Source:
Memoirs of celebrated female sovereigns, volume 1, pages 69 to 71, by Anna Brownell Jameson, 1831; original at the University of Toronto
Kristina's letter from Rome of January 6/16 (Old Style), 1656 to Ebba Sparre is here:
Her letter from Brussels in 1655 to Ebba Sparre is here:
The biography:
At Inspruck, she repeated more publicly her abjuration of the Protestant faith, and was solemnly received into the bosom of the Roman Catholic faith. Several of the archdukes and others of the German nobility, had assembled at Inspruck on this occasion. Here, as at Brussels, her conversion was solemnised by banquets, balls, illuminations, and comedies; and such was the pomp and magnificence with which she was surrounded, that Christina, a queen and a philosopheress, was dazzled and turned giddy. She was heard to repeat with evident and childish pleasure, "O, che bella! bella!" Meantime her own deportment was not more decorous than formerly. On the evening of the same day on which she had made a solemn profession of faith in the cathedral at Inspruck, she was taken to a comedy presented for her amusement: "'Tis but fair", said she to those around her, "that you should treat me to comedy, after I have treated you to a farce."
After a stay of eight days at Inspruck, she continued her journey, being everywhere received with the honours due to rank, and gazed on with wonder and curiosity. On the 19th of December [sic] 1655, she made her public entry into Rome, mounted on a white horse, à la cavalière, and surrounded by all the principal nobility and clergy: she was conducted amidst incessant discharges of artillery, and with every mark of honour and of triumph, to St. Peter's, where she was received and confirmed by the Pope, and had the honour of kissing his slipper. We are told that the Roman ladies were extremely astonished at the masculine attitude and dress of Christina, who entered Rome not as a convert and a penitent, but rather as a victorious empress, triumphing as the conquerors of old; but on being told that she had made war on the King of Denmark, they thought her Amazonian appearance perfectly natural. When the festivities with which her first arrival was celebrated left her at leisure, Christina took up her residence in the Palazzo Farnese, and spent some months in visiting the curiosities and antiquities of Rome, and in receiving the compliments of the learned men and the various academies.
It appears, that after the first sensations of excitement and interest were over, the Romans began to view their new visitor and proselyte with more wonder than approbation. Her extreme levity — not exactly of conduct, but of language and of manner — scandalized the people; and the haughty indifference, and even contempt, with which she treated the nobles and the women of the highest rank, gave great offence. Her tranquillity and her independence were daily troubled by the dissensions of her household, and the want of money. Her revenue from Sweden was not punctually paid; and instead of the learned leisure, the pleasures, and amusements in which she had expected to indulge, she found herself beset by vexation and difficulties, such as she had never anticipated, and which her proud, careless spirit was ill calculated to endure. She wrote from Rome to Ebba Sparre, and although she would not confess her mortification and disappointment, the melancholy tone of her letter forms a striking contrast with that which she had written from Brussels but a few months before. Soon afterwards, she was seized with a dangerous disorder, from which she recovered with difficulty.
Above: Kristina.
Above: Ebba Sparre.
Above: Anna Brownell Jameson.
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