Source:
Memoirs of celebrated female sovereigns, volume 1, pages 54 to 59, by Anna Brownell Jameson, 1831; original at the University of Toronto
The biography:
Although Christina resumed her literary pursuits after the departure of her "agréable ignorant", as she used to call Bourdelot, she became every day more disgusted with the duties of her situation, and the necessity of attending to a certain routine of affairs fatigued and irritated her, merely because it was an obligation; one of her secretaries appearing before her with some dispatches which required her signature, she turned from him impatiently, and said to Prince Charles, who was present, "Will you never deliver me from these people? ce sont pour moi le diable!" She amused herself with inventing masques and ballets, in which she often sustained a principle part (On one of these occasions, after performing in a pastoral the character of Amarantha, she instituted the order of the Amaranthe; it included both sexes, and she bestowed it on the principal persons of her court and several of the foreign ambassadors.); and she ennobled a great number of persons, whose merit did not always, as in the case of Salvius, justify the enormous abuse of this royal privilege.
In the mean time, the affairs of her kingdom became more and more entangled; the revenues were exhausted, the crown-lands alienated by her profusion; there remained nothing more for her to bestow, and in case of a war, no revenues to support it. Abuses and delays had crept into the administration, which she had not the patience, if she had the power, to remedy: she became moody and unequal in temper; she was at once jealous of her authority, and weary of the duties and restraints it imposed. She had dreamed over the classic poets till she fancied she could only be happy in a southern climate, and sighed for the ease and independence of a private station. Her lively imagination wanted some excitement, and the renunciation of a crown, at the age of twenty-eight [sic], was the grand coup de théatre with which she now chose to dazzle and astonish all Europe.
In 1654, when she first openly declared her intention of abdicating the throne [sic], the principal members of the senate, with Oxenstiern at their head, endeavoured to dissuade her from her purpose; but in vain. Prince Charles added his entreaties, and besought her to retain in her own possession the sceptre she intended to resign to him, or at least to allow him to share her throne as a husband, while the supreme power remained with herself; but she persisted in her resolution. On the 21st of May 1654, in a solemn assemblage of the States-general at Upsal, she formally tendered her resignation of the crown, and in an eloquent speech, after recapitulating her own royal virtues, and all she had performed for the good of her people, she recommended her successor the hereditary Prince Charles to their loyalty and affection. After she had pronounced this harangue in a firm voice, the president of the senate arose, and in the name of the nobles entreated her to think better of her design, and to continue to reign over them. The Archbishop of Upsal remonstrated in the name of the clergy, and the president of the burghers made a speech to the same purpose. What followed cannot be better related than in the words of Whitelocke, who was then ambassador from Cromwell to the Swedish court, and was treated by Christina with great distinction. He was an eye-witness of the scene, which is thus related in his journal.
"In the last place stepped forth the marshal of the boors, a plain country fellow, in his clouted shoon, and all other habits answerable, as all the rest of the company were accoutred; this boor, without any congees or ceremonies at all, spake to her Majesty, and his address was interpreted to Whitelocke to be after this phrase: —
"O Lord God, Madam, what do you mean to do? It humbles us to heare you speake of forsaking those who love you as well as we do: can you be better than you are? You are queen of all these countries, and if you leave this large kingdom, where will you get such another? If you should do it, (as I hope you won't for all this,) both you and we shall have cause, when it is too late, to be sorry for it; therefore my fellows and I pray you to think better on't, and to keep your crown on your head, then you will keep your own honour and our peace, but if you lay it down, in my conscience, you will endanger all.
'Continue in your gears, good madam, and be the fore-horse as long as you live, and we will help you the best we can to bear your burthen. Your father was an honest gentleman and a good king, and very shining in the world, and we obeyed him and loved him as long as he lived; and you are his own child, and have governed us very well, and we love you with all our hearts; and the prince is an honest gentleman, and when his time comes, we shall be ready to do our duties to him, as we do to you. But as long as you live we are unwilling to part with you, and therefore, I pray, madame, do not part with us.'
"When the boor had ended his speech he waddled up to the queen without any ceremony, took her by the hand, and shaked it heartily, and kist it two or three times; then turning his back to her, he pulled out of his pocket a foul handkerchief, and wiped the tears from his eyes, and in the same posture as he came up, he returned back to his place again."
Whitelocke does not tell us whether Christina was touched by the homely eloquence of this honest peasant; but nothing could now alter her resolution. On the 6th of June following, she appeared in the hall of assembly, habited in her robes of state, the crown on her brow, and the sceptre in her hand. She took her seat on the throne for the last time, and Count Rosenhane read aloud the act by which she formally renounced the crown on the following conditions: — "That her cousin Prince Charles Gustavus should succeed her: that a revenue of 240,000 rix-dollars should be secured to her, arising from certain lands and estates, of which she was to have the entire disposal for life, but was not to alienate them from the crown of Sweden: that she should continue to exercise all the rights of sovereignty and jurisdiction over her own household, acknowledging no human control over her actions, and have full liberty to fix her residence in any country of Europe." On these conditions, which were solemnly ratified by the senate and by her successor, Christina released her subjects from their oath of allegiance, and laid down the ensigns of royalty. It was remarked that none of her attendants would lift the crown from her head; she was obliged to take it off herself, and deliver it to Prince Charles, who received it kneeling, and would never wear it in her presence (Charles flattered Christina's well-known foible by ordering a medal to be struck, in which he was represented on his knees, receiving the crown from the hands of the queen, with the inscription, "I hold it from God and from Christina."). The spectators and attendants who stood round her, seized the royal mantle as she threw it off, and tore it into a thousand pieces, each anxious to obtain a fragment as a relique of their queen, who was about to quit them for ever. On the same day[,] Charles Gustavus was proclaimed King of Sweden, by the title of Charles X.[,] and Christina, in a few hours after the ceremony, left Upsal and returned to Stockholm. She did not, however, remain long there; under pretence that the waters of Spa had been ordered for her health, she began her journey southwards.
Above: Kristina.
Above: Karl Gustav.
Above: Anna Brownell Jameson.
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