Biography of Kristina, by Edgar Sanderson et al., year 1900, part 5

Source:

Six Thousand Years of History, volume 5 (Famous Women), pages 238 to 239, by Edgar Sanderson et al., 1900; original at Pennsylvania State University

https://books.google.com/books?id=TJ0zAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=macedo+christina&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

In the autumn of 1657 she returned to France, establishing her sorry court at Fontainebleau. Her arrival aroused no attention, as her affair was no longer a novelty. She wrote with eagerness to the heads of the Fronde faction, offering to arbitrate on the differences of princes who had been at war a hundred years. She began a course of political intrigue which warned the cabinets that she was likely to become a dangerous visitor in any land. She learned that Louis XIV, then very young, was in love with Mademoiselle de Mancini, niece of Cardinal Mazarin. She encouraged the affair of the lovers, and offered her services. "I would fain be your confidante", said she, "if you love, you must marry." While she was rude to the court ladies, and gave trouble to the ministry, she was oblivious of public opinion, and still often wore men's clothes. She seemed to the French like a Russian or barbarian potentate, and soon, to the horror of the court, performed an act of absolute sovereignty at Fontainebleau worthy of the son of Catherine de' Medici. She had always, when angry, threatened death to her offenders. When she sent her secretary to Stockholm to see about her delayed annuity payment, she said: "If you fail in your duty, not all the power of the King of Sweden shall save your life, though you take shelter in his very arms." A musician left her to perform for the Duke of Savoy. She wrote, in a high rage, "If he do not sing for me, he shall not sing long for anybody." Thus she was likely to gather about her people of unbridled passions and loose manners, and the quarrels of her household became the talk of Rome. When she established herself at Fontainebleau she learned that the Master of her Horse, the Marquis Monaldeschi, her favorite, had been guilty of a breech [sic] of trust. This charge was made by Ludovico [Santinelli], on letters from his brother in Rome. Ludovico was a rival lover of Christina. The accused man was brought before the Queen, and confessed his deeds. She chose to interpret his act as high treason, sentenced him to death, appointed his rival as his executioner, told him to confess his soul to Father Lebel, and, in the presence of that terrified priest, the equerry was slain, his blood staining the walls and floor of the gallery. In one of the rooms of the palace to-day is an inscription pointing out the place where Monaldeschi fell. She held that it was beneath her dignity to place him before any tribunal, however high it might be. "To acknowledge no superior", she exclaimed, "is worth more than to govern the whole world." The French Government, while it made no inquiry into the murder, ordered her out of France, but she did not at once obey even this order, returning to Rome in the spring of 1658.

Above: Kristina.

Above: Kristina condemns Monaldeschi to die, painted by Johan Fredrik Höckert.