Francis William Bain on Kristina coming of age to rule, and on the early part of her reign

Source:

Christina, Queen of Sweden, pages 54 to 57, by Francis William Bain, 1890; original at the University of Connecticut Library

https://archive.org/details/christinaqueenof00bain/page/54/mode/2up

The account:

For the sake of continuity, the war with Denmark has been related up to its close, in 1645: meanwhile Christina had come of age, and assumed the direction of affairs. On her eighteenth birthday (Or perhaps the day before; the date is not certain.), December 8, 1644, the Estates were convened at Stockholm. The ceremony took place in the Great Hall. Christina sat on a silver throne, surrounded by the chief men in the State. After promising to maintain the national religion, and the ceremonies of the Church and the State, and to observe every man's privileges and the Form of Government agreed to by the Estates, she took the oath as King of Sweden — being the first of her sex to sit on the Swedish throne; a precedent followed in 1719 in the case of Ulrica Eleanora. The Regents presented an account of their administration, wherein, after recounting the difficulties of their position, they alluded among other matters to the alienation of the Crown lands, as forced upon them by the necessities of State. The nobles also pressed her for a confirmation of their various privileges and exemptions from taxation. The Queen gave her assent and ratification to all their demands. The full consideration of the Form of Government, "seeing that by reason of the many pressing embarrassments we have not leisure to examine it accurately", was postponed until her coronation.

The internal affairs of Sweden were at this moment in a very dangerous condition. The minority of the Queen, and the eternal war, from which only the nobles derived benefit, aided by the aristocratical tendency of the constitution, had placed all the power in their hands. They used their privileges and all the means in their power to grind down the lower orders with the most oppressive exactions. The peasantry, on their side, worn out by the taxes and conscriptions, and completely powerless, in a country where land was still the chief source of wealth, were ripe for revolution. The State was divided into two hostile nations. Among the chief causes of complaint against the Government was the alienation of crown lands. The action of Christina in giving her confirmation to all the demands of the nobles, destroyed the last hope of the democratic party, always ready to put their faith in the king; serious disturbances were at hand, had not the attention of the country been diverted for the moment by the recent victories to foreign politics. We shall go more fully into the whole question further on: for the present it is to be observed, that however ready Christina might have been at the moment of her accession to the throne to play the Patriot Queen, it was morally impossible for her at eighteen, surrounded by the members of the oligarchy, among whom she had been brought up, to have broken through educational trammels and made enemies of all her friends by espousing the cause of the people to the extent required. But on the other hand, in the history of the ten years that follow, up to her abdication in 1654 — years marked by an extraordinary diligence and activity on her own part, and the most striking contrast between the brilliant glitter of the court and foreign relations, and the dull background of domestic discontent — we shall find that Christina showed in this exact respect the one great want and blot on her character as a statesman and lover of her country. Neither her own character nor the necessary circumstances allowed her to enact the part afterwards played by Charles XI.

But if in this point of her domestic policy, Christina, like many another great man, was to seek, it is quite otherwise with her foreign policy, for which she deserves a great deal more praise than she has ever received. Nowhere has the share she took in promoting the peace of Westphalia been adequately recognised. To this we must now turn, postponing the consideration of the domestic difficulties till the end of the war, after which the internal troubles were free to come to the front.

Above: Kristina.