Source:
Christine de Suède et le cardinal Azzolino: Lettres inédites (1666-1668), by Baron Carl Bildt, 1899
Above: Kristina.
The first introduction:
In a few posts on this blog, I have mentioned in the footnotes that I believe Kristina might have been autistic, but aside from a brief part of my very first post (from 2019), which was a general biography and written before I knew all the facts and what exactly was true, false, exaggerated or myth, I have never posted about the theory in great detail. Before I get there, I first want to give an overview and breakdown of what autism is, the various traits and ways it can present in a person, my own experience as an autistic person in both childhood and young adulthood, and gradually "segue" my way to the phenomenon of retroactive diagnosis, a relatable precedent example of it for a physical disability in another famous Scandinavian monarch (one who fascinates me just as strongly), how and why I believe autism could be relevant to Kristina, and sometimes what areas I can relate to her/him/them in, following her/him/them from birth, as well as the other ways Kristina was or may have been different.
Once we get there, in addition to telling the story and circumstances of Kristina's life, I will give evidences and supplements in the form of excerpts from writings and descriptions written by Kristina herself/himself/themself as well as by the people she/he/they knew and met, by others of her/his/their contemporaries, and sometimes by some of her/his/their biographers, in the original languages, albeit with the spelling modernised for the sake of easier reading unless stated otherwise (one reason for this, aside from some of the original and/or copy documents he worked with and printed now being either lost or not yet digitised, is that several of the originals of the Montpellier documents that Arckenholtz published in print in 1759 and 1760 have since been lost, so in those cases he must necessarily be consulted even though he is known to have modernised the orthography to fit the standards of his day and altered or refined Kristina's literary style, wordings and expression, particularly and mostly only in the French-language letters and writings), — plus I will leave at least most of the biographers' observations from after the end of the 17th century in the original spellings or orthographies — with an English translation underneath those not in that language. If something is not available to me in the original language but in translation, I will add it either in that translation, in my own or someone else's (with due credit) translated reconstruction into the original language, and/or quote from it in English in the main body of my parts of the text. I may use a similar rearrangement for spoken quotes, sayings and statements that were spoken in the first-person but recorded in writing in the third-person. Although it might appear excessive or unnecessary to some, I believe that showing the original alongside a translation contributes to understanding and context. These English and other language translations are mine unless stated otherwise.
And if I seem to wander off topic or repeat things already described or mentioned to any degree, it is only to clarify and explain the said circumstances and contexts of Kristina's life, world and/or characteristics, such as, for example, how her/his/their family, caregivers, surroundings, social status, life experiences, and the time period and its events shaped and influenced her/his/their personality, worldview, self-image and life trajectory. For this chapter and the next, these include things such as her/his/their father's death and legacy, her/his/their mother's struggle with mental illness and what it would have been like to witness it at close quarters as a child, and simply just existing as a possibly neurodivergent royal, AFAB (assigned female at birth) person, and public figure with a very privileged social position in 17th century Sweden and in Swedish and wider European culture at that point in time.
I also believe that Kristina might have had dysgraphia, a learning disability that affects spelling and handwriting — autistic people often also have a learning disability of some kind —, so in those excerpts directly from her/his/their own hand when available, even with the modernised spelling, I have left the "capricious" spelling and grammar mistakes preserved and intact as much as possible because I believe they are valid as they are. I do the same for the handwriting of her/his/their mother Maria Eleonora.
I choose to use autism-affirming and neurodiversity-affirming language, although the current diagnostic criteria are based on the medical model rather than the social model of disability. It has also been pointed out by some that a lot of the current diagnostic criteria reflect the traits of an autistic person who is struggling or in distress because modern society is currently almost incapable of producing autistic people who are not traumatised by it. It should also be remembered that although some traits would have been obvious due to the nature of autism and depending on how it might present in any given individual, some traits would have been less prominent partly due to the fact that autistic people living in pre-modern and pre-industrial societies would have enjoyed slower-paced lives and less triggers for sensory overwhelm than their modern-day counterparts and descendants have to live with.
In addition to the many specific sources formally cited …, I also informally derive the … lists of traits and their nuances from the various and collective lived experiences of myself and many other autistic people.
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