Source:
Queen Christina of Sweden, article written by Agnes Walterstorff for The Woman's World, volume 2, pages 474 to 477, edited by Oscar Wilde, 1889; original at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The biography:
Queen Christina of Sweden.
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THERE is one name in Swedish history whose lustre shines forth undimmed through the mist of years, one before which every Swedish heart still bows in passionate love and admiration — the name of their hero King, Gustavus Adolphus. It seemed as if at his death the sun of Sweden's greatness, which had risen with the dawn of the Reformation, must set again in clouds and darkness, for the heiress to the throne towards which the eyes of Protestant Europe had long looked for their salvation, was still a child in the nursery.
Christina, the brilliant and gifted daughter of the great King, was born on the 7th of December, 1626, the third but only-surviving child of her parents. When the news was broken to the King by his sister, that he was father to a daughter instead of the longed-for son, he received the intelligence very calmly. "I hope that one day this daughter will stand to me in the place of a son", he said; "she will be clever, for she had managed already to fool us all." His wife, however, Maria Eleanor of Brandenburg, did not reconcile herself so easily, and treated with scant affection the child who had so disappointed her hopes. Owing to her mother's carelessness and indifference, Christina was early confided to the care of the King's half-sister, the Princess Catherina, married to the Count Palatine, Johann Casimir.
When she was a year and a half old, Gustavus Adolphus, on returning from an expedition into Poland, had his daughter formally proclaimed heiress to the crown. He regarded her with the tenderest affection, and all the time he could spare from public duties was devoted to the child he hoped to train into a worthy successor to the throne of the Vasas. Those were happy days the little princess passed by the side of the father whose care and affection for her she repaid with all a child's passionate devotion. But only too soon the time approached when Gustavus Adolphus was once more called upon to leave his country.
The Thirty Years' War was raging, and the Protestant forcer, after twelve years' hard struggle with their Catholic opponents, now turned with cries for aid to the King whose military successes had already made his name renowned over Europe. Once more the sword of the Protestant champion was to be unsheathed in the cause of liberty and truth, and Gustavus Adolphus set out for the campaign from which he was never destined to return. On the eve of his departure he summoned the Diet, and, with his four-year-old daughter in his arms, took a solemn farewell of the Assembly, commending his child in touching words to their fidelity.
As the Queen was to accompany her husband, the little princess was left to the entire charge of her aunt, the Countess Palatine, in whom the King reposed the greatest confidence. With tears and sobs Christina took leave of the father she was never to see again, and her grief for some days after his departure was so violent that fears were entertained for her health.
Two years afterwards, in 1632, Gustavus Adolphus fell covered with wounds on the battle-field of Lützen; and almost in the hour of death, and the victory which dying he had won, the daughter of the great King was proclaimed successor to the throne, all the generals and German princes who had taken service in the Swedish army swearing allegiance to the six-year-old princess, whose name now stood engraven on the shields of the first soldiers in Europe.
On the return of the Queen to Sweden after the death of her husband, Christina was restored to the charge of her mother, whose previous coldness and indifference had now changed to an ardent but injudicious affection. The Queen had been passionately attached to her husband, and mourned his loss with wild and undisciplined grief. She shut herself up with her daughter in darkened rooms, hung with black, into which hardly a ray of daylight could penetrate, and gave herself up entirely to the indulgence of her sorrow. Christina, to while away the dreary hours, devoted the greater part of her days to her studies, in which she made such rapid progress as to astonish her teachers. The Queen's melancholy continuing, and her treatment of her daughter being most injudicious, the Government at last interfered, and Christina was once more withdrawn from her mother's care, and confided to her aunt, in whose charge she remained till the death of the latter. The Queen in pique retired for a time to Denmark.
Christina was now surrounded by some of the ablest men in the country, who bestowed the greatest care upon her education. The great Chancellor Oxenstierna, her father's trusted friend and adviser, and the most zealous instructors, and daily gave her lessons in statecraft and the art of governing. She learnt with the greatest ease and rapidity; at eight years of age knew Latin, French, and German, and the principal events in history, and at twelve was an accomplished Greek scholar. Italian and Spanish she taught herself; she also devoted much time to philosophical and mathematical studies. By the time she was a little way in her teens she was a miracle of learning, speaking or understanding nine languages, and able to converse on almost every topic with a skill and ability that delighted her instructors. Christina cared little for the usual pleasures and recreations of her youth and sex, but was passionately fond of riding and hunting, and was a first-rate shot. Five hours was all the time she devoted to sleep, and she was very simple in her dress. It was a pity that together with the genius of her father she should also have inherited the capricious temper of her mother, and that the admiration and homage which so early in life had surrounded the young Queen, should only too soon have developed, in a soil so promising, the seeds of boundless vanity and whimsical egotism.
When she was sixteen Christina began to preside over the debates in the Council Chamber; and from that time no matters of importance were settled without her advice and sanction. On her eighteenth birthday she was declared of age, and the reins of government committed to her hands. Brilliant was the position of the country outwardly when Christina ascended the throne. The Swedish arms had been everywhere victorious in Germany and Denmark, and soon after her accession[,] in 1645, the advantageous treaty of Brömsebro was signed with the latter. But in spite of successes abroad, and the halo of glory which surrounded the nation, the internal prosperity of the country was at a very low ebb; the long-protracted wars had bred poverty and distress amongst the lower and middle classes, and the discontent was deep and widespread. The power of the nobles, enriched by foreign spoils, had rapidly increased; they were, for the most part, free from taxes, the burden of which fell almost entirely upon the common people, who lived in a state of the greatest oppression.
When the young Queen ascended the throne, hopes were entertained that she would seek to redress the wrongs beneath which the lower orders were groaning, and restore order and prosperity to a country whose brilliant victories abroad had raised it to one of the first States in Europe. But loudly as the internal affairs of the kingdom called for attention, all questions of home reform were for the time driven into the background, and the public interest absorbed by the negociations which, since Christina's accession, were being carried on at Münster and Osnabrück. Christina wished for peace; weary of the din of battle that had encircled her from her cradle, she longed for the time when she could have more leisure to indulge in her favourite pursuits. Ambition, too, was the ruling passion of her life; and, debarred by her sex from gaining distinction on the battlefield, she thirsted to attain it as the brilliant patroness of arts and science. All her influence, therefore, was thrown into the scale of peace; and in her impatience to bring the war to a close she was ready to grant larger concessions than Oxenstierna approved of. The difference of opinion between Christina and the great Chancellor almost led to a breach; and the Queen's conduct at this time towards the man who had so long stood to her in the place of a father, and whose genius and ability had shed such lustre on his country, was open to grave censure. The long war, however, was at last terminated by the Peace of Westphalia, signed in 1678 [sic]. By this treaty, in which most of the States of Europe took part, several provinces in Germany, and the greater part of Pomerania, were ceded to Sweden.
Christina now began to summon around her men of letters, who flocked from all parts of Europe to the Court of the young Queen, attracted thither by the reputation of her genius, and the report of her lavish generosity. Christina disliked the society of her own sex, and for all feminine pursuits entertained the greatest contempt; her voice, which at times could be soft and gentle, was generally deep and masculine. In figure she was somewhat below the middle height, with one shoulder slightly higher than the other — a defect she managed to conceal by her dress. Her hair, which she wore simply confined by a comb or ribbon, was light, her eyes dark blue, her features so expressive that her face seemed to change with every passing emotion, making it extremely difficult for an artist to produce a good portrait of her. She ate very little, and only food of the plainest kind, and never drank anything but water; she had through all her life an invincible dislike to wine and strong drinks.
A beautiful princess with a kingdom for her dowry was not likely to be wanting in suitors; and as soon as she was of age offers of alliance poured in from all quarters. Most of the princes of Europe, and several Kings, amongst whom was Charles II. of England, were candidates for the hand of the young Queen; but Christina refused them all. Her reasons were partly due to her dislike to matrimony, partly to fear that marriage would curtail her freedom. "I never can understand how women can submit to the slavery of marriage", she often used to say. The most persistent of her suitors was her cousin, Carl Gustavus. They had been brought up together in the home of her aunt; and the little Christina had in childish days promised to be his wife; but she now remained as obdurate to his entreaties as to the rest, only consoling him by the assurance that at least she would never marry any one else. To rid herself from further importunities on the part of her advisers[,] she named him as her successor, presenting him in that capacity to the assembled States in 1649.
Meantime, the internal affairs of the kingdom were growing from bad to worse. Christina, who for the first few years of her reign had shown a desire to reform abuses and encourage commerce, now abandoned herself entirely to pleasure. The reign of favourites began; honours, dignities, and treasures were lavished on worthless men; her extravagance was such that often there was not a coin in the treasury; and, in order to obtain money for the continual round of fêtes, which made her Court one of the most brilliant in Europe, she was frequently reduced to borrowing from those whom she had previously loaded with gifts and favours. Discontent grew rife everywhere beyond the palace, and Christina, aware of her increasing unpopularity, and wearying of the burden of government, began to entertain thoughts of abdicating; but her designs were vigorously opposed by the Estates, and for the time she yielded to the pressure brought to bear upon her, though firmly resolved, sooner or later, to carry out her intentions. She longed for freedom from cares, and a change from the cold dark North to the sunny lands of the South, which she had so often heard extolled by her Southern favourites. She was weary, too, of the continual opposition she met with in her Cabinet, and began to despise a crown that failed to bestow absolute authority.
At last, after three years more, during which her vagaries and extravagances had still further embittered the people, she convoked the Estates at Upsala (15th February, 1654), and announced her inalterable intention of resigning the crown to her cousin Carl Gustavus. This time the Queen's decision was not opposed, the Diet was summoned for the 1st of May, and on the 6th of June the final act of abdication was signed in the palace at Upsala. Between nine and ten on the morning of the longed-for day, Christina, accompanied by a brilliant suite, and clad in her royal robes with crown and sceptre, entered the large hall, which was thronged with spectators. At the further end, on a raised daïs, and beneath a costly canopy, stood the silver throne of the Vasas, and there the Queen for the last time took her seat; the act of abdication was then read, by which she released her subjects from their allegiance and resigned the reins of government to her cousin, reserving to herself the revenues of Pomerania and Mecklenburg and several provinces in Sweden. The Queen now rose, and amidst a breathless silence advanced to the steps of the daïs; laying aside the sceptre and golden apple (symbol of regal power), she made a sign to Brahe, the first dignitary in her kingdom, to take the crown from her head, but he, overcome by emotion, remained immovable. Christina, after waiting for a few moments, with her own hands removed the diadem and placed it on a table. Two chamberlains then advanced, and relieving her of her robes, laid them beside the other emblems of royalty. The Queen now stood before the assembly in a simple white muslin dress; slowly descending the steps of the daïs, she paused upon the lowest, and began her farewell speech, which she delivered with her usual grace and eloquence, her voice, that she could make at will so soft and melodious, trembling with emotion. There was not a dry eye in all that brilliant throng; all her faults, all the hopes she had shattered, all the abuses her misgovernment had evoked, were forgotten in that hour in a burst of love and loyalty for the beautiful gifted woman, Gustavus Adolphus's daughter, the last descendant of the grand old Vasa King, whose race was to expire with her.
Four hours later Carl Gustavus was crowned in the cathedral, and Christina hurried to Stockholm, where twelve ships of war were waiting to conduct her to Germany. Preferring the land route, however, and adopting a masculine costume in order to travel with greater ease, she passed through Halland and Denmark to Hamburg. "Now at last I am free", she exclaimed, as she left the shores of her native land, "I have escaped from Sweden, and hope never to return." She little thought that a time would come when, consumed by the desire for the power she had thrown away, she would seek in vain to regain the crown she now abandoned so lightly — a time when even a home in the land of her birth would be denied her.
Arrived in Antwerp, Christina once more assumed feminine attire, and then proceeded to Brussels, where she met with a royal reception. She remained in that city for nearly a year [sic], living in almost regal state, visited by princes and philosophers who flocked to pay their court to the renowned Queen. It was in Brussels that Christina, who for some time past had surrounded herself with Jesuits, privately became a member of the Roman Catholic Church, and a few months later in Innsprück she publicly and solemnly abjured the faith for which her father had died. From Innsprück she proceeded to Rome, where she had now decided to take up her quarters, and on the 19th [sic] of December, 1655, made a triumphal entrance into the city. The Farnese Palace had been prepared and furnished in costly style for her reception, and was presented to her as a gift by the Pope and nobles, the ambitious and magnificent Alexander VII., who had lately ascended the Papal chair, delighting to honour the guest whose conversion he considered added such lustre to the commencement of his reign.
After spending some months in Rome, during which time her days were passed in a succession of balls, fêtes, and masquerades, Christina, tiring of old favourites, and longing for new friends, betook herself to France, where she also met with a cordial reception; her wit and talents, her agreeable manners and brilliant conversation, soon made her the centre of attention in what was then considered the most exclusive Court in Europe, and for a time Christina enjoyed all the prestige of a reigning Queen; but the days of her splendour and popularity were numbered. Returning to France the following year, an event happened which cast a dark shadow on her reputation. On a vague charge of having betrayed her secrets, she caused her favourite secretary Monaldeschi to be tortured and put to death; the murder aroused deep indignation all over Europe, and not even the Papal absolution could wipe the stain of blood from her memory. Treated now with coldness and contempt by the French Court, Christina soon returned to Rome, where she remained for the next few years, occupying herself principally in scientific studies.
In 1660 Carl Gustavus died, and Christina hurried to Sweden to claim the crown she regretted so bitterly, but the Swedes had lost their old reverence for the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus; the murder of Monaldeschi had disgusted them; neither could they forgive her renunciation of the faith her father had given his life to serve. Her claims were regarded with ridicule and indignation, and she was compelled to sign a still more binding treaty of abdication.
Six years after[,] she appeared in Sweden again, desiring to establish herself there, but the exercise of her faith being denied her, she retired to Hamburg. Then, after an unsuccessful attempt to gain the empty crown of Poland, she made for Rome once more, where she spent the remaining twenty years of her life, visited by philosophers and men of letters, corresponding with most of the literary characters in Europe, founding academies, and seeking to assert her vanished influence by plunging into various intrigues. She died in April, 1689, and was buried in St. Peter's, where a costly monument now covers the remains of the once brilliant and courted Christina of Sweden.
A. WALTERSTORFF.
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