregnancy losses and the infant loss. In modern language, Kristina was a rainbow baby, a baby born after the loss of an older sibling or siblings who died in utero or after birth; and for parents of rainbow babies, the child is a great consolation but can of course never replace the lost child or children. Maria undoubtedly felt the same for Kristina. If their relationship really became so strained, difficult and cold later on, the only real cold in it seems to have come from Kristina's side...
—
On January 16/26, 1627, the Grand Constable Jakob de la Gardie wrote to the Grand Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna:
"Sidst låther jagh min k. broder förnimme, att jagh på tijmen H. K. M:tz nådige skrifuelsse jemptte H. M:tz bref till min k. broder hafver bekommedh (hvilckedh jagh härhoos min k. broder tillsender) och deraf förnimmer, att ännu (Gudi des loff) alle saker der i gott tillståndh äre; och att Gudh alzmechtigh Hennes Ma:ijtt vår nådigeste Drottningh medh en ungh fröken hafver begåfuadh; hvarföre hans guddomelige nambn högeligen vari prisadh och låthe Hs. F. N:de Högtbe:te fröken i all Christelige och Furstelige dygder upvexa, begges deres M. M:ter till hugnedh och fäderneslandet till tröst och glädie."
"Finally, I let my dear brother know that in the hour I received His Royal Majesty's gracious letter as well as his letter to my dear brother (which I am sending to my dear brother), and I hear from it that all there is still well (thank God); and that Almighty God has blessed Her Majesty, our most gracious Queen, with a young lady; so may His divine Name be praised, and may He let Her Princely Grace the aforementioned Lady grow up in all Christian and princely virtues, for the happiness of both Their Majesties and for the consolation and joy of the Fatherland."
Count Brahe wrote in his diary entry for January 21/31:
"Den 21 Januari 1627 begyntes Riksdagen i Stockholm. ... Blef ock då Konungens dotter, Fröken Christina, af samtliga Ständerna utkorad till Riksens Arffröken."
"On January 21, 1627, the Riksdag began in Stockholm. ... Then also the King's daughter, Lady Kristina, was unanimously elected as the realm's Hereditary Princess by the Estates."
But as early as May of that year, when Kristina was five months old, duty called again, and the King had to leave for Germany. By the end of the year, he had come to the decision to officially confirm Kristina's status as his heir to the throne in case of his death, the resolution being finalised on December 24, 1627/January 4, 1628.
"Lofwe och förplichte wij oß förty / samptligen och synnerligen så wäl för närwarandes som frånwarandes / föddan som oföddan / att hwar H. K. M. något dödeligit (effter Gudz wilia) widhkomma skulle (hwilket doch Gudh nådheligen fördröye) och H. K. M. icke skulle lämpna någon ächta Sohn efter sigh / tå wele wij för wår rätta Arff-Furstinna och Drottning holla / then Högborne Furstinna och Fröken Fr. CHRISTINA, Sweriges / Göthes och Wendes Arff-Furstinna och Princesse, och allan hennes Furstelige Nådhes Konungzligen rätt styrckia / effter ofwanbemelte Norköpingz Arfförening och Sweriges beskrefnom Laghom / som thenna wår bewillning och Beplichtelse icke emoot sträfwa."
"We therefore promise and bind ourselves together and especially for both present and absent, born and unborn, that if His Royal Majesty should, according to God's will, die (may God graciously delay it), and should His Royal Majesty not leave behind any legitimate son, then we want to hold the High-Born Princess and Lady, Lady Kristina, as Hereditary Princess of the Swedes, Goths and Vandals, and strengthen all Her Princely Grace's royal right in accordance with the Norrköping Inheritance Resolution and Sweden's laws, which do not go against our grant and obligation."
One thing that had moved Gustav Adolf to consider making Kristina his heir was when he nearly lost her/him/them to an unspecified but severe illness earlier that year (which Kristina mistakenly recorded as having happened after 1627).
"Les prèmieres années de mon enfance n'eurent rien de remarquable, sinon une maladie mortelle, qui me vint pendant un voyage que le Roi fit aux Mines. On lui expédia un Courier pour lui apprendre mon mal. Il fit une diligence extraordinaire pour se rendre auprès de moi, qu'il arriva en vingt-quatre heures; ce qu'un Courier n'a jamais fait. Il me trouva aux abois, et en parut inconsolable; mais enfin je guéris, et il en témoigna une joye proportionnée à sa douleur. Il en fit chanter le Te Deum."
"The first years of my childhood had nothing remarkable, except a deadly illness that befell me during a journey the King made to see the mines. A courier was sent to tell him of my illness. He was so extraordinarily diligent in coming to see me that he arrived within twenty-four hours, which no courier has ever done. He found me at my last hour, and he seemed inconsolable about it; but at last I recovered, and he showed a joy equal in proportion to his pain. He therefore had a Te Deum sung."
Gustav Adolf had very good reason to think of making Kristina heir to the throne. The devastating Europe-wide conflict between Catholic and Protestant states that would in time become known as the Thirty Years' War had been raging for nine years now, and Gustav Adolf was a popular and greatly admired and beloved military leader and representative of the Protestant side, already a legend in his own lifetime — even today he is still called "the Lion of the North." He often went to Germany to be with his armies and lead them and fight with them in person, so until Kristina's birth, the future of the Vasa dynasty was hanging in the balance. It had been founded a little over 100 years earlier in 1523 by Kristina's great-grandfather, Gustav I Vasa, when he led an uprising and gained power after centuries of Danish rule, breaking Sweden out of the Scandinavia-wide Kalmar Union. The Protestant movement begun in Germany by Martin Luther and the Reformation spawned by it at the time quickly swept across Northern Europe, and when the new and independent Kingdom of Sweden was founded along with the House of Vasa, Lutheranism was made the state religion. It was a hereditary monarchy, and also an elective monarchy; but ever since the reign of Kristina's grandfather, King Karl IX, the line of succession excluded any Vasa princes descended from Karl's deposed brother, King Erik XIV, and from his deposed nephew, Sigismund III, who was the King of Poland. Because Katarina had married Count Palatine Johan Kasimir of Kleeburg, who was a Calvinist, she had been excluded from the line of succession eleven years before Kristina was born; and so, because Gustav Adolf had no other surviving legitimate children, Kristina was the only choice. His only other surviving child, Gustaf Gustafsson, was born illegitimate, having been born by his mistress Margareta Slots, ten years before Kristina.
Above: Gustav Adolf fighting in the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631.
Before this, in the meantime, and even already as a newborn, the infant Kristina was often being subjected to suspicious accidents. It has been speculated that perhaps someone loyal to the Catholic Polish Vasas was trying to sabotage the Protestant Swedish branch of the family and the succession by specifically targeting for assassination an innocent baby who happened to be the King's only legitimate child and sole heir. But Kristina was convinced for life that her/his/their wetnurse, Anna von der Linde, who was Maria Eleonora's lady-in-waiting, had dropped her/him/them on purpose; and Kristina also pointed the finger of suspicion towards Maria Eleonora herself.
"Il arriva, peu de jours après qu'on m'eût donné le Baptême, qu'une grosse poutre tomba & d'écraser le berceau ou je dormois, sans me donner la moindre atteinte. Outre cet accident, on fit encore d'autres attentes sur moi. On me fit tomber exprès, on tenta mille autres inventions pour me faire périr, ou pour du moins m'estropier. La Reine, ma Mére, disoit de belles choses là-dessus, & on ne pouvoit la desabuser de ses imaginations. Quoi qu'il en soit de tout cela, il ne me reste aucun autre préjudice qu'un peu d'irrégularité dans ma taille que j'aurois pu corriger, si j'eusse voulu m'en donner la peine."
"It happened, a few days after I was baptised, that a great beam fell and crushed the cradle in which I was sleeping, without giving me the slightest injury. Besides this accident, other attacks were made on me. I was dropped on purpose, someone tried a thousand other inventions to kill me, or at least to cripple me. The Queen, my mother, had her own fine explanations for it, and no one could convince her otherwise. However that may be, I have no harm left other than a little irregularity in my height, which I could have had corrected had I wished to give myself the trouble."
This "irregularity" that Kristina mentions manifested itself in the permanent form of a visibly drooping shoulder as a result of a break in the clavicle (collarbone), to the extent that it is mentioned in most contemporary descriptions of her/his/their physical appearance; and her/his/their dresses had to be tailored specially to accommodate and conceal it, although most portraits tactfully ignore the deformity. It is also mentioned in the autopsy report written after Kristina's death in April 1689. Despite Kristina's belief that this was the result of being dropped intentionally as a baby, it is more likely that the shoulder deformity was either congenital (biologically occurring and present from birth) or even the result of an accidental injury during delivery. Kristina's left leg was also slightly shorter than the right leg, which would have given her/him/them a visible shuffle when walking. Dr. Hjortsjö wrote of his observations on the shoulders while examining Kristina's remains:
"Nyckelbenen utgjorde närmast exakta spegelbilder av varandra. Möjligen var på vänstra sida den s. k. korpnäbbsskrovligheten något bättre utbildad än på höger sida. Dessutom förekom en liten extra benojämnhet i främre kanten av det vänstra benet. Inga som helst tecken på läkta frakturer förelåg. Sörmans ovannämnda uppgift om en nyckelbensfraktur i barndomen kunde alltså ej bekräftas. Nyckelbenen var gracilt byggda med ordinära svängningar. Deras längddimensioner var absolut sett små, dock på vänster sida 2 mm längre än på höger sida, vilket enligt Dwight är normalt. Nyckelbenslängden stod också i riktig proportion till ett värde, som anses typiskt för européer.
Skulderbladen var likformiga och gracilt byggda med absolut sett små dimensioner. Inga tecken på gamla frakturer kunde påvisas, varför ej heller i detta fall Sörmans uppgift kunde verifieras. Skulderbladshöjden låg mycket nära det av Dwight angivna medelvärdet för kvinnliga individer. Det är utomordentligt sällan, som en manlig individ har så låga värden, som de i detta fall funna. Skulderbladets bredd-höjdindex överensstämde väl med det för den europeiska kvinnan typiska värdet."
"The clavicles were almost exact mirror images of each other. Possibly on the left side the so-called irregularity of the coracoid was somewhat better developed than on the right side. In addition, there was a slight extra unevenness in the bone at the front edge of the left leg. There were no signs of healed fractures whatsoever. Sörman's above-mentioned information about a clavicle fracture in childhood could therefore not be confirmed. The clavicles were gracefully built with ordinary curves. Their length dimensions were certainly small, however, on the left side 2 mm longer than on the right side, which according to Dwight is normal. The clavicle length was also in proper proportion to a value, which is considered typical for Europeans.
The shoulderblades were uniform and gracefully built, with absolutely small dimensions. No signs of old fractures could be detected, which is why Sörman's information could not be verified in this case either. The height of the scapula was very close to the mean given by Dwight for female individuals. It is extremely rare that a male individual has such low values as those found in this case. The width-height index of the shoulder blade corresponded well with the typical value for the European woman."
But regardless of the origin of Kristina's deformity on the shoulder, if it is true that frequent accidents befell her/him/them during infancy, it should go without saying that the nursemaids should have been paying better attention to her/him/them, especially once the child learned to crawl and then walk, — and especially considering that this was a royal child. It is even a wonder that Kristina did not sustain any other or worse physical injuries from these accidents, or at least nothing else permanent.
Above: Kristina as an adult in one of the few portraits in which the difference in the height of her/his/their shoulders can be seen.
Although not referring to Kristina or any other child in particular, the great Czech scholar Johannes Amos Comenius said as much on the subject of infant safety in his 1630 book "Informatorium maternum". Before I show the relevant excerpt, I should, albeit tangentially, explain that the original Czech-language manuscript was not discovered or published until the 1850s, but it had already been published in translation during the 17th century: in a German translation and a lost Polish translation in 1636 (translators anonymous) and a Swedish translation by Ericus Schroderus in 1642. An English translation by Will Seymour Monroe followed years later in 1893. To suit our story, I will therefore use excerpts from the Swedish translation with their respective English translations underneath.
"... Skal man och på åtskillige andre Sätt taga waara på the vnge Barns Helsa: Therföre / at theras Kropp är spädh / theras Been och Knokor weeke / theras Ådror swage / och alt hwad på them är än kraftlöst. Man skal förthenskul / när man fattar them medh Händerna / them vplyfter / nedlägger / bär / lindar / waggar / gå medh them waarligen om / at medh oförsichtigt Swepande / Nedläggiande / Vplyftande / Anstötande eller Fallande / icke nogon Lemm blifwer på them förryckt eller bräckt / så at the ther igenom blifwa förlammade / döfwe / blinde. Jtt Barn är itt dyrebart Clenod / Ja / af högre Wärde än alt Guld: Men owissare och swagare än itt Glaas / thet lätteligen bräckias och skamfäras kan / så at ther af följer een oboteligh Skada. När the börja sittja / stå / löpa / skola the förwaras för Fall / ther til tå små Stoolar / Gångwagnar äre them til märkeligh Hielp: Dogh at man för all Ting småningom börjar. Vthi någre Landskap plägar man binda them om Hufwudet itt Format af små Walkar / på thet / om the / när the begynna gå / råkade falla / the tå lätteligen icke skole få Skada på Hufwudet / hwilket Sätt borde på alle Oortar hafwas i acht."
"... The health of children should be most carefully watched, since their little bodies are weak, their bones soft, their veins infirm, and none of their members as yet mature and perfect. Consequently, they need prudent circumspection as to the manner in which they should be taken in the hand, lifted up, carried, set down, wrapped up, or laid in the cradle, lest through any imprudence they be injured by falling down, or striking against any thing, whereby they might lose sight or hearing, or become lame or maimed.
A child is a more precious treasure than gold, but more fragile than glass. It may be easily shaken and injured, and be irreparably damaged. ... When infants begin to sit, or stand, or to run about, to prevent injury from striking against anything, there is need of little seats, knee-splints, and little carriages, always beginning with the smallest. In some countries the practice prevails of putting upon the heads of infants a little cap padded on the inside with rolls of cotton, so that in the event of falling, their heads may be preserved from injury; a precaution quite applicable to other members also." (Informatorium maternum, chapter 5)
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On March 20/30, during a stay at Kopparberget in Dalarna in around 1628, Maria Eleonora wrote to Katarina:
"Unser[e] Kleine hab ich bei Jungfer Anna v. Ungern zu Stockholm gelassen, wobei sie denn recht woll versorget ist, und dank [ich] E. Ld. stündlich, daß Sie mirsche am ersten haben vorgeschlagen... Ich darf woll nicht sorgen, daß sie nicht recht gewartet wird."
"I have left our Little One with Lady Anna von Ungern in Stockholm, and she is well taken care of, and I thank Your Lovingness every hour for suggesting her to me first... I mustn't worry that she is not properly cared for."
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The Royal Armoury is also home to a touchingly tiny shirt and bodice that Kristina would have worn as a toddler between 1628 and 1629. They, along with the previously shown baptismal cap, are some of the only known surviving examples of her/his/their clothing from any time of her/his/their life, and were donated to the museum on October 7, 1872 by the descendants of a woman named Sara Larsdotter, who served as Kristina's Maid of the Bedchamber until 1631, when she left her post to get married.
The shirt is a simple one, made of white linen, with a small collar and long sleeves ending in tiny lace cuffs. The bodice is made of silk that at the time it was made and worn would have been a bright dark pink, possibly of a coral or salmon pink shade, but the colour has inevitably faded due to time and the great age of the material, and is accentuated with silver thread trim. Unfortunately for its naturally active toddler wearer, it does not look like it would have been very comfortable to wear or easy to move in.
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Of her/his/their infancy in general, Kristina wrote in the autobiography:
"Mais pourquoi, SEIGNEUR, n'avez-vous pas permis que je mourusse dans mon innocence? Que j'aurois été heureuse de périr avant que d'être coupable & ingrate envers vous! J'aurois été déjà heureuse & glorieuse avec vous pour toute l'éternité. Cependant mon indignité n'ayant différé cet ineffable bonheur, puisque vous l'avez voulu, je dois vous remercier de m'avoir conservé une vie, qui est à vous de tant de manières. Il falloit vivre enfin, & vous avez voulu me rendre triomphante jusque dans mes langes, où vous m'avez fait combattre & vaincre l'envie. Vous m'avez fait naître environnée de lauriers & de palmes. Je dormois à l'abri de leurs ombres, mon premier sommeil fut nourri parmi les trophées; il semble que la victoire & la fortune badinoient avec moi. Le Trône enfin me servit de berceau, & j'étois à peine née, qu'il fallut y monter. Le Roi mon Pere convoqua pour cet effet les Etats Généraux peu de mois après. Il m'y fit prêter l'hommage, & la Suède à genoux m'adora jusque dans mon berceau."
"But why, Lord, did You not allow me to die in my innocence? How happy I would have been to perish before being culpable and ungrateful to You! I would have been happy and glorious with You already for all eternity. However, my unworthiness having postponed this ineffable happiness, since You willed it, I must thank You for having preserved a life for me which is Yours in so many ways. In the end I had to live, and You wanted to make me triumphant even in my swaddling clothes, where You made me fight and conquer envy. You let me be born surrounded by laurels and palms. I slept in the shelter of their shadows, my first sleep was nourished among the trophies; it seems that victory and fortune were playing with me. Finally, the throne itself served as my cradle, and I was hardly born when I had to go up to it. The King, my father, convened the Estates for this purpose a few months later. He made me be paid homage there, and Sweden adored me on her knees even as I lay in my cradle."
—
Before November 1632, when Kristina was still Her Royal Highness Princess Kristina of Sweden, Gustav Adolf, knowing how unstable Maria Eleonora was and fearing that it would not be safe if she were allowed to raise Kristina if he were not there, had already taken measures to at least try to ensure that his child would be in good hands. Plus, he was very proud of how brave Kristina was at such a shockingly young age, and he did not want her/him/them to be broken in and robbed of that quality, as is shown by this anecdote from Kristina's autobiography that happened sometime in 1628:
"... Le Roi me mena dans son voyage avec lui jusques à Calmar, où il arriver, et me mit à une petite éprouve, qui augmenta fort son amitié pour moi. Je n'avois pas encore deux ans quand il arriva à Calmar. On douta s'il falloit faire les salves de la garnison et des canons de la Forteresse pour le saluer selon la coutume, à cause que l'on craignoit de faire peur à un Enfant de l'importance dont j'étois; et pour ne manquer en rien, le Gouverneur de la Place lui demanda l'ordre. Le Roi, après avoir balancé un peu, dit «faites, tirez; elle est fille d'un soldat, il faut qu'elle s'y accoutume.»
J'étois avec la Reine dans son carosse, et au lieu d'en être épouvantée, comme sont les autres enfans à un âge si tendre, je riois et battois les mains; et ne sachant pas encore parler, je témoignois, comme je pouvois, ma joye par toutes les marques que pouvoit donner un enfant de mon âge, ordonnant à ma mode qu'on tirât encore davantage. Cette petite rencontre augmenta beaucoup la tendresse du Roi pour moi; car il espéra que j'étois née intrépide comme lui."
"... The King took me with him on his journey to Kalmar. Upon arrival, he subjected me to a little test which greatly strengthened his love for me. I was not yet two years old when we went to Kalmar. One man was hesitant about shooting the salute from the garrison and the cannons at the fortress to greet him in the customary way, as he was afraid of frightening a child as important as I was. To make no mistake, the governor there asked for the orders. After thinking, the King answered: 'Go on, shoot. She is the daughter of a soldier and she must get used to it.'
I was with the Queen in her carriage, and instead of being frightened like any other child at such a tender age, I laughed and clapped my hands; not yet being able to speak, I expressed my joy as well as I could at that age in my fashion, gesturing that they should fire again. This little event increased the King's tenderness for me, because he hoped I was born as intrepid as himself." ...
Above: Willem Hendrik Schmidt's imagining of the above anecdote.
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