Source:
Monarchs Retired from Business, volume 2, pages 249 to 260, by Dr. John Doran, 1857 (1902 edition)
The account:
In male attire, and under the name of "the son of the Count of Dohna", Christina journeyed onwards. Her progress excited great curiosity, although she herself fancied that it was unobserved. Madame du Noyer relates an incident that is highly dramatic, and probably true. That lady states, in her 'Lettres Galantes', that the Queen of Denmark, hearing of the presence of Christina at an inn, disguised herself as a servant, and in that character waited on the ex-Queen, whom she observed at her leisure. Christina, we are told, had not the slightest suspicion, and put no restraint upon her tongue or conduct, while sojourning at the inn. She especially spoke with entire unreserve of the King of Denmark, and made such remarks upon his character, — observations so likely to sting his royal consort, waiting in the room in short bodice and clean apron, as to induce us to suspect that Christina was not altogether unconscious as to the identity of the scarlet-cheeked fille-de-chambre. When the latter left the inn, she commanded a page to inform his errant mistress that she had done great injustice to his Majesty of Denmark. The page hastened to deliver the message, at hearing which, Christina, after expressing some surprise, laughed aloud, and exclaimed, "What! that servant-girl, who was standing there all dinner-time, was the Queen of Denmark! Well, there has happened to her what often happens to curious people — they make discovery of more things than are agreeable to them. It is her own fault; for as I have not the gift of divination, I did not look for her under such a dress as that!"
Galeazzo Gualdo, in his 'Roma Nova', throws doubt upon this incident; but Arkenholz, in his long, lumbering, confused, but conscientiously written 'Life and Letters of Christina', asserts that the story is credited by the Danish writers; and he particularly cites Holberg, as accepting it as an historical fact.
It may be said rather, that she travelled in the guise of a foreign knight, for she traversed Denmark, habited as a cavalier, with a red scarf, according to the Spanish fashion. In this way she rode into Hamburg. The authorities had prepared a residence for her, but she preferred lodging with a Jewish physician, named Texeira. "That action", says a contemporary writer, "much amazed both the Senate, whose honourable entertainment and reception she refused; and the priests of the town, who, inflamed with the zeal of God's house, could not forbear to speak in public against her, for her ridiculous and scandalous choice of the house of a man who is professedly a sworn enemy of Jesus Christ."
The ex-Queen heard of the objections made to the course she had thus taken; but she replied for herself, that Jesus Christ had all his life conversed with the Jews; that He was one of their seed, and that He had preferred their company to that of all other nations. She already had such fears touching her worldly fortune, that she wrote letters at Hamburg, addressed to her successor, imploring him to take heed that her income was regularly paid, and her estates looked to. The idea that she would ever return to Sweden rendered Charles Gustavus uneasy. The Senate was more uneasy still, touching her disposition towards Romanism, and they passed a remonstrance so stringent, that Charles Gustavus softened it down before he sent it to her. The remonstrance was in direct opposition to a sentiment expressed by Christina in her letter to Gustavus, that "Sweden would very little care as to what she did, or what became of her."
An anonymous French author, who saw her at Divine service in Hamburg, says of her: "We saw her at church hearing the Word of God, with so little reverence and attention, and so much impatience, that thereby many men who went to see her out of curiosity, were confirmed in the ill opinion they had before conceived of her by divers reports made of her before her arrival." Others took exception to her travelling without a chaplain in her train. "She made a show to retain one", says the anonymous French writer, "who did wait on her as far as Halmstat, upon the frontiers of Denmark, where she dismissed him. Another was offered her at Hamburg, whom she pretended to accept, though the event declared that she had no mind for him; and indeed such persons had been but as thorns in her feet, for, having a design to profess Popery, the Ministers of the Gospel were no fit attendants on her."
In another work, the 'Nachricht von Hamburg', we are told that Christina went to St Peter's Church with Prince Frederick of Hesse on the fifth Sunday after Trinity, and that in the sermon the preacher, Müller, "applied the narrative of the Queen of Arabia Felix to Christina, who, although she did not much attend to the sermon, rewarded the author by presenting him with a chain of gold." An officer, who entered her pew after she had left the church, found therein a volume of Virgil. The book had been presented to her as she took her seat, and it was observed that she smiled on receiving it.
Christina gave offence to the people and authorities of Hamburg, by leaving the city at so unseasonable an hour as four o'clock in the morning. The Landgraf of Hesse had given a splendid entertainment in her honour, at which the ex-Queen was present. She left it with pleasant acknowledgements and anticipations of future enjoyment; but while the revellers were getting to bed and the other Hamburghers were still sleeping, Christina assembled her little troop and rode off from the city without taking leave of the government, or commissioning any one to thank the magistracy, in her name, for their abundant hospitality. "In her train, she being fifth or sixth herself, followed on her voyage towards the United Provinces, without being accompanied by any woman or maid-servant, having left her two Hollands-women (who had served her a long-enough time, and whom she had brought from Sweden with her) at Hamburg, without giving them any recompense, as she had likewise done to her footmen and coachmen, committing herself wholly to the guidance of Seigneur Steinberg, of whom she made choice above all in her court, as of the most brutish and irrational man; and having given the charge of her master of the household, or steward, to Silver-Crona whose name, full of silver, smells rankly of her goldsmith."
Careless of what the public thought of her proceedings, and treating with disregard the proceedings of others, undertaken to do her honour and show her respect, Christina rode on in impudent independence. She passed through town after town, and seemed scarcely to see, and often, if compelled to see, ready to evince her contempt for, the ovations got up out of delicate feeling, as if she were still a great sovereign, and not a clever lady.
On the 31st of July, that day being the Festival of St Ignatius, Christina arrived at Münster, and visited the Jesuits' College there. She was in the dress of a French gentleman, carried a sword, and wore a black wig. She drove up to the gates in a hackney chariot (vulgari vecta rhedâ, says the letter of a Jesuit of Münster) drawn by four horses. Nobody expected her. She was accompanied by Count Steinberg, Baron Soops, and three others. One of them was suspected, by the sharp-witted and experienced father, of being a lady in male attire. The hour was six in the evening. As soon as the Queen had jumped from her carriage, she began putting questions to every person she met; and when the party had reached the gates of the college the porter opposed the admission of a party of loosely dressed men, the smallest of whom seemed to be on the most easy terms with the rest. The gatekeeper proceeded to ask permission for the entrance of the strangers, touching whose identity and purpose much discussion ensued. At length a father went and bade them welcome. The impertinent-looking little French gentleman thereupon asked him wherefore such prompt kindness was exhibited to strangers. "It is the rule of our society", said the father, "to be all things to all men!" — "To all men", repeated Christine, who at those words laughed right heartily.
The father who conducted the strangers was curious to know whence they came. Many were the compliments offered, great the tact displayed, but nothing more was elicited from the now courteous little cavalier than that he was from the confines of Poland, and was not a Catholic. The questions put by the loosely-dressed gentleman in the black wig, who spoke Latin with an elegance that enchanted the reverend guide, were endless, but readily answered. At length he expressed a strong desire to see the refectory. Reply was made that all the fathers were at table. The royal curiosity was thereby aggravated. Some diplomacy was practised; and finally, the wide door of the refectory was opened, and the cavalier was struck with surprise at the spectacle within. The visitor recoiled a moment from the threshold, and the guide was even obliged to employ a persuasive push, whereby he gently forced the stranger into the hall. The greater part of those who were at the banquet commemorative of their founder frowned darkly at the unaccustomed intrusion. Others, who appear to have had a suspicion of the quality of the cavalier, arose; and this suspicion having been quickly whispered to the rest, the whole company at the various tables stood up as the visitor and those in attendance advanced. The cavalier took off his plumed hat and held it partly over his face, as he passed somewhat quickly between the tables. On returning to the door the visitor stopped to listen to the reader, who had paused during the passage of the strangers. Thence Christina proceeded to the sleeping apartments, looked into the books that were lying about, gave and took little jokes as the visitation was in progress, and inquired if there were any Lutherans among the scholars. On receiving an affirmative reply the cavalier, said,
"Will you admit me among your pupils, good father?"
"I am very much afraid", answered the latter, "that you are somewhat too high to bend to pupilage, or to subject yourself to scholastic discipline."
Thereupon came another laugh, and the party proceeded to the library. Here Christina displayed her learning, her extensive reading, and her critical powers. The father was astonished and delighted, and perhaps began more strongly than ever to suspect the quality and sex of the learned and light-hearted little scholar. On leaving the library they encountered the members of the Society returning from the refectory. The young gentleman stood aside; and as the fathers were uncertain as to his rank, they hesitated in saluting him. ("A quibus dubiis dubius salutatur.") The visitor with the sword on his thigh was more confident, and exclaimed, as the brotherhood passed by, "Behold the unspotted body of the fathers of the Society!"
No part of the college or grounds was left unvisited, and Christina remained till Steinberg announced that everything was ready at the inn for their reception. Refreshment was offered, and even wine, which she accepted, drinking thereof, but pouring out what she left upon the ground, remarking, as she did so, "I am not much of a wine-drinker." She then went on her way, and the next morning sent a hundred ducats to the community.
A deputation of the fathers proceeded to the hotel in which their visitors lodged, to offer their thanks. Christina was in bed, but she received the fathers in her chamber. She was in great good-humour on seeing them, and at once inquired laughingly, if they did not really think that she had desecrated their sacred house? The fathers at once hailed her as "majesty", and made their excuses, lest they might have failed in the respect due to so exalted a personage.
After a merry hour of mirthful and unconstrained conversation, in which Christina spoke without reserve of herself and her history, arrangements were made to enable her to visit the establishment privately, in order that she might hear a musical service. All the fathers save one then departed; the one left was to serve as escort in a closed carriage to the Jesuits' house. Meanwhile these two personages, so opposite in their position and character, breakfasted together, before they repaired in strict privacy to hear the sacred music. Christina was in a flood of delight at the solemnity of the service and the beauty of the music. On leaving the establishment, she found a vast crowd waiting to gaze at, rather than to greet, her. She was probably not well-pleased, for she saluted the fathers only, drew the curtains of the carriage, and drove through the multitude, on her way to Burgsteinfurt.
The Government of the United Provinces wished to show their estimation of her by the splendour of their reception. She continued however to desire to preserve her incognito, and she passed on her way, still in male attire, till she reached Antwerp, where she lodged at the house of a rich merchant, named Gerard Salian, and flinging off her haut de chausses, sword, plumed cap, and black wig, appeared in a costume more suitable to her sex. She seemed to have recovered full measure of happiness. Certainly it was not till she fairly found herself on Spanish territory that she appeared to breathe freely, and to enjoy herself thoroughly. This was particularly the case at Brussels. At four miles from the city she was met by the Archduke Leopold and all his Court, by whom she was escorted, in gallant array, to the Archducal palace. — Plays, balls, banquets, and other festivals, marked the joy experienced by her arrival. "She was royally feasted" (says one, who adds, "I bring nothing hither I have not seen myself") "by the Count of Fuensaldagna, who, for that end, sent letters to several cities and towns in the Low Countries, for rarity and variety; — to Bruges, for capons; to the city of Ghent, for veal; to Antwerp, for fish; to Mons, for mutton; to Ardennes, for venison; to Lille and Tournay, for poultry of all sorts." Her delight was extreme, the more so, we are told, that Pimentelli was there to increase her delight, and that the highly-favoured Spaniard brought "stately presents" from his master, the King of Spain. Nor was she herself sparing of gifts. When the Archduke left for the army, she bestowed on him a superb charger, "sumptuously accoutred with gold and diamonds to a very great value." That she could ill afford to make so costly a gift, was the last thing thought of by the unqueened Queen.
There was an individual at Brussels to see whom Christina had as great a desire, as the individual had to see Christina. The personage in question was the Prince de Condé. The ex-Queen had been accustomed to speak of him as "her hero", but now she objected to receive him but on one condition, of certain formalities being observed, to which the Prince objected. He therefore could not attend her levées. Nevertheless, he slipped into the grand reception-room one day, when it was thronged with courtiers, among whom the Prince stood to watch the bearing of Christina on state occasions. She was so well acquainted with his portraits that she immediately recognized him, and advanced to speak to him. The Prince recoiled, saying as he drew back, "All or nothing." She followed, but Condé left the palace, and Christina returned to give welcome to less noble men. An arrangement was made that they should meet by accident in the Park at Brussels. There they encountered, but it was then the humour of Christina to be dignified, and the interview was marked by ceremony and coldness. The ex-Queen refused to consider him on an equality with the Archduke, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, and Condé persisted in being "all or nothing."
While Christina was politically busy at this time, in endeavouring to reconcile France and Spain, she was still more occupied with a more important and personal affair, — her conversion.
On the 24th December, the night after her arrival in Brussels, a small but illustrious company was assembled in the ex-Queen's cabinet. There were, in addition to herself, the Archduke, Pimentelli, Counts Montecuculi, Fuensaldagna, and Don Agustin Navarra, Secretary of State. A little apart stood the Dominican Father Guemes. He had been the private secretary of Pimentelli in Sweden, and assuredly to some purpose, for it was kneeling before this Dominican that Christina made her first (and private) confession of the Romish faith. While this was being said, and while the monk was repeating the words of the absolution, the artillery of the city fired a salute. This was not an uncommon circumstance in those days, on Christmas Eve, — but as it happened (or was ordered) just at this juncture of the confession of Christina and the absolution by the priest, all present looked at each other, and said, or seemed to say, "miraculous!"
Brussels broke out into such a blaze of gaiety that the citizens themselves could not divine wherefore. The dissipation was tremendous; and in honour of the solemn event, in addition to other means of festivity, Mazarin sent troops of Spanish, French, and Italian players. The debauchery in Brussels was carried to the most extravagant point, for the strange reason that Christina had reached what was considered the only track to heaven. The royal convert herself wrote to the Countess Ebba Sparra [sic] assurances that she was enjoying a new felicity. "My occupations", she says, "are eating, drinking, sleeping, studying a little, gossiping, laughing, going to the play, and passing life agreeably. — In short, I no longer listen to sermons. I have done with preachers. According to Solomon (for all the rest is folly) it is our common duty to live happily, eating, drinking, and singing." — Christina's new light was not of a brilliant description.
She was not satisfied however with mere dissipation. She invited the sages and wits to her little Court. Some came, others, like Ménage, excused themselves. A Jesuit observed to her that her future place would be by the side of St Bridget of Sweden. "I would much rather", replied Christina, "be provided with a place among the philosophers."
She evaded searching questions addressed to her from Sweden; but continued her dissipated life, — only withdrawing for a brief time from gaiety, on hearing of the deaths of her mother and Oxenstierna, the great statesman. Her eagerness to visit Rome became now irresistible, and she announced her wishes to the Pontiff Alexander VII., whom she privately ridiculed for entertaining an opinion that he, the vainest and weakest of men, was the author of her conversion. The Holy Father expressed the joy he should feel at receiving such a visitor, but intimated that her welcome would depend upon her first making a public confession of the Romish faith. Christina speedily made up her mind. On the 22nd of September, 1655, after distributing presents with unexampled prodigality, she left Brussels, whence she was magnificently escorted above a league. She then went on to Innspruck at the head of a gallant company, consisting of two hundred persons, all of whose expenses were defrayed by their royal and liberal mistress.
Among the company was included "a long tail of Jesuits and friars which she trailed after her to Innspruck, in Tyrol, the residence of the Grand Duke of that country." Among the illustrious personages who visited her on her way, were Charles II. and the Duke of Gloucester, who paid their compliments to her at Frankfort, on the 5th of October. Some authors, on the other hand, declare that she declined to receive them, out of regard for Cromwell! She crossed the Alps on the 16th; and by the end of the month, entered the chief city in Tyrol. That her reception here exceeded in grandeur and warmth of welcome all that had been witnessed elsewhere, was natural, for it was known that it was at Innspruck she had resolved to pass publicly from the community of Luther to the Church of Rome. This event itself, which took place on the 3rd of November, was accompanied by circumstances of great pomp and solemnity.
The Archduke led her into the Franciscan church, at the head of a numerous and jubilant company. He conducted the royal convert to a seat beneath a canopy on the left hand, and a little in advance of the high altar. The church itself was crowded by a brilliant gathering of the most noble, the most religious, and the most curious of both sexes, and of all nations. The choir was entirely hung with crimson velvet, and the whole flooring of the church was covered with new crimson serge. When silence had succeeded to the excitement caused by the entrance of the processional escort and the ex-Queen, the Papal Nuncio, Holsteinus (or Holstenius, a convert from Protestantism, Canon of St Peter's, Notary Apostolic, and head librarian of the Vatican; his appointment to which did not induce his competitor to assail him anonymously) stood forward on the right side of the altar, and addressed the breathless congregation. "Pope Alexander VII.", he said, "having understood that Christina, Queen of Sweden, had an intent to put herself into the bosom of the Church, had sent his letters to testify his approbation of her desires, and his readiness to receive her with his apostolic benediction. Therefore he (the Papal Nuncio) was there to know whether it was true or otherwise."
Christina simply but audibly said, that "it was true." An eye-witness thus relates the rest. "Then Holsteinus desired that in testimony of the truth thereof, she would make profession of the Roman faith, and swear to keep it on the Holy Evangelists", which she did, and kissed the book. Immediately on this, a chair was set for Holsteinus to sit in, and a cushion laid at his feet, on which the Queen kneeled. Then he, making the sign of the cross over her head, and embracing her shoulders, gave her absolution from all the sins she had committed. Then there were certain short prayers said (or rather sung) in Latin for her; after which, high mass was sung; and then a priest made a sermon in Dutch (German) from the 45th Psalm, the words of which he easily applied, to exhort her to forget her people, country, and father's house, and to stick close to that profession she had taken up. Afterwards Te Deum was sung with excellent voices, and instruments of all sorts, and drums (which I never saw before in a church). All was concluded with a discharge of ordnance and other demonstrations of great joy." At night (after the most solemn step in life that human being could possibly take) the Archduke entertained her with a mask and dancing. Nor was this all, there was a play represented before her that evening, the moral of which was not of the cleanest. The only comment made upon it by the illustrious convert is said to have been, — "Well, gentlemen, it is but proper that you should entertain me with a comedy to-night, since I amused you with a farce this morning." A profane remark, upon which the great and easy Leibnitz can say no more, than that if it was really uttered, it proved that Christina was not mindful of — decorum!
Above: Kristina.
Above: Dr. John Doran.
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