Source:
Christina, Queen of Sweden, pages 48 to 51, by Francis William Bain, 1890; original at the University of Connecticut Library
The account:
By a series of complications now to be related, the war was transferred to a new scene.
Since her exclusion from all share in the government or education of Christina, Maria Eleanora had continued to reside at her castle of Gripsholm, on the Lake Malar, in Sudermania. For some time she had been secretly negotiating with Denmark to make her escape from the country. All preparations being at length completed, she prepared to carry her design into execution on July 29, 1640. Dismissing her attendants on pretence of keeping a fast, she descended in the night into her garden, crossed the lake, and posed to Norkoping [sic]; thence being transported in a Danish ship to the isle of Gothland, she found two Danish men-of-war waiting to receive her, in one of which she was conveyed to Denmark, and proceeded subsequently to her native country, Brandenburg.
It seems impossible to discern how far the queen-mother or the Swedes were to blame for the hatred they entertained for one another; she was certainly harshly treated, and it has even been hinted that the Chancellor was instrumental in compelling her to fly from Sweden; it has further been asserted, with little probability, that the ancient King of Denmark had motives of a very tender character to induce him to lend her aid. In any case, her flight to the country, and by the aid, of their hereditary enemy, roused very sore feelings in the Swedish people. Though her flight has been most erroneously termed the cause of the war which followed, it was certainly one of the primary occasions of it. The cause lay deeper. The jealous national hatred of Denmark had recently been violently excited, not only by the action of that country with respect to the Sound dues, which Christian IV., in 1639, when the Swedish prestige was low, had raised, but also by the attempts of that monarch to constitute Denmark a mediator in the peace negotiations, behind which pretext he was suspected of concealing dangerous machinations. On the bad feeling thus created the circumstances of the Queen-mother's flight fell like a spark. Sharp recriminations passed on both sides; but a war with Denmark now appearing inevitable, and being moreover thoroughly popular, and the Dutch further urging Sweden to fight, the Regents determined to forestall the enemy in commencing hostilities. Accordingly, without any distinct declaration of war, secret orders were sent to Torstenson to invade Holstein; (these were to be disavowed by the Government should any accommodation be arrived at in the meantime).
In 1643, Torstenson, after succeeding in throwing Gallas off his guard by feigned proposals for an armistice, hastily burst into Holstein, defeated the Danes at Kolding, occupied Jutland up to the Skaw, and threatened Fyen; at the same time Horn entered Scania with twenty thousand men, and made himself master of Helsingborg, Lund, Christianstad, and the isle of Bornholm.
On the sea, however, fortune was not at first on the side of the Swedes; De Geer's thirty ships, manned by Dutch volunteers, were unsuccessful against the Danes, commanded by Christian himself. In the great sea fight next year, on July 6, which was four times renewed, both sides claimed the victory: the old king of sixty-eight years fought like Hector, and was badly wounded, as well as having his eye knocked out. On the Swedish side, the High Admiral Klas Flemming was killed in his cabin, three weeks later, by a spent ball. But, in spite of his tremendous personal efforts, Christian was unsupported by his factious aristocracy, and taken entirely unprepared; his allies failed him; the attempts of Gallas to create a diversion in his favour were foiled by Torstenson. In the sea fight of October 13, 1644, the Swedes and Dutch combined obtained a decisive victory: their prestige was moreover increased by the recent victory of Torstenson at Jankowitz, and the taking of Bremen by Königsmarck. Denmark had no choice left: Oxenstiern came to Bromsebro to negotiate a peace, under the mediation of France, through its ambassador, de la Thuillerie.
Above: Maria Eleonora.
Note: Jankowitz is the German name for what is now the town of Jankov in what is now the Central Bohemian region of the Czech Republic.
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