Source:
Six Thousand Years of History, volume 5 (Famous Women), pages 236 to 238, by Edgar Sanderson et al., 1900; original at Pennsylvania State University
The biography:
The principal mistake that Christina made, and the one that showed she was insane, was her failure to understand that she had resigned her rule, and was only a private person. We shall see her, to the end of her life, acting as a crowned head, therefore a pretender. She set up an expensive establishment at Rome, began the purchase of antiquities, curios, and paintings, and was soon robbed by servants of all her ready money. Then she pawned her jewels, and all the money so obtained was used or wasted. Contemplating a journey to Paris, she wrote to the Pope, begging that his Holiness would recommend some merchant to lend her money. The Pope, rather than to assume the responsibility of the debts that might accrue, sent a confidential ecclesiastic with a present of 10,000 scudi, with certain medals of gold and silver that had been struck in honor of the Queen's entry, excusing the smallness of the sum by the exhaustion of the treasury. The Queen, in thanking him, wept more than once, both from motives of gratitude and mortification.
In 1656 she traveled in France, to Compiegne, Paris and Fontain[e]bleau, as Queen Christine Alexandrie [sic]. The learned men of Europe who had been her guests and pensioners, prepared for her a brilliant reception, at least in the world of letters, and the women of fashion were on tip-toe to see her. She affected to disdain their good will. "What makes these women so fond of me?" she asked. "Is it because I am so like a man?" Upon this the women turned on her, almost with one accord. They criticised her high shoulder, her small figure, the negligence of her attire, and her miserable retinue. On her return toward Italy she visited the celebrated Ninon de l'Enclos at her country seat, who was the only woman in France to whom Christina made any profession of warm esteem. France was conventional, and its women did not approve the manners or conversation of Christina.
When Christina met the poet Scarron and his wife in Paris[,] the following colloquy ensued:
"I permit you", Christina said to Scarron, "to fall in love with me. The Queen of France created you her patient; I will create you my Orlando."
"You do well to appoint me your lover", he replied, "for I should have usurped the office."
The Queen, looking at Madame Scarron (afterward Maintenon)[,] who was pretty — "Nothing less than a Queen could make a man unfaithful to this lady. I am not surprised that, with the most amiable woman in Paris you are, in spite of your infirmities, the merriest man in France."
Above: Kristina.
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