Ada Harrison's biography of Kristina, part 9

Source:

Christina of Sweden, pages 37 to 40, by Ada Harrison, 1929

https://books.google.com/books?id=xJvrtq4DCv0C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=memoires+concernant+christine+1760&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

A portrait of her during these last days in Sweden has been left in the journal of Bulstrode Whitelocke, an Englishman sent by the Protectorate to negotiate a naval alliance with Sweden against the Dutch. Whitelocke was presented to the queen in December 1653, and in his solemn, comprehensive Narrative he notes meticulously every word and action of the queen in their meetings. We know that Christina was playing a part, that her calm was doubtless simulated, but there was nothing faked in her interest in every subject which came up for discussion. No matter what crisis Christina was in, she was invariably ready to learn a new thing. She is described by Whitelocke as utterly devoid of impatience and irritability, a young lady of remarkable insight into affairs, a little intricate in her dealings perhaps, but exquisitely affable towards himself and England. They passed from the discussion of the alliance to the discussion of English affairs, of Protestantism, which the queen solemnly applauded, of the library at St James's from which Whitelocke promised his help in obtaining a coveted manuscript, of famous people. 'One would have fancied that England had been her native land, so well was she furnished with the characters of most persons of consideration there, and with the story of the nation.'

Time and again Christina drew him on to talk about Cromwell. As a divinely-invested sovereign, she had been appalled at the execution of Charles I. In 1649 she had written to Bradshaw and the judges: 'A chamber of justice, or rather a chamber of iniquity, established by Cromwell and composed entirely of men of low birth, or of scoundrels who aspire as he does to sovereign power, cites the King, pronounces him guilty of treason, and, without allowing him to defend himself, beheads him at his palace gates. ... Infamous judges! ... Scoundrels who have violated divine and human laws and who have soaked your sacrilegious hands in the blood of your King. He was your friend. He was your father.... Savages! you have cut his throat without a pang!'

None the less[,] when it began to be clear what kind of man the Protector was, Christina was the first of the European sovereigns to make an alliance with him. 'The degeneracy of the times renders your woes irremediable', she wrote to the future Charles II, 'and I think it my unhappiness to be incapacitated from giving you any assistance. You will doubtless have the goodness to permit your friends to look after their own interests, when they are convinced how impossible it is to be of any service to you.' The thought of Cromwell, as she grew to visualise him, drew her like a magnet. He was her strong, military, heroic type. She twice hinted broadly that she would be glad to see him in England, and in spite of the cool reception of her suggestion was delighted to receive his portrait signed by his hand and bearing some lines of verse to the effect that his was not always a countenance to make kings tremble. 'If blind fortune would one day let me look upon this face', she wrote in answer, 'I would think it one of the greatest graces she ever did, even though one of them was to give me a crown.' An offer from Cromwell would certainly have charmed her more than the one she received from the King of Scotland. She vowed that Cromwell would be King of England, and protested that in Roman days no good had ever come of absolute rulers hiding the kingly power under republican names.

Very often the queen's mood was light. Once the conference was interrupted by an unexpected intruder, and the journal records this dialogue between Christina and Whitelocke:

'What huge dogge is this?'

'It is an English mastiffe which I brought with me, and it seems is broke loose and followed me even to this place.'

'Is he gentle and well conditioned?'

'The more courage they have, the more gentle they are; this is both. Your Majesty may stroake him.'

'I have heard of the fierceness of these dogges; this is very gentle.'

'They are very gentle unless provoked, and of a generous kind; no creature hath more mettle and faithfulnesse than they have.'

'Is it your dogge?'

'I cannot tell; some of my people told me that one Mr Peters sent for it for a present for the Queen.'

'Who is that Mr Peters?'

'A minister, and great servant to the Parlement.'

'That Mr Peters sent me a letter.'

'He is a great admirer of Your Majesty; but to presume to send a letter, or a dogge, for a present to a queen, I thought above him, and not fit to be offered to your Majesty.'

'I have many letters from private persons; his letter and the dogge belong to me and are my goods, and I will have them.'

'Your Majesty commands in chiefe, and all ought to obey you, and so will I; not only as to the letter and dogge, but also as to another part of his present, a great English cheese of his countrey-making.'

'I do kindly accept them from him, and see that you send my goods to me.'

This also was like Christina. A Magnus de la Gardie, placed as high as possible, could fall irrevocably at the hint of a threat of her royalty. A Mr Peters, however lowly, could do no wrong by presuming to show his appreciation of her.

Above: Kristina.

Above: Bulstrode Whitelocke.

Ada Harrison's biography of Kristina, part 8

Source:

Christina of Sweden, pages 34 to 37, by Ada Harrison, 1929

https://books.google.com/books?id=xJvrtq4DCv0C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=memoires+concernant+christine+1760&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

If the Senate showed concern at the proposal to abdicate, Christina's behaviour was calculated to soften the blow when it did fall. Now that she regarded her position in Sweden as something which she might one day abandon, she became scornful and weary of it. She could not rid herself of the habit of dealing assiduously with affairs, but they sickened her. She began to feel herself intolerably bound.

She wrote to Chanut: 'In vain I rise early, go to bed late, sleep little; I get no further. I have not a moment free. State affairs take up all my time and weary me to death. When, Great Heavens! shall I disembarrass myself of these tiresome persons? [her secretaries]. An hour of their company is longer than eternity. They batter my ears and my spirit, and always reduce me to a black mood .... Boast as you will the brilliant and inestimable prerogatives of royalty, if one cannot do as one wants without being exposed to the censure of mankind, I would sooner be Ninon than Christina.'

As was natural at such a moment, she emphasized every one of her activities which seemed born of her own free will and not of her circumstances. She became more high-handed and extravagant than ever; more eccentric and more frivolous. So surprising was her behaviour that her mother made a brief appearance on the scene to remonstrate, and, as might have been expected, disappeared from it in tears, having accomplished nothing.

But though no word of religious matters was breathed in public, in private Christina had taken a momentous step. She had provided herself with a confidant. This was Antonio Macedo, confessor of the Portuguese Ambassador. In conjunction with him the deeply solemn matter took on a hint of subterfuge and intrigue which delighted the woman in Christina. Macedo's master spoke no language but his own. Therefore at all interviews with the queen[,] the priest was present as interpreter. Under cover of State discussions, long religious investigations were held, the ambassador being aware of nothing but that 'the words between them were more than the things proposed to him by the interpreter, and repeated by the interpreter to him.' At last, after all the thought and the debating, the stirring of action came. Ranke, who digresses from his Popes for a chapter on Christina, tells the story:

'Suddenly, Macedo disappeared from Stockholm. The queen pretended to have him sought for, pursued, while she had, in fact, herself despatched him to Rome, for the purpose of explaining her wishes to the General of the Jesuits, and entreating him to send her some most trusted members of his Order.

In February 1652 the Jesuits demanded arrived in Stockholm accordingly: they were two young men, who represented themselves to be Italian noblemen engaged in travel, and in this character were admitted to her table. The Queen at once suspected their true errand, and while they walked immediately before her to the dining-hall, she observed to one of them, in a low voice, that perchance he had letters for her. He replied, without turning his head, that he had; with one rapid word she then warned him to keep silence. After dinner, she sent her most trusted servant, Johann Holm, for the letters, and the following morning the same servant conducted the Jesuits in the most profound secrecy to the palace.'

It was a dramatic moment for the queen, heightened and sweetened by the fact that not a soul guessed what was toward. The secret messengers stood before her, carrying, most likely, her new life in their hands.

The long searchings and examinations began. The Jesuits, like every other person who came into contact with it, were astonished at the quality of the queen's mind. Christina did not wish to be comforted with dogma. She wished, like Socrates, to consider the nature of good and evil and the chances of immortality for a man's soul.

'The Jesuits', continues Ranke, 'do not tell us what replies they gave to these questions; they believed that, during their conferences, thoughts were suggested to them such as had never entered their minds before and which they had immediately afterwards lost and forgotten. The queen, they think, was under the immediate operation of the Holy Spirit; the truth being that she was under the influence of a decided predisposition which supplied what might be wanting in every argument and even added force to conviction itself. They most frequently recurred to that primary assumption, that the world cannot be left without the true religion, and to this they added the assertion that of all existing religions, the Catholic is the most reasonable. "Our chief endeavour", say the Jesuits, "was to prove that the points of our holy religion which are raised above reason, are in nowise opposed to reason" .... She conversed with them also on the difficulties that must arise in the event of her determining to become a Catholic; these sometimes appeared likely to prove insurmountable, and one day, when she again saw the Jesuits, she declared to them that they would do well to return home, that the attempt they were making was impracticable, and that besides, she thought she could never become wholly Catholic at heart. The good fathers were amazed, they used every argument that seemed likely to keep her to her previous purpose, placed God and eternity before her, and affirmed her doubts to be but suggestions and assaults of Satan. It is entirely characteristic of Christina that she was at this moment more fully resolved on her conversion that at any previous moment of the conference. "What would you say", she asked suddenly, "if I were nearer to becoming a Catholic than you suppose?" "I cannot describe the feelings", says the Jesuit narrator, "that we experienced. We seemed like men raised from the dead! The queen asked whether the Pope could not grant permission to receive the Lord's Supper once a year according to the Lutheran rites. We replied that he could not. "Then", said she, "there is no help, I must resign the crown."'

The die was cast. The messengers were despatched to arrange for Christina's reception into the church, so that even if in their long period of absence the queen had time to repent, everything would be put irrevocably in train. Meanwhile her new favourite was Don Antonio Pimentelli, Ambassador of Spain, who shared her pleasures and enjoyed her confidence, and in his master's name offered the hospitality of Spain to the queen after her conversion. A pause ensued while negotiations went forward, and in the interminable period that preceded release[,] she chafed against her bonds. 'I think I see the devil when I see these men', she wrote to Chanut, of her secretaries filing in to get her signature to documents. Yet, as might be expected of her, she continued to the end to play perfectly the queen of Sweden. She never shirked an obligation. While she hugged the prospect of the chosen future, she yet lived fully in the present; nor could she withhold her interest from any affair. An illuminating glimpse of Christina is afforded by this moment. She was abdicating ostensibly for spiritual reasons, yet spiritually she was limited by her practical and active nature. It is clear that the Church of Rome alone would hardly have drawn her out of Sweden, and that the new life, which was to be a change of religion, was to be by no means a change of her other interests, but rather an intensification of them.

Above: Kristina.

Ada Harrison's biography of Kristina, part 7

Source:

Christina of Sweden, pages 29 to 34, by Ada Harrison, 1929

https://books.google.com/books?id=xJvrtq4DCv0C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=memoires+concernant+christine+1760&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

To every cultured Teuton or Anglo-Saxon, the Latin charm is strong. Rome is an idea half familiar, half remote, which calls insistently for exploration. The north is a blond and fascinating mystery to southerners; but to northerners, some time in their lives, the south is a necessity. Christina was peculiarly susceptible to its claim. It was almost enough that she was captive in Sweden; but she was also deeply cultured, she knew the Latin languages, she was unusually capable of appreciating the envoys who came north to her from the promised lands, and of contrasting their brilliance and elegance with the boorishness with which she was surrounded. Part of the southern nature, she realised, was its religion. She was not of a temperament to leave that part unexplored, nor, brought up against it, was she able, as some northerners in her place would have been, to turn her back on it, and so convince herself that it did not exist.

Christina was by nature susceptible to religious doubts. She was inquiring, philosophical and highly educated. Her instinctive tendency to look about was encouraged by certain irritating features of Lutheranism. The chief of these was the interminable sermons her pastors preached her. The queen, whose mind was brilliant and whose habit was to terminate on the instant any intercourse which she did not find pleasing or profitable, writhed under the harangues of these simple, prosy men. While they preached she fidgeted, played with her lapdog; at which they steadily preached more. Yawning, she asked herself if this could possibly be the will of God, or what, if not, the will of God might be. She was inclined towards religion, and was certain that there must be one true faith, but was tortured to know which it was.

The choice before her was not large, and she turned naturally to the examination of the doctrines of the Church of Rome. The fact that Descartes, so important and so eminently rational a man, was a practising Roman Catholic, must have impressed her deeply. Christina's attitude towards religion was entirely rational. She did not look for voices or a sign; she proposed to examine doctrine and to reckon points; and she confessed she found it much in favour of the Church of Rome that so many illustrious and brilliant men in the past had belonged to it. Certain minor aspects of the Roman Church appealed to her as much as certain aspects of the Lutheran repelled. The unmarried state had merit with Rome; the Roman faith seemed designed to honour virgins like herself, who rose above the frailties of their sex.

It is difficult to say just when Christina's thoughts began to turn to Roman Catholicism. Writing after her adoption of the faith, and passionately on the defensive about it, she almost challenges us to deny that her first rational impulse was towards it. A Roman Catholic biographer records that when, at the age of nine, the queen was told that the unmarried state was meritorious in the church, she exclaimed, 'How fine that is! It is of that religion I will be!' and clung to her opinion in the face of a stiff Lutheran reprimand. However that may be, it is likely her mind early challenged her hereditary faith, as it challenged everything with which it came in contact, and there is no doubt that from 1650 onwards religion greatly occupied her.

From this year all things began to work in Christina to bring her to the end of her first stage. In 1649, against senatorial opposition, and in spite of the protests of the Prince himself, she had made Charles Gustavus her successor. She thus sealed beyond redemption her determination not to marry, and cut herself off from continuing in Sweden in the persons of her heirs.

The fact that the end was visible, and that the end was no greater than the beginning, must have had its weight. She was now queen; she would die queen. There would be no advance in glory. Having freed herself of the blind impulse to hold on for the sake of her own posterity, she began, according to her nature, which could never remain static, to consider breaking away. The intertwined notions of abdication, of Roman Catholicism, of escape to the brilliant Latin lands, of spending profitably the remainder of her youth, all began to grow together in the queen's mind.

If, however, Descartes had given a particular fillip to this growth, it was not yet very evident. These matters were not to be embarked on lightly, even by Christina. If speculations and possibilities lifted their heads, they must be thrust back again, to grow strongly perhaps, but subterraneously.

Meanwhile, the ostensible purpose of Descartes' visit, his philosophy, bore obvious fruit. He was succeeded at the court by a train of learned men. Stockholm became the home of twenty savants, among whom was Salmasius, whose presence had been insistently sought for, and who stayed at the palace a year.

As a result of these devotions, Christina became extremely ill. This was scarcely surprising, for she continued with her regular affairs, and worked in as overtime the rigorous entertainments of the savants. And as she had not the feminine gift of hearing the wise men without listening to them, but wished actually to understand what they said, her overtaxed mind and body refused their work. Her complaint, which to-day would have been recognised as a nervous collapse, did not yield to the treatment then in vogue. Physic and bleeding made no impression on it. It was left to one Bourdelot to effect a cure, which he did in a manner vastly shocking to the susceptibilities of Sweden. Bourdelot was a Frenchman, an adventurer, the son of a barber, and a quackish man of science. Whatever his qualifications were, he had the wit to offer a sensible prescription. He ordered a complete change.

Christina took to the new physician, as public opinion did not. Accepting his prescription, she saw to it that in its discharge there should be no half measures. The queen's life was transformed. Books were abandoned, business abandoned, philosophers temporarily suspended. The chase, the shuttlecock, every devisable frivolity took their places. The court looked on astonished, but the queen continued to be strenuously and freakishly gay [cheerful]. She and the new favourite were now self-designated the plaisants compagnons, and within the comfortable latitude of this title everything was included except displeasure and work. In the end, Bourdelot, with the hearty co-operation of his patient, was successful. The cure was as complete as the over-restless nature of the queen would allow, and Christina, sensible of her debt to her impromptu physician, continued for many years to correspond with him and ask his advice.

Restored to health[,] she began once again to face the future. Bourdelot had insisted on laughing at everything, at great nations and religions included, so that Christina's serious preoccupations had been left in abeyance. Now she returned to them. In 1651 she got as far as to broach to the Senate a project of transferring the crown to Charles Gustavus before her death. The Senate was horrified, and at their earnest appeal she withdrew the suggestion. To them she was still, and all her life remained, the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, and any attempt she made to tamper with her own state seemed a reflection on Sweden. In return Christina exacted from the Senate a promise to finish once and for all with the subject of her marriage, for which they still hopefully pressed. It was a moment of truce.

Christina had as yet breathed no word in public of her religious waverings, although the ascendancy of foreigners, especially that of Descartes, had already given the Senate uneasiness. It was a portentous subject. It was more than a reigning Protestant sovereign entertaining the idea of Roman Catholicism. It was the daughter of the very ace of Protestantism deserting to the enemy's camp. The Thirty Years' War had been a religious war, and Gustavus Adolphus had succeeded in fighting in it something like the religious spirit. He had not been a nominal[,] but a convinced Protestant, and had fought with the name of God honestly on his lips. The Treaty of Westphalia was but three years old. Christina dared not yet go back on it and what it represented.

Above: Kristina.

Above: Pierre Bourdelot.

Ada Harrison's biography of Kristina, part 6

Source:

Christina of Sweden, pages 26 to 29, by Ada Harrison, 1929

https://books.google.com/books?id=xJvrtq4DCv0C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=memoires+concernant+christine+1760&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

Christina's character at this time is admirably illustrated in her private correspondence. She was a good and vigorous writer, not so literary as to obscure herself in her letters, and letter-writing was a welcome outlet for her semi-creative mind. She wrote a comic account of how she fell into the sea from a cracked plank in company with an octogenarian admiral who was showing her over a battleship. She wrote to Chanut, the French Ambassador, declaring her hatred of matrimony and swearing that what she would bear in marriage would be no Augustus but a Nero. In 1646 [sic], the queen's mother, sickening of her nonentity's existence, entered into negotiations with her late enemy, Christian of Denmark, pretending that she was in a position to offer Christina's hand for his son. A little later [sic], to the indignation of Sweden, she allowed herself to be fetched away to Denmark on a Danish warship. A witty lady of Christina's court wrote a burlesque account of the incident, describing it as an elopement, and to her letter Christina, quite untouched by any feeling in the matter, added a postscript to the effect that we should do as we please, 'for philosophy and nature are the surest guides and should be reverenced.'

She wrote to Anne of Austria, requiring her to release from prison Condé, Conti and Longueville, with the marvellous directness and indiscretion which was later to characterise her offers of advice to persons in high places. With almost ingenuous impertinence she wrote to the Duchess of Chatillon recommending her to take Condé for a lover, 'or in a little while you will find yourself sorrowfully reduced to the Duke of Chatillon, that is to Zero.' In the same mannish spirit in which she delighted to use oaths and act the unblushing virgin, she wrote a description of the Duc de Nemours mistaking bedrooms in the course of a gallant intrigue.

In a very different spirit, however, she began a correspondence with the philosopher Descartes. Enthusiasms came and went with Christina, but it was her steady desire all her life to play the patron of art and learning. She recognised the importance of Descartes and began to consider how incomparable an appanage he would be to her court. He was at this time living in Holland, warm and comfortable, and proceeding admirably with his work. He had already one royal patroness, Elizabeth Princess Palatine, daughter of that Elizabeth, child of James the First, through whom the Hanoverians came to England. She was a charming and intelligent princess, living in exile in Holland, and drawing great solace from the friendship and teaching of Descartes.

Christina had an approach to the philosopher through Chanut, their mutual friend. Chanut reported the queen's interest. Descartes replied in a tactful letter, obviously intended for the queen's eye, that since his work was being attacked by fools it was well to have it patronised by people of the highest rank and intelligence. He had, as a rule, an aversion to writing on morale, but he put this aside for the queen's sake and wrote her a dissertation on le souverain bien. When after a long interval Christina replied, it was with an invitation to the philosopher to take up his residence at Stockholm. Descartes demurred. He was honoured; he became fired with a scheme to bring about a rapprochement between his two royal patronesses; but he was comfortable in Holland and attached to the Princess Elizabeth. He wrote, Christina's flowery humble servant, and refused. But, characteristically, the queen's desire grew more urgent as it waited gratification. At last Descartes felt obliged to yield. Urging on the Princess Elizabeth, who seemed slow to understand it, the charm and strength their intercourse would gain through having a third person to share it, he set out for Stockholm with some misgivings in the autumn of 1649.

Christina rushed upon her prize. He was at once to draw up plans for a Swedish Academy, a work quite foreign to his experience and desire, and he was to have the honour of meeting her every morning in the royal library at five. Descartes shivered and complied, and wrote back a glowing account to Elizabeth of the queen's wit, her graces and her condescension in remembering Elizabeth herself. This provoked a somewhat double-edged letter from the gentle Princess, who vowed that she was not jealous, that it was good of the queen to remember her, which she did doubtless owing to the representations of Descartes, and that she was glad his enthusiasm had not decided him to live in Sweden, so that she might have her desire of seeing him again. But her wish was not fulfilled. By the middle of February 1650 Descartes was dead. The icy northern winter, the change from Holland, where he lived in a house 'like a stove', to the rigours of the queen's régime, were too much for him. He took cold, which developed into inflammation of the lungs and killed him.

The sacrifice of Descartes, for whose death she was in a measure responsible, was characteristic of Christina. She had the wit to appreciate the great man; she had, more remarkable, the brain to understand him; but she could not leave him alone. Her egoism required that he should shine upon the world through her. She was betrayed by her powers into the belief that she was the sun and centre of existence, and Descartes, like many another, was forced to subscribe to it.

None the less, Christina regretted the philosopher bitterly. A note of something like humility can be heard in her tribute to him. 'The greatest of philosophers and the most virtuous of men has just died. If I were superstitious I should weep his death like a child, and would bitterly repent having drawn this bright star out of its course. ... His loss weighs me down. It rouses unendingly my just and useless regrets.' She wished to do the scholar honour by piling a splendid monument upon him and laying him at the feet of the Swedish Kings; but this his friends would not allow, and he was buried simply in the Catholic cemetery at Stockholm. Descartes' visit, so disastrous and so brief, may yet have been long enough to plant a seed in Christina, or cause one already planted there to grow. Descartes, Christina realised, was one of the first men of the age; he was French, he was a Roman Catholic. He was a mighty link in the chain of the Latin genius that was forever dragging at the queen.

Above: Kristina.

Above: René Descartes.

Ada Harrison's biography of Kristina, part 5

Source:

Christina of Sweden, pages 23 to 26, by Ada Harrison, 1929

https://books.google.com/books?id=xJvrtq4DCv0C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=memoires+concernant+christine+1760&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

The tale of Christina's favourites is a long one, half-comical, half-tragic. Her life, like any other, can be read in her personal relationships. In these her good luck was something below the average. She did not marry, she loved late and was unevenly requited; there was scarcely an ounce of female influence in her life; and a woman who lives entirely by the other sex is apt to triumph somewhat forlornly.

She was, by character, a difficult creature to love. Her wit was too sharp; she was too clear-cut, too utterly lacking in the womanly power to lean. She was always strong; she was always right; she did not care if her hand was against every man. She was restless, and pitched in a higher key than the people round her. She compelled men almost without exception to admire her, but there were few whom she could coerce into anything like love. Her career is a long succession of enthusiasms, of which the intellectual ones are sound, and the personal ones very often unsound to a startling degree. It seems that with the exception of her great friend or lover, Azzolino, Christina did not expect to look upwards in her personal relationships, and being resigned to looking down, she looked immoderately low. As long as she was in Sweden, however, she was saved from the disastrous snares into which she fell later.

Her first ideal, Charles Gustavus, did not occupy his pedestal for long. Christina had probably liked him at first for the simple but sufficient reason that he was a boy. He grew up an unpretentious young man, physically and mentally thick-set, very Swedish in his make-up, the last person in the world to hold the attention of the more mature Christina. She continued, however, to bear something like a family affection for him. She was more careful of his feelings than was usual with her, and she made him heir to Sweden. Charles Gustavus protested that he wanted no glory, but only Christina. He may have been sincere. She must have seemed to him a dazzling creature, and might well have captured his slow imagination. He continued so to protest while he suffered Christina to broach to him the subject of his succession, to nominate him her heir and to abdicate in his favour. 'After all, Krona is a pretty girl too', the queen protested at last, when his martyred attitude seemed to have lasted a little too long.

Magnus de la Gardie, Christina's first true court favourite, was a horse of another colour. He was the heir of a French family settled in Sweden and there risen high. He was young and charming, a handsome and brilliant courtier, best of all he was French, and bore with him the stamp of that swift, enlightened world of which Christina, tied to the cold and heavy north, so eagerly gathered the gleams. The queen was never niggardly. On de la Gardie she showered titles, offices, rich presents. 'The count de la Gardie was a genteel figure', wrote Madame de Motteville in her memoirs, 'had a lofty mein [sic] and all the appearance of a distinguished favourite. He talked of his queen in language so passionately respectful as plainly indicated there was no injustice in suspecting that the tenderness of his affection exceeded what the duty of a subject requires.'

It was thought, and by some in Sweden feared, that she would marry him. But instead he fell from grace with a devastating suddenness. It is not known certainly what undid him. Perhaps he boasted abroad of his power over Christina, which would account for her subsequent implacability towards him. Another version is that Magnus charged certain gentlemen with accusing him of unfaithfulness and treachery towards the queen. These gentlemen were two of Christina's first courtiers, Tott and Steinbergh. Before the queen and their accuser they denied the charge on their lives. The charge was then laid upon another courtier, who denied it in the same way. There was nothing left for de la Gardie but to ask the queen's permission to withdraw from court. Whatever the truth was, he disappeared abruptly and the episode ended with a letter from Christina in which in the most unrelenting fashion she refused his pleas and declared her certainty of never repenting his dismissal. As it happened, this was an act which she had fair inducement to repent, for many years later the tables were turned, and de la Gardie in power showed himself a keen rememberer of old scores.

Rumour called de la Gardie the queen's lover, as it had called Charles Gustavus, and later was to call Tott and every man with whom she came into association. On this point rumour was almost certainly wrong. Christina respected no conventions in relationships with men. She saw the favourite or companion just when and how she pleased. But she was not amorous, though, like many untried people, she protested the warmth of her nature; and with the possible exception of de la Gardie, love entered into none of her relationships in Sweden.

Above: Kristina.

Above: Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie.

Ada Harrison's biography of Kristina, part 4

Source:

Christina of Sweden, pages 20 to 23, by Ada Harrison, 1929

https://books.google.com/books?id=xJvrtq4DCv0C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=memoires+concernant+christine+1760&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

Christina's story thus falls naturally into two parts, her life in Sweden and her life outside it; the first stage when, being a queen in fact she was by her very queenliness enslaved; the second stage when, being a queen in nothing but name, she was free to take all Europe for her province. The first half of the narrative, though Christina did her best with it, is naturally the less varied; the second half is changeable, fantastic, more than a little sordid. The whole is the picture of a nature powerfully following its own bent neither to salvation nor damnation, but to some intermediate destination which its own invincible self-confidence has pronounced the one true goal.

Although as long as she was in Sweden she was obliged in a measure to conform to convention, Christina was never cut to pattern. Her behaviour was never stereotyped, and although her personal appearance was not astonishing, certain eccentricities of dress and bearing made her easily distinguishable. In feature she was a typical Vasa, with high forehead and Roman nose. She had a small mouth and abundant hair. Her biographers say, in duty bound, that her eyes were lustrous, her lips red, her neck and hands white. Not even adulation ever described her as a beauty, but once we hear of her looking ravishing — one night in Rome, when she wore a blue ribbon, and set two candles for herself, and read aloud a French comedy by their light. She admits that one shoulder was higher than the other, the result of her being dropped in infancy, and adds characteristically that she could have remedied this fault if she had taken the trouble. She was a little below middle height, which defect, Chanut remarked, might have been corrected with fashionable shoes. But Christina, like the true feminist she was, wore low heels. She was, inevitably, careless of her personal appearance; the queen lingering at her toilet was never part of the picture. 'There is no doubt', even the flattering Chanut admits, 'that her neglect of herself was excessive.' A quarter of an hour was the most she allowed herself for dressing except on occasions of State. Her hair was caught carelessly with a ribbon; various items of her attire were always faintly masculine. She behaved, in fact, like the modern woman, and as a certain number of women have always behaved throughout the ages.

Her habits, like her dress, had to interfere as little as possible with the pressing business of her life. She ate simply and little, and rose so early that she was obliged to sleep for an hour after dinner to get a minimum of rest. For the remainder of her day she employed herself with that strenuousness which is now called a nervous disease, but which, corrupt as it may have been, certainly accomplished something. She rose at five, despatched a quantity of business, gave audiences of every description, took the air in her sled, hunted, footed it at a ball. 'She is unwearied in outdoor exercise', says her French biographer, 'to the point of being able to remain ten hours on horseback at the hunt. Neither heat nor cold disturbs her. No one in Sweden is better able than she to bring the hunted hare low with a single shot. She can put a horse through every kind of trick.' When she stood up to dance, she was the last in the room to tire. At everything she outdistanced her suite.

And always from her throne in the north, she was keeping up with the art, the literature, and the great personalities of Europe, writing letters indefatigably to an immense circle, begging her representatives in every quarter of the globe to send her manuscripts, pictures or medals. The collector's passion was so strong with her that at times it rose superior even to her pride. On an occasion when she had bought the contents of two famous French libraries and had paid the money but had not received the books, she wrote, 'I have so great a passion for the rarities and beauties of your country that I will never regret acquiring them, at whatever the the [sic] price. ... To pacify the wretches who have sold you the pictures and books, you must give them what they ask, rather than get involved in any litigation.' On the one hand she was the inheritor of the Lion of the North, with her love for the chase, for war and glory, with her passionate hero-worship of her contemporary Condé, and her conventional but sincere raptures over Pompey and Alexander the Great. On the other hand she was herself the Pallas of the North, congratulating Mademoiselle de Scudéry, befriending Grotius, almost forcing Descartes to leave his comfortable home in Holland to come and be her tutor. In her pursuit of art and culture, as in everything else, she was absolutely honest. She was never the dilettante extolled by courtiers into a royal Maecenas.

In gratifying the pleasures of culture, that is, in giving learned persons presents and pensions, in entertainments, in acquiring whatever works of art were to be bought, she was so extravagant as to cause the Parliament to murmur. She was equally reckless in her bestowal of titles. She ennobled where she listed, where, she protested, merit was, and rudely jostled the ancient nobility with her lords of a day. She insisted that Salvius, who was of humble birth, should be made a senator, and declared reasonably to the protesting Senate: 'When the point in debate is concerning good advice and wise counsel, no one enquires whether the adviser has sixteen quarters in his coat of arms, but whether he has laboured for the benefit of the State.' But reason did not always rule her in this respect. She felt so keenly that to be condescending and to be generous was to be truly royal, that she bestowed rewards out of all proportion with sense. In ten years she created 17 counts, 46 barons, and 428 lesser nobles, and sold or mortgaged a vast quantity of crown property to support them. She was so fantastically lavish to her favourites that in 1650 the Estates presented a 'protestation for the restitution of crown property.'

Above: Kristina.

Kristina's letter to King Michał I of Poland, congratulating him on his marriage to Archduchess Eleonore Maria Josefa of Austria, year 1670

Source:

Bibliothèque interuniversitaire (Montpellier); Manuscrits de la reine Christine; VII: Lettere della regina a principi; Lettere al re di Spagna; Lettres au roi d'Espagne; Lettre 153  Christine de Suède à l'électeur palatine, [s. l.], [s. d.] (digitisation pages 135v-136r)

https://calames.abes.fr/pub/#details?id=Calames-2019112515112342627

Christine (1626-1689 ; reine de Suède), Manuscrits de la reine Christine : Lettere della regina a principi, 1601-1700.

[En ligne sur https://ged.scdi-montpellier.fr/florabium45/jsp/nodoc.jsp?NODOC=2023_DOC_MONT_MBUM_92] (consulté le 27/11/2024 21:49).

The Foli@ online digital heritage library is here:

https://ged.biu-montpellier.fr/florabium/jsp/portal/index_patrimoine.jsp

Copyright SCDI-UPV - Collections Université de Montpellier (shelfmark H 258).

The letter (with Kristina's handwriting in italics):

Sereniss[i]mo Rè Sig[nor] fratello Cariss[i]mo. La parte, che V. M. hà voluto darci del Suo matrimonio concluso con la Ser[enissi]ma Arciduchessa Eleonora Sorella dell'Jmp[erato]re è Stata riceuuta da Noi con quella contentezza Sing[ola]re, con cui Saremo per partecipar Sempre delle prosperità della M. V. con la quale però ci rallegriamo dell'elettione, c'hà fatta di Sì degna Principessa, augurandole ogni magg[io]r felicità: Rendiamo ancora gratie à V. M. della testimonianza, c'hà uoluto darci in q[ues]ta occasione del Suo animo affettuoso uerso di Noi al quale Sia certa che corrisponderemo Sempre con tutta quella pienezza di uolontà, e di Stima, che è douuta al Suo gran merito, ed intanto ci confermiamo

D. V. M.

non so che Jl Re la chima Cosi pero avertite

With modernised spelling:

Serenissimo re, signor Fratello carissimo,

La parte che Vostra Maestà ha voluto darci del suo matrimonio concluso con la serenissima arciduchessa Eleonora, sorella dell'imperatore è stata ricevuta da Noi con quella contentezza singolare con cui saremo per partecipar sempre delle prosperità della Maestà Vostra, con la quale però ci rallegriamo dell'elezione c'ha fatta di sì degna principessa, augurandole ogni maggior felicità.

Rendiamo ancora grazie a Vostra Maestà della testimonianza c'ha voluto darci in questa occasione del suo animo affettuoso verso di Noi, al quale sia certa che corrisponderemo sempre con tutta quella pienezza di volontà e di stima che è dovuta al suo gran merito; ed intanto ci confermiamo

di Vostra Maestà...

Non so che il re la chima così, però avertite.

French translation (my own):

Sérénissime roi, très cher Frère,

La part que Votre Majesté a voulu Nous donner de son mariage conclu avec la sérénissime archiduchesse Éléonore, sœur de l'empereur, a été reçue par Nous avec ce contentement singulier avec lequel Nous devrons toujours participer à la prospérité de Votre Majesté, et avec lequel, cependant, Nous Nous réjouissons de l'élection qu'elle a faite d'une si digne princesse, lui souhaitant une très grande félicité.

Nous remercions encore Votre Majesté du témoignage qu'elle a voulu Nous donner, en cette occasion, de son âme affectueuse envers Nous, auquel Nous sommes certaines que Nous répondrons toujours avec toute cette plénitude de volonté et d'estime qui est due à son grand mérite; et cependant Nous Nous confirmons

de Votre Majesté...

Je ne sais pas si le roi l'appelle ainsi, mais faites-le-moi savoir.

Polish translation (my own; I cannot tag it as such due to character limits in the tags):

Najjaśniejszy Królu, Najdroższy Bracie,

Wiadomość, którą Wasza Wysokość chciała Nam przekazać o swoim małżeństwie zawartym z Najjaśniejszą Arcyksiężniczką Eleonorą, siostrą Cesarza, została przez Nas przyjęta z tą szczególną radością, z jaką zawsze będziemy musiele uczestniczyć w pomyślności Waszej Wysokości, a z którą tymczasem radujemy się z wyboru tak godnej księżniczki, jakiego dokonała, życząc ci wszelkiego większego szczęścia.

Dziękujemy ponownie Waszej Wysokości za świadectwo, które chciała Nam dać przy tej okazji, o swojej czułej duszy wobec Nas, na które jesteśmy pewne, że zawsze będziemy odpowiadać z całą pełnią woli i szacunku, które należą się swoim wielkim zasługom; a tymczasem potwierdzamy się jako

Waszej Wysokości...

Nie wiem, czy król ją tak nazywa, ale niech pan da mi znać.

Swedish translation (my own):

Durchlauchtigste konung, allrakäraste Bror,

Den nyhet som Ers Majestät har velat ge Oss av Ert äktenskap som slutits med den durchlauchtigste ärkehertiginnan Eleonore, kejsarens syster, har mottagits av Oss med den enastående belåtenhet med vilken Vi alltid kommer att behöva delta i Ers Majestäts välstånd, och med vilken Vi emellertid gläds åt det val Ni har gjort av en så värdig prinsessa, önskande Er all större lycka.

Vi tackar Ers Majestät ännu en gång för den betygelse som Ni vid detta tillfälle har velat ge Oss om Er tillgivna själ mot Oss, till vilken Vi är säkra på att Vi alltid kommer att överensstämma med all den fullhet av vilja och aktning som tillkommer Er stor förtjänst; och emellertid bekräftar Vi Oss som

Ers Majestäts...

Jag vet inte om konungen kallar henne så, men låt mig veta.

English translation (my own):

Most Serene King, Dearest Brother,

The part that Your Majesty has wanted to give Us of your marriage concluded with the Most Serene Archduchess Eleonore, the Emperor's sister, has been received by Us with that singular contentment with which We will always have to participate in Your Majesty's prosperity, and with which, in the meantime, We rejoice in the election you have made of such a worthy princess, wishing you every greater felicity.

We thank Your Majesty again for the testimony that you have wanted to give Us, on this occasion, of your affectionate soul towards Us, to which We are certain that We will always correspond with all that fullness of will and esteem that is due to your great merit; and in the meantime We confirm Ourself as

Your Majesty's...

I don't know if the King calls her so, but let me know.

Above: Kristina.

Above: Eleonore Maria Josefa, Archduchess of Austria.

Above: King Michał I of Poland.

Note: In accordance with the nobility's ideals in the early modern era, kings and queens considered themselves siblings.

Kristina's letter to Count Palatine Philipp Wilhelm of Neuburg, congratulating him on his daughter Maria Sophia Elisabeth's marriage to King Pedro II of Portugal, year 1687

Sources:

Bibliothèque interuniversitaire (Montpellier); Manuscrits de la reine Christine; VII: Lettere della regina a principi; Lettere al re di Spagna; Lettres au roi d'Espagne; Lettre 147  Christine de Suède à l'électeur palatine, [s. l.], [s. d.] (digitisation pages 131v-132r to 132v-133r)

https://calames.abes.fr/pub/#details?id=Calames-2019112515113238720

Christine (1626-1689 ; reine de Suède), Manuscrits de la reine Christine : Lettere della regina a principi, 1601-1700.

[En ligne sur https://ged.scdi-montpellier.fr/florabium45/jsp/nodoc.jsp?NODOC=2023_DOC_MONT_MBUM_92] (consulté le 27/11/2024 15:05).

The Foli@ online digital heritage library is here:

https://ged.biu-montpellier.fr/florabium/jsp/portal/index_patrimoine.jsp

Copyright SCDI-UPV - Collections Université de Montpellier (shelfmark H 258).

The letter (with Kristina's handwriting in italics):

A l'Electeur Palatin

J'ay receù la part que V. A. m'a donnè du Mariage estably entre le Roy de Portugal e[t] la Princesse Marie Sophie Elisabet Comtesse Palatine V[ost]re fille auec la ioye que me donnent tous les heureux euenements de V[ost]re Maison y estant interessee par tant de raisons. Jé m'en reiouis donc auéc V A de tout mon coéur, et Vous remercie des obligeantes expressions par les quelles Vous m'auiez tesmoignè V[ost]re Affection en cette occasion Vous priant d'estre persuadè de la mienne, et de la Sinceritè auec la quelle Jé Suis

With modernised spelling:

A l'électeur palatin.

J'ai reçu la part que Votre Altesse m'a donné du mariage établi entre le roi de Portugal et la princesse palatine votre fille avec la joie que me donnent tous les heureux événements de votre maison, y étant intéressée par tant de raisons. Je m'en réjouis donc avec Votre Altesse de tout mon cœur et vous remercie des obligeantes expressions par lesquelles vous m'aviez témoigné votre affection en cette occasion, vous priant d'être persuadé de la mienne et de la sincérité avec laquelle je suis...

Swedish translation (my own):

Till pfalzkurfursten.

Jag har mottagit den nyhet som Ers Höghet har givit mig av det äktenskap som upprättats mellan konungen av Portugal och pfalzgrevinnan, Er dotter, med den glädje som alla glada händelser i Ert Hus ger mig, ty jag är intresserad av dem av så många skäl. Jag glädjer mig därför med Ers Höghet av hela mitt hjärta och tackar Er för de tillmötesgående uttryck genom vilka Ni har visat mig Er tillgivenhet vid detta tillfälle, bedjande Er att övertygas om min och om den uppriktighet med vilken jag är...

English translation (my own):

To the Elector Palatine.

I have received the part that Your Highness has given me of the marriage established between the King of Portugal and the Princess Palatine, your daughter, with the joy that all the happy events of your house give me, being interested in them for so many reasons. I therefore rejoice with Your Highness with all my heart and thank you for the obliging expressions by which you have shown me your affection on this occasion, begging you to be persuaded of mine and of the sincerity with which I am...

Above: Kristina.

Above: King Pedro II of Portugal.

Above: Countess Palatine Maria Sophia Elisabeth of Neuburg.

Above: Her father, Count Palatine Philipp Wilhelm of Neuburg.

Kristina's letter to King Carlos (Charles) II of Spain, congratulating him on his marriage to Princess Marie Louise of Orléans, dated September 20/30 (New Style), 1679

Sources:

Bibliothèque interuniversitaire (Montpellier); Manuscrits de la reine Christine; VII: Lettere della regina a principi; Lettere al re di Spagna; Lettres au roi d'Espagne; 136: Christine de Suède au roi d'Espagne, Rome, 30 septembre 1679 (digitisation page 124v-125r)

https://calames.abes.fr/pub/#details?id=Calames-201911251411125216

Christine (1626-1689 ; reine de Suède), Manuscrits de la reine Christine : Lettere della regina a principi, 1601-1700.

[En ligne sur https://ged.scdi-montpellier.fr/florabium45/jsp/nodoc.jsp?NODOC=2023_DOC_MONT_MBUM_92] (consulté le 29/10/2024 14:06).

The Foli@ online digital heritage library is here:

https://ged.biu-montpellier.fr/florabium/jsp/portal/index_patrimoine.jsp

Copyright SCDI-UPV - Collections Université de Montpellier (shelfmark H 258).

The letter (with Kristina's handwriting in italics):

al Rè di Spagna

30 Sett[embr]e. 1679.

Sono cosi rileuanti li motivi che hanno indotta V. M. alla resolutione del Suo accasamento con la Ser[enissi]ma Principessa Maria Luuisa d'Orleans che ben giustificano la consolatione de' Suoi Vassalli, e l'influsso della quiete all'Europa, Jo però che mi professo particolarm[en]te assai interessata nelle conuenienze della M. V. me ne rallegro Seco con affetto pari à quello ch'ella mi hà dimostrato in tutte le occasioni e Singolarm[en]te nel parteciparmi questo vn Successo di tanta importanza, Voglia Jddio felicitarlo con la prosp[er]ità d'vna numerosa prole desiderate le [...] [dal] tutto Jl mondo Catolico et da me in particolare, e guardi V M. come desidero. di Roma li 30 Sett[emb]re 1679.

Buona Sorella di V. M.

Jo la Regina.

—

auertite di non dir piu volte "V. M." nella lettera di questo che ui e in questa dell Re.

Sigillata giusto e piegata come q[ues]to del Rè.

With modernised spelling:

Al re di Spagna.

30 settembre 1679.

Sono così rilevanti li motivi che hanno indotta Vostra Maestà alla risoluzione del suo accasamento con la serenissima principessa Maria Luisa d'Orléans che ben giustificano la consolazione de' suoi vassalli e l'influsso della quiete all'Europa. Io però, che mi professo assai interessata nelle convenienze della Maestà Vostra, me ne rallegro seco con affetto pari a quello ch'ella mi ha dimostrato in tutte le occasioni e singolarmente nel parteciparmi un successo di tanta importanza. Voglia Iddio felicitarlo con la prosperità desideratale [dal] tutto il mondo cattolico e da me in particolare, e guardi Vostra Maestà come desidero. Di Roma, li 30 settembre 1679.

Buona Sorella di Vostra Maestà

Io la Regina.

Avertite di non dir più volte "Vostra Maestà" nella lettera di questo che vi è in questa del re.

Sigillata giusto e piegata come questo del re.

French translation (my own):

Au roi d'Espagne.

Le 30 septembre 1679.

Les motifs qui ont déterminé Votre Majesté à la résolution de son mariage avec la sérénissime princesse Marie-Louise d'Orléans sont si pertinents qu'ils justifient bien la consolation de ses vassaux et l'influence de la tranquillité sur l'Europe. Cependant, moi qui me déclare tout intéressé aux commodités de Votre Majesté, je me réjouis avec lui d'une affection égale à celle qu'elle m'a témoignée en toutes occasions, et singulièrement de partager avec moi un succès d'une telle importance. Dieu veuille la bénir de la prospérité désirée pour lui par tout le monde catholique et par moi en particulier, et qu'il garde Votre Majesté comme je le désire. De Rome, le 30 septembre 1679.

La bonne sœur de Votre Majesté

Je, la Reine.

Prenez garde de ne pas dire «Votre Majesté» plus d'une fois dans la lettre de celle-ci qui est dans celle-ci du roi.

Scellée et pliée comme celle-ci du roi.

Spanish translation (my own; I cannot tag it as such due to character limits in the tags):

Al Rey de España.

30 de septiembre de 1679.

Los motivos que han inducido a Vuestra Majestad a la resolución de su matrimonio con la Serenísima Princesa María Luisa de Orléans son tan pertinentes que justifican bien el consuelo de sus vasallos y la influencia de la tranquilidad en Europa. Mientras tanto, yo, que me confieso muy interesada en las conveniencias de Vuestra Majestad, me regocijo con Vuestra Majestad con el afecto igual al que me ha demostrado en todas las ocasiones, y singularmente en compartir conmigo un éxito de tanta importancia. Quiera Dios bendecirle con la prosperidad deseada para Vuestra Majestad por todo el mundo católico y por mí en particular, y guarde a Vuestra Majestad como yo deseo. Desde Roma, 30 de septiembre de 1679.

Buena Hermana de Vuestra Majestad

Yo, la Reina.

Tened cuidado de no decir "Vuestra Majestad" más de una vez en la carta de ésta que está en ésta del Rey.

Sellada y doblada como ésta del Rey.

Swedish translation (my own):

Till konungen av Spanien.

Den 30 september 1679.

De motiv som har föranlett Ers Majestät att lösa Ert äktenskap med den durchlauchtigste prinsessan Marie Louise av Orléans är så relevanta att de väl motiverar Era vasallers tröst och lugnets inflytande på Europa. Emellertid glädjer jag mig, som bekänner mig ganska intresserad av Ers Majestäts bekvämligheter, med Er med den tillgivenhet som är lika med den som Ni vid alla tillfällen visat mig, och särdeles över att dela med mig en framgång av sådan betydelse. Må Gud välsigna Er med det välstånd önskade för Er av hela den katolska världen och av mig i synnerhet, och må han bevara Ers Majestät som jag önskar. Från Rom, den 30 september 1679.

Ers Majestäts goda Syster

Jag, Drottningen.

Var noga med att inte säga »Ers Majestät« mer än en gång i brevet till denna som finns i detta från konungen.

Förseglad och vikt som denna från konungen.

English translation (my own):

To the King of Spain.

September 30, 1679.

The motives that have induced Your Majesty to the resolution of your marriage with the Most Serene Princess Marie Louise of Orléans are so relevant that they well justify the consolation of your vassals and the influence of tranquility on Europe. In the meantime, I, who profess myself quite interested in Your Majesty's conveniences, rejoice with you with the affection equal to that which you have shown me on all occasions, and singularly in sharing with me a success of such importance. May God want to bless you with the prosperity desired for you by the entire Catholic world and by me in particular, and may He keep Your Majesty as I desire. From Rome, September 30, 1679.

Your Majesty's good Sister

I, the Queen.

Take care not to say "Your Majesty" more than once in the letter of this one that is in this one from the King.

Sealed and folded like this one from the King.

Above: Kristina.

Above: King Carlos (Charles) II of Spain.

Above: Princess Marie Louise of Orléans.

Notes: In accordance with the nobility's ideals in the early modern era, kings and queens considered themselves siblings.

The proxy wedding of the seventeen year old Princess Marie Louise of Orléans to the also seventeen year old King Carlos II of Spain took place on August 20/30 (New Style), 1679 at Fontainebleau Palace, with Marie Louise's distant cousin Louis Armand de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, standing in for the groom. Marie Louise was deeply unhappy about the arranged marriage, for she was already in love with her cousin Louis, the Grand Dauphin of France. When her father Philippe of Orléans and her uncle King Louis XIV first informed her of the marriage just one month earlier, she was so shocked and horrified that she spent most of her time weeping, heartbroken.

Marie Louise would marry Carlos in person on November 9/19 at Quintanapalla, near Burgos in Spain. He was very much in love with her, but her life at the Spanish court was very lonely, which was not helped by the extremely strict and formal etiquette there. She never returned to France.

Kristina's handwritten letter to an unknown archduchess of Austria, undated

Source:

Bibliothèque interuniversitaire (Montpellier); Manuscrits de la reine Christine; VII: Lettere della regina a principi; Lettere all archiduchesse; Lettres à l'archiduchesse; Lettre 126  Christine de Suède à l'archiduchesse, [s. l.], [s. d.] (digitisation pages 107v-108r to 108v-109r)

https://calames.abes.fr/pub/#details?id=Calames-2019112513112526815

Christine (1626-1689 ; reine de Suède), Manuscrits de la reine Christine : Lettere della regina a principi, 1601-1700.

[En ligne sur https://ged.scdi-montpellier.fr/florabium45/jsp/nodoc.jsp?NODOC=2023_DOC_MONT_MBUM_92] (consulté le 23/12/2024 06:11).

The Foli@ online digital heritage library is here:

https://ged.biu-montpellier.fr/florabium/jsp/portal/index_patrimoine.jsp

Copyright SCDI-UPV - Collections Université de Montpellier (shelfmark H 258).

The letter:

A l'Archiduc[h]esse

Jay [...] tan[t] de Confience en lamitie de V. A. que ie ne me mest pas en doutte le desir qvelle aura de mobliger dans la plus importante occasion de ma Vie, de la qu[e]lle [...] iay prie le Nonce Appostolique [d]informer V. A. et de la prier de Voiloir bien appuier mes recherges de Son autorite et Credit, Ce mest vn malheur bien grandt qven cet[te] Occasion Jé soy prive de lappui de l'Jmperatrice dheureuse memoire, que iauray demande dans le[s] formes les plus presantes, si la mort ne meut prive de la Consolation [...] la plus sensible dauoir cette de luy tesmoinger povoir temoinger a elle mesme ce que iay fait Voir a toutte la terre lamitie de lestime et de lamour dont iestois preveneu pour son agreable personne, mais puisque mon malheur la voulu ainsin Ce mest encore vne tres grande Consolation de voir V A areste a la Cour de Vienne pour la coniurer de ne me refuser pas ses Office[s] en cette occasion des quels ie Conserveray Chere la memoire toute ma vie [...] quel succes quil[s] puissan[t] auoir estant

With modernised spelling (with Kristina's spelling mistakes preserved as much as possible):

A l'archiduchesse.

J'ai tan[t] de confience [sic] en l'amitié de Votre Altesse (que je ne met pas en doute), le désir qu'elle aura de m'obliger dans la plus importante occasion de ma vie, de laqu[e]lle j'ai prié le nonce appostolique [sic] [d']informer Votre Altesse et de la prier de voiloir [sic] bien appuyer mes recherges [sic] de son autorité et crédit. Ce m'est un malheur bien grand qu'en cet[te] occasion je sois privée de l'appui de l'impératrice de heureuse mémoire, que j'aurais demandé dans le[s] formes les plus pressantes si la mort ne m'eût privé de la consolation la plus sensible d'avoir cette de lui po[u]voir témoinger [sic] à elle-même, ce que j'ai fait voir à toute la terre l'amitié de l'estime et de l'amour dont j'étais prévenue pour son agréable personne.

Mais, puisque mon malheur l'a voulu ainsin [sic], ce m'est encore une très grande consolation de voir Votre Altesse arrêtée à la cour de Vienne pour la conjurer de ne me refuser pas ses office[s] en cette occasion, desquels je conserverai chère la mémoire toute ma vie, quel succès qu'il[s] puissan[t] [sic] avoir, étant...

With modernised spelling:

A l'archiduchesse.

J'ai tant de confiance en l'amitié de Votre Altesse (que je ne met pas en doute), le désir qu'elle aura de m'obliger dans la plus importante occasion de ma vie, de laquelle j'ai prié le nonce apostolique [d']informer Votre Altesse et de la prier de vouloir bien appuyer mes recherches de son autorité et crédit. Ce m'est un malheur bien grand qu'en cet[te] occasion je sois privée de l'appui de l'impératrice de heureuse mémoire, que j'aurais demandé dans les formes les plus pressantes si la mort ne m'eût privé de la consolation la plus sensible d'avoir cette de lui pouvoir témoigner à elle-même ce que j'ai fait voir à toute la terre: l'amitié de l'estime et de l'amour dont j'étais prévenue pour son agréable personne.

Mais, puisque mon malheur l'a voulu ainsi, ce m'est encore une très grande consolation de voir Votre Altesse arrêtée à la cour de Vienne, pour la conjurer de ne me refuser pas ses offices en cette occasion, desquels je conserverai chère la mémoire toute ma vie, quel succès qu'ils puissent avoir, étant...

Swedish translation (my own):

Till ärkehertiginnan.

Jag har så mycket förtroende för Ers Höghets vänskap (vilket jag inte betvivlar), önskan att Ni skall ha att förplikta mig vid det viktigaste tillfället i mitt liv, om vilket jag har bett den apostoliske nuntius att informera Ers Höghet och att fråga att Ni är tillräckligt bra för att stödja min forskning med Er auktoritet och kredit. Det är mig en stor olycka att jag vid detta tillfälle berövas stödet av kejsarinnan av lycklig åminnelse, som jag skulle ha bett i det mest påträngande ordalag om döden inte hade berövat mig den mest kännbar tröst av att ha den att kunna betyga för henne själv vad jag visat för hela jorden: den vänskap, den aktning och den kärlek, som jag fick besked om, för hennes behagliga person.

Men, eftersom min olycka har velat det så, är det fortfarande en mycket stor tröst för mig att se Ers höghet stanna vid Wiens hov, så att jag kan be Er att inte vägra mig Era tjänster vid detta tillfälle, vars minne jag skall hålla kärt hela mitt liv, vilken framgång de än må ha, varande...

English translation (my own):

To the Archduchess.

I have so much confidence in Your Highness's friendship (which I do not doubt), the desire that you will have to oblige me on the most important occasion of my life, of which I have begged the Apostolic Nuncio to inform Your Highness and to ask you to be good enough to support my researches with your authority and credit. It is a great misfortune to me that on this occasion I am deprived of the support of the Empress of happy memory, whom I would have beseeched in the most pressing forms if death had not deprived me of the most sensible consolation of having that of being able to testify to her herself what I have shown to the whole earth: the friendship, the esteem and the love, of which I was notified, for her agreeable person.

But, as my misfortune has willed it thus, it is still a very great consolation to me to see Your Highness stopped at the court of Vienna, so as that I can beg you not to refuse me your services on this occasion, the memory of which I will hold dear all my life, whatever success they may have, being...

Above: Kristina.

Kristina's letter to Archduchess Anna de' Medici of Austria, condoling her on the passing of her daughter Empress Claudia Felicitas, dated April 15/25 (New Style), 1676

Source (the Archduchess is misidentified as Maria Anna Josepha (1654-1689))

Bibliothèque interuniversitaire (Montpellier); Manuscrits de la reine Christine; VII: Lettere della regina a principi; Lettere all archiduchesse; Lettres à l'archiduchesse; 120: Christine de Suède à l'archiduchesse Anne, Rome, 25 avril 1676 (digitisation page 105v-106r)

https://calames.abes.fr/pub/#details?id=Calames-201911251211181159

Christine (1626-1689 ; reine de Suède), Manuscrits de la reine Christine : Lettere della regina a principi, 1601-1700.

[En ligne sur https://ged.scdi-montpellier.fr/florabium45/jsp/nodoc.jsp?NODOC=2023_DOC_MONT_MBUM_92] (consulté le 27/11/2024 13:46).

The Foli@ online digital heritage library is here:

https://ged.biu-montpellier.fr/florabium/jsp/portal/index_patrimoine.jsp

Copyright SCDI-UPV - Collections Université de Montpellier (shelfmark H 258).

The letter (with Kristina's handwriting in italics):

25. Ap[ril]è 76 —

Ser[enissi]ma Arciduchessa, Conosco di quanta afflizione deue esser à V. A. la perdita della M[aes]tá dell'Jmp[eratri]ce Sua figlia, ed io ne hò riceuuta la parte con Sentiménto di dolore eguale all'affetto cordialissimo che conseruo all'A. V. e chio poteva alla Ma[es]ta Sua alla quale rendo viviss[im]e grazie dell'espressioni che Si è compiaciuta farmi in q[ues]ta occ[asio]ne assicurandola ch'io mi mostrerò Sempre interessata in ogni Suo accidente come quella che Sono

D V. A.

With modernised spelling:

25 aprile '76. —

Serenissima arciduchessa,

Conosco di quanta afflizione deve esser a Vostra Altezza la perdita della Maestà dell'imperatrice sua figlia, ed io ne ho ricevuta la parte con sentimento di dolore eguale all'affetto cordialissimo che conservo all'Altezza Vostra (e ch'io poteva alla Maestà Sua), alla quale rendo vivissime grazie dell'espressioni che si è compiaciuta farmi in questa occasione, assicurandola ch'io mi mostrerò sempre interessata in ogni suo accidente come quella che sono

di Vostra Altezza...

French translation (my own):

Le 25 avril '76. —

Sérénissime archiduchesse,

Je sais combien Votre Altesse doit éprouver d'affliction à la perte de Sa Majesté l'impératrice, votre fille, et j'en ai reçu la nouvelle avec un sentiment de douleur égal à la plus cordiale affection que je conserve pour Votre Altesse (et que je pourrais conserver pour Sa Majesté), à laquelle je rends les plus vifs remerciements des expressions qu'elle a bien voulu me faire à cette occasion, en l'assurant que je me montrerai toujours intéressé à tous ses accidents, comme je suis

de Votre Altesse...

Swedish translation (my own):

Den 25 april '76. —

Durchlauchtigste ärkehertiginna,

Jag vet hur mycket lidande Ers Höghet måste känna vid förlusten av Hennes Majestät kejsarinnan, Er dotter, och jag har mottagit nyheten om den med en känsla av smärta lika med den hjärtligaste tillgivenhet som jag bevarar för Ers Höghet (och den jag kunde bevara för Hennes Majestät), till vilken jag ytterst tackar för de uttryck som Ni har behagat göra till mig vid detta tillfälle, försäkrande Er att jag alltid kommer att visa mig intresserad av alla Era olyckor, som jag är

Ers Höghets...

English translation (my own):

April 25, '76. —

Most Serene Archduchess,

I know how much affliction Your Highness must feel at the loss of Her Majesty the Empress, your daughter, and I have received the news of it with a feeling of pain equal to the most cordial affection that I preserve for Your Highness (and that I could preserve for Her Majesty), to whom I give most vivid thanks for the expressions that you have been pleased to make to me on this occasion, assuring you that I will always show myself interested in all your accidents, as I am

Your Highness'...

Above: Kristina.

Above: Claudia Felicitas, Holy Roman Empress consort.

Above: Anna de' Medici, Archduchess of Austria.

Note: Claudia Felicitas had died suddenly from tuberculosis in Vienna on March 29/April 8 (New Style), 1676, after just having given birth to her second and only surviving daughter. She was just 22 years old. The daughter, Maria Josepha Clementina, joined her in death just three months later, as would Anna in September, who was buried right next to Claudia in the Dominican Church.