Source:
Christina, Queen of Sweden, pages 1 to 20, by Francis William Bain, 1890; original at the University of Connecticut Library
The account:
It is not necessary, in order to understand Christina and her time, to go back into the mists of Scandinavian antiquity. The modern history of Sweden begins with Gustavus Vasa. And of all national histories, that of Sweden has been most dependent upon, and conditioned by, the personal character of its monarchs. "As I write the history of Sweden", exclaims Geijer, "I feel as strongly as may be that it is the history of her kings." The sublime genius of some among them is not more wonderful than the sustained elevation of all; they are a gallery of heroes, which it would be difficult to parallel elsewhere. The family characteristic, from Gustavus Vasa to Charles XII., is a fiery energy of will and impatience of restraint, combined with the highest intellectual power. These qualities are pre-eminently illustrated in Christina, who is well worthy to take her place in the series, although a woman; and perhaps her story gains additional interest on that very account.
In 1397, by the Treaty of Calmar, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden had been combined into a great Scandinavian monarchy by the "Semiramis of the North", Queen Margaret of Denmark. This union, however, was always more of a name than a fact, for it had no foundation in popular sympathies; in addition to the Danish monarchs, Sweden continued to have rulers of her own. In 1513, Christian II., "the tyrant", succeeded to the throne: his violent and impolitic despotism sounded the knell of the Act of Union. It was his aim to break the power of the Swedish nobles; but if he designed thereby to conciliate and benefit the popular element in the nation, his massacre of the principle nobles on November 8, 1520, "the blood bath of Stockholm", was as foolish as it was inhuman. By this gross blunder, he roused the Swedish national feeling to the necessary pitch; and nothing was wanted to assure their independence but a man. The Swedes found him in the young Gustavus, son of Eric Johanson, with whom begins the history of Sweden and the house of Vasa.
Though only twenty-two years of age, he had already made himself known. He had borne the Swedish banner in the battle of Brennkirk in 1518, in which Christian was defeated by Steno Sturè. Sent as a hostage to Denmark, and carried away captive to Jutland, he remained there a year, brooding over the condition of his country; thence he escaped in disguise, to learn soon after of the Stockholm massacre, in which his own father perished, and swear a terrible revenge; a price was set on his head, and he had to fly to Dalecarlia, where his escapes and wanderings became historic; till at length with a growing band of peasants and patriots he came forward to liberate his country. He took Westerås and Upsala, and laid siege to Stockholm. Fortune favoured him; for at this critical moment, Christian was expelled from his own country by the Danes (1523). The garrison in Stockholm withdrew, and Gustavus was shortly after crowned King of Sweden by his grateful countrymen.
Like all inaugurators of a new era, he found that the initial victory was but the beginning of his difficulties. Before him lay long struggles with all orders in the State. The nobles, gradually regaining their courage and position, regarded him as merely one of themselves, and an upstart; the peasants had wanted a liberator, and found to their disgust they had got a master. But the greatest difficulty of all lay with the clergy. It has been asserted that the Reformation in Sweden differed from that in other countries, in that here it was introduced by the Government for political ends before being preached to the people, instead of spreading from below upwards. This is true enough, but it must be remembered that Gustavus could never have forced it upon an entirely reluctant people; moreover, the initial cause, or rather occasion, of the Reformation in all places, the vices and abuses of the clergy, existed in Sweden as strongly as elsewhere. By its scandalous self-seeking and unpatriotic action, the Church, represented by Gustavus Trollè, had "got itself regarded as a foreign power in the State", and Gustavus Vasa made use of this state of things for his own ends. He studiously avoided positively declaring that he was introducing the Lutheran religion (though he was in correspondence with Luther); but aimed at depriving the clergy of temporal power, for the purposes of his own absolutism, and in order to get their wealth into his hands. He effected this most difficult step very diplomatically at the Recess of Westerås, in 1527, which marks the establishment of the Reformation in Sweden. But its principles and spirit did not achieve a complete victory over old customs, and gain a definite hold, till the time of Charles IX., when, just as in England against Spain, politics combined with religious views to make Catholicism abhorred in the eyes of the nation.
Gustavus lived long enough to accomplish his threefold task, of liberating his country, founding it anew in a religious and political sense, and leaving the kingdom as an heirloom to his descendants, by the hereditary settlement of 1544. He had to use all means to his end, from demagogic cajolery to masterful despotism; and in the process he gave full evidence of his most striking characteristics, "strong endurance and great sagacity." The wisdom that lies in biding one's time, and knowing when to strike, was never more strongly exemplified than in him. He was of all his house the one who had most pre-eminently the qualifications of a builder.
Under his two immediate successors the anarchy seemed beginning again; and this is not to be laid entirely to their charge; such is always the case during the reaction from a great impulse, before the new mould has had time to fix itself. But they were by no means equal to their father. We need not dwell upon Eric XIV., who has been called the Swedish Caligula, and who resembles his Roman prototype not only in his madness, but in the remarkable intellect which was clouded by it; a certain mystery hangs over his life and his end; he was deposed and poisoned by his brother, John. The story of his son — the unfortunate Gustavus Ericson — and his lifelong exile, is among the romances of history, but must not detain us; yet we may note, that he too showed the hereditary abilities of his race, and possibly by his sojourn at the Russian Court with Boris Godunoff, where his legend and his wanderings made a great impression on the popular mind, prepared the way for the false Demetrius.
The reign of John III. is memorable chiefly for his designs towards a restoration of Catholicism in Sweden. His marriage with Catherine Jagellonica, an ardent Catholic, by which the crowns of Poland and Sweden were united, had the most important results. Catherine had probably great influence on his policy; for at the beginning of his reign and during her life he worked energetically in the Catholic interest; published his Red Book, or Liturgy, in 1576, and seemed on the point of establishing Catholicism, or something closely akin to it, in Sweden, aided by the Jesuits, who came from Rome to assist him. But after her death he turned completely round, and even persecuted the doctrines he had endeavoured to spread. There was no further chance for the Counter Reformation till his death.
His son, Sigismund III., a devout and eager Catholic, soon succeeded, by his religious, vacillating, and impolitic conduct, in identifying in the Swedish mind the ideas of Catholic and anti-national; the Lutheran cause found its champion in Duke Charles, his uncle, the third son of Gustavus Vasa, and the "second founder of Protestant Sweden." Charles stood in exactly the same position as his great son Gustavus Adolphus did at a later time; in his person centred the opposition to the Catholic schemes. The crisis was one of those which determine the history of the world. Sigismund was in fact conquered and expelled from Sweden; his heirs were excluded from the throne, to which Charles was raised in 1604 as Charles XI. The Catholic reaction was lost in the North, and Lutheranism, till now indefinite and wanting cohesion, was suddenly crystallised into the unalterable political faith of Sweden.
Sigismund expelled, Charles set himself to reorganise the State, which had been falling asunder under his brothers, and especially to crush the power of the nobles, who were again becoming formidable to the Crown. He was the greatest of the sons of Gustavus Vasa, "and perhaps", says Geijer, "the greatest of all his house; his spirit was full of the hereafter; in him, more than any of his contemporaries, laboured the burning future, which burst forth in the Thirty Years' War." He left the Protestant cause to his son, nothing doubting he would accomplish the work he himself had to leave undone. "Ille faciet", he would say, laying his hand on the head of Gustavus Adolphus; "he will complete it."
The life of Gustavus Adolphus, a perpetual conflict, fulfilled the prophecy and carried out the policy of his father. His history, his early wars with Denmark, Russia, and Poland; the gradual evolution of the Swedish hero into the champion of the Protestant cause; how, in the short interval between his landing in Pomerania in 1630 and his death at Lutzen in 1632, he turned the tide of victory on the Catholics, and established the ultimate result, though he did not live to see it, must be sought elsewhere. Here, we can but notice the essential features of his character. He presents the most remarkable analogies to Cæsar, and to him alone. In both, the highest creative military genius was combined with a humanity quite unknown to all the other generals of their time. Both were remarkable for that "marvellous serenity, which never deserted them in good or evil days." Like Cæsar, Gustavus was "prodigal to recklessness of his great life", and, like Cæsar, it was owing to his recklessness that he came by his end. Both, again, died leaving their work incomplete; and hence in both cases speculation has been busy as to their designs, yet without being able to determine what was the ultimate plan which was nipped untimely in the bud. In both cases, an untimely death, the greatest of misfortunes for the world at that time, has canonised its victim in the eyes of posterity.
These were Christina's ancestors. "The special feature in Charles IX. is his inborn striving to grasp across every limit; beyond every goal to set another." This imaginative striving after ideal objects, this poetical dissatisfaction with ordinary goals, and inability to sit still, is, in fact, the keynote in the Vasa character. It is the explanation of Christina's strange career.
On November 25, 1620, was celebrated the marriage of Gustavus Adolphus with Maria Eleanora, eldest daughter of John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg. Her father died before it took place, and her brother was not anxious for it, fearing the preponderating influence of Sweden in North Germany; but he had to accept it with what grace he could muster.
"This princess", says Christina herself in her Memoirs, "who was beautiful, and possessed all the good and bad qualities of her sex, lived with the king in an affectionate union, to which nothing was wanting but an heir." Their first child, a daughter, died in her fourth year; a second died also in a few months. During a journey to Finland, the queen found herself in an interesting situation for the third time. All signs, aided perhaps by hopes in so anxious a crisis, led her to expect a son. The court returned to Stockholm, and the king was summoned from Poland, where he had just been victorious. Both king and queen dreamed dreams, forecasting the happy event. Astrologers, whose influence was still strong in Europe, presented themselves with confident predictions. They affirmed that the crisis must be of necessity be fatal either to the king, or the queen, or the child that was to be born. Should it, however, live twenty-four hours, then it would eventually become great.
On November 8 [sic], 1626, Christina was born. "I came into the world all over hair; my voice was strong and harsh. This made all the women think I was a boy, and they gave vent to their joy in exclamations, which at first deceived the king, prepared as he was to wish for an heir. When the mistake was discovered, they were afraid to undeceive him. At last his sister, the Princess Catharine, for whom he had always had a great affection, undertook the task. She carried me to him and let him see for himself what she did not dare to tell him. The king, without showing any surprise, took me in his arms, saying composedly to her: 'Let us thank God, sister; I hope this girl will be as good as a boy to me; may God preserve her now that He has sent her.' The princess, wishing to please him, tried to remind him he was still young enough to hope for an heir; but the king replied instantly, 'My sister, I am quite satisfied; may God preserve her to me.' So saying he sent me away with his blessing. Every one was surprised to see that he seemed pleased. He gave orders to celebrate the event with the customary rejoicings for male heirs. I was called Christina." The king afterwards said of her, with a laugh, "She will be clever, she has taken us all in." It is hardly necessary to add that the predictions of the astrologers came to nothing, unless we give them credit for their assertion that the child was destined to be great.
The queen, who was not undeceived so soon as the king, when she discovered the mistake was inconsolable. "She could not bear to see me, because she said I was a girl, and ugly to boot; and she was right enough, for I was as tawny as a little Moor." This dislike had important consequences for Christina later on. Her father, on the contrary, loved her, and she reciprocated his affection; she was indeed her father's child. She seemed instinctively to discover the difference between the way in which she was regarded by her father and mother. Christina herself asserts that various means were tried to make away with her, such as dropping her, letting beams fall on her. We shall be slow to believe this, but, however that may be, she bore all her life the marks of one of these untoward accidents, in that one of her shoulders was always higher than the other; "a defect that I could have cured if I had taken the trouble", she says — but she never did.
To make up for this want of affection on the part of her mother, Gustavus seems to have been very fond of her. In an assembly of the Estates summoned for that purpose on December 24, 1627, he caused them to swear allegiance to her, and recognise her as heir to the crown. And although during her early years the Polish war and affairs of State gave him little time for less important matters, he showed in many ways his care and love for her. Hearing that she was taken dangerously ill, when he was on a visit to the mines, he came back to her, "quicker than any courier could", to find her at the point of death; his inconsolable grief was however changed to extraordinary joy when she recovered, and he ordered Te Deums to be sung in the churches for her escape. Another time he took her with him to Calmar, when she was not as yet two years old, and subjected her to a test, the result of which increased his affection for her. They were hesitating to fire a salute with the guns of the fortress in his honour, according to the custom, for fear lest it might frighten a child of such importance as the little heiress to the throne of Sweden. The governor sent to ask for an order. The king, after weighing the matter a little, said, "Yes, fire, she is a soldier's daughter, and must get accustomed to it." Accordingly they saluted in due form. "I was with the king in his carriage [sic], and instead of being frightened, like any other child, I laughed and clapped my hands; not being able as yet to speak, I expressed my joy as well as I could in my fashion, signifying by signs that they should fire again. This little event increased the king's tenderness for me; he hoped I might be naturally as intrepid as himself." Since that time he took her with him to the reviews of his troops; — "he used to jest with me, 'Come, I'll take you one of these days to a place that will please you.' But unfortunately", proceeds Christina, "death prevented him from keeping his word, and I had not the happiness of serving my apprenticeship under so good a master."
The time, however, approached when he was to leave Sweden never to return. On the 19th May, 1630, he bade farewell to the Estates in an affecting speech. He presented to them the little Christina, at this time not four years old; commending her to them, as the heiress of the kingdom, and his daughter. Then he went on: "Seeing that many perchance may imagine that we charge ourselves with this war without cause given, so take I God the most high to witness, in whose face I here sit, that I have undertaken it, not out of my own pleasure, nor from lust for war; but for many years have had most pressing motive thereto, mostly for that our oppressed brethren in religion may be freed from the papal yoke, which by God's grace we hope to effect. And since it usually comes to pass that the pitcher which is carried often to the well comes to be broken at last, so will it go with me too, that I who in so many trials and dangers have shed my blood for Sweden's welfare, and yet until now escaped, through God's gracious protection, with life unharmed, must lose it one day; therefore will I before my departure at this time commend you, the collective Estates of Sweden, both present and absent, to God the most high, wishing that after this wretched and burdensome life we may by God's good pleasure meet and consort in that which is heavenly and imperishable." "On this occasion", says Christina, "they had taught me a little complimentary speech to recite to him; but as he was so busy that he could not attend to me, I, seeing that he was not listening, pulled him by his buff coat, and made him turn round to me. Perceiving me, he took me in his arms, and embraced me, unable to restrain his tears, as those who were present at the time have told me. They tell me, that when he was gone, I cried so hard for three whole days without stopping, that my eyes were seriously endangered, and I came very near losing my sight, which, like that of the king my father, was very weak. They took my tears as a bad omen, all the more as I naturally cried little and very rarely."
Before his departure Gustavus Adolphus did not forget, in the midst of the multitudinous cares and business of State which demanded his instant attention, to provide for the future well-being of his daughter. He consigned her to the care of his sister, the Princess Catharine; her husband, John Casimir, the Prince Palatine, he left in charge of his finances. This office he was deprived of after the king's death, being feared by the Regency on account of his Calvinism, and suspected of designs on the monarchy. The queen objected strongly to this arrangement; she detested the princess for reasons of her own: but "the king would be obeyed in this matter", and he was. He caused the Estates and the Army to swear fealty to Christina and acknowledge her as lawful heir. The five great officers of the State were to be her guardians. The queen was specially excluded alike from the State and the Government. This certainly seems to us hard, but Gustavus, though he was fond of his wife, and liked, says Chanut, to see her well dressed, considered her unfit to hold any position in State affairs, and we must suppose he had good reasons for his actions. This was not at all to the taste of the queen; we shall have occasion to recur to the troubles which arose out of her antipathy to the Regency further on. It is worth while to notice that Christina says herself, she could justify her father in this matter if she chose, though she has not done so.
The care of Gustavus for his daughter did not stop here — he chose further for her two governors and a tutor to superintend her education. "He was as fortunate in his choice", says Christina, "as he could be, restricted as he was to men of Swedish nationality." This caution he thought necessary, it is said, because it had been predicted to him that Christina would not die in the faith of her fathers, and he wished to guard against this by his choice of men who were least likely to lead her astray. Whether this was so or not, her governors and tutors were Swedes. The first was Axel Baner, senator and grand master of the Royal House, a clever courtier, a man of the world, and very dear to the king. He was brother to the celebrated Baner who did so much to retrieve the fortune of the Swedes after the king's death. Under Charles IX, who was hostile to the nobility, his father lost his life on the scaffold. Gustavus had reconciled the family to himself, and, as the event showed, it was well for Sweden in her hour of need that he did so. Axel Baner was good at all physical exercises, but very ignorant, knowing no language but his own; much given in his youth to wine and women, and headstrong and violent in character; he seems never accordingly to have been a favourite of Christina's though she calls him a very honest man. He died in 1639.
As additional governor the king chose Gustav Horn, also a senator; a man of great culture, who knew all the foreign languages, which he spoke well; had travelled in France, Spain, and Italy, was versed in diplomatic affairs, and the manners of foreign countries, and more a high character. But more important than either of these for Christina's education was her tutor John Matthiæ, Doctor in Theology, previously Professor of Poetry in the University of Upsala, then Rector of the College at Stockholm, and chaplain to the king; a man whose varied culture and wide and tolerant spirit formed a striking exception to his class and time. His admirable character, kindly without being weak, acquired a great and lasting influence over Christina. In spite of her change of religion, she always retained her old veneration for him; she made him later Bishop of Strengnäs. His favourite scheme of a general reconciliation in religion and the consequent suspicion that he had a leaning to Calvinism — the worst of crimes in the eyes of the Swedes of that age — brought him, after her abdication, into disfavour with the bigoted ecclesiastics who ruled the country, and he had to resign his bishopric.
Leaving the government in the hands of the senate, the king embarked on the 30th May, 1630.
There are still preserved two letters written by Christina to her father in Germany some time during the next three years, which are worthy of notice as being the earliest letters we have from her pen. The style, and the fact that Gustavus had strictly enjoined her tutors to let her write her letters alone, declare them to be her own composition. They are interesting, further, as showing that she was already acquainted with German. Here is the second: —
"MOST GRACIOUS AND BELOVED FATHER, — As I have not the good fortune of being with Your Majesty, I send Your Majesty my portrait. Will Your Majesty please to think of me by it, and come back to me soon, and send me meanwhile something pretty? I will always be good and learn to pray diligently. I am quite well, praise God. May He send us always good news of Your Majesty. I commend you to Him always, and remain,
Your Majesty's dutiful daughter,
CHRISTINA."
And the king on his side, in the midst of his affairs, did not forget his family. In 1630 he writes to Oxenstiern: "Though the cause be good and just, the event of war is nevertheless uncertain by reason of sin. We cannot count on the life of man .... If anything happens to me, my family are worthy of compassion on my own account as well as for other reasons. They are but of the weaker sex — the mother, without capacity; my daughter, a young and helpless girl; unfortunate if they govern themselves, in danger if others govern them. Love and natural affection cause me to write these lines to you, an instrument God has given me, not only to aid me in great affairs but also to guard them against all misfortunes that might happen to me, and all that I hold most dear in this world."
A sentiment akin to the old Greek notion, that "the divinity is jealous", and is wont to visit too great prosperity with its wrath, seems to have haunted Gustavus in his last years. "On his return to Saxony in 1632, shortly before Lutzen, the people received him with such extraordinary acclamations, that he said to his chaplain: "I fear lest God should punish me for the madness of the people. Would not one think these people look on me as their divinity? He who is named the jealous God might well bring it home to them that I am but a weak mortal."
His presentiment did not deceive him. On November 6th, 1632, was fought the fatal battle of Lutzen, and "the Lion of the North, the bulwark of the Protestant faith", was found dead on the field; though he died, as his daughter said, in the arms of victory.
Above: Kristina.
Above: Gustav Adolf and Maria Eleonora.
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