Source:
Memoirs of Christina, Queen of Sweden, volume 1, pages 83 to 95, by Henry Woodhead, 1863; original at the University of Michigan
The account:
OXENSTIERN arrived in Stockholm the 14th of July, 1636, and was received with the honours he had earned so well. He was met at the gates by the Senate and a deputation of the States, and was treated with almost as much respect as if he had been the sovereign. It has been already mentioned that one of his first acts was to remove Christina from her mother. Her tutors and governors were retained, and the love of study which had first been roused by the desire to escape from her mother's gloomy apartments, was now implanted firmly enough to flourish under the more genial care of her aunt.
This exemplary princess was always loved and respected by Christina, and perhaps the eccentricities which afterwards appeared in her character would never have been developed if it had not been for the premature death of her aunt.
Catharine was the only surviving child of Charles IX. by his first wife, and every account represents her as amiable and good. Her household was a pattern of correctness and good management; she ruled it mildly, yet firmly, and chiefly by her own good example. She comforted and attended the sick, with skill as well as with kindness; she assisted the poor systematically, and if they did not venture to come to the palace[,] she sought them in their cottages, "with gifts in her hands, and comfort on her lips."
Her piety kept pace with her charity; every day she read to her household, either from the Bible or from some devotional book.
Gustavus Adolphus had loved her tenderly, and she now repaid his affection by her care of his daughter.
The Regents, and the nobles in general, were not well disposed towards her husband's family; but no one had a word to say against Catharine, and it gave general satisfaction that she should have the charge of Christina.
Matthiæ now read with his pupil the works of Livy, Terence, Cicero, and Sallust. She entered into the spirit of these authors, and could write good Latin herself.
Theology had its full share in her education, and while under Matthiæ's charge she seems to have been sincerely and unaffectedly pious. Many of her letters written at this time display a strong religious feeling, and even at a later period Freinsheimius spoke of her veneration for religious subjects, and of the study she devoted to religion. Chanut said, in 1648, that "she was faithfully attached to Christianity, although she was not scrupulous, and did not affect a ceremonious devotion."
Oxenstiern also took his place among the tutors of the young Princess. He spent several hours a day with her, and taught her general politics, and the relations of Sweden to foreign states.
Few princes have had the advantage of such a master. She recorded years afterwards the profit and pleasure she had derived from these studies with the Chancellor, and said that all her knowledge of politics was derived from him. These hours appear to have been pleasant to them both, for Oxenstiern was delighted with his pupil's quick comprehension and sound understanding.
Christina is said to have first begun the study of French about this time; but it would seem she had some acquaintance with the language considerably earlier, because several French words are introduced in a short letter she wrote to her aunt in 1634. The French language was then very little known in Sweden, so that those words could not have been in general use. The way also in which they are employed is just that which might be expected from a child who was learning several languages at the same time.
Christina's physical education was not neglected on account of her studies. She followed the chase with the same energy which she displayed in every pursuit, and the accounts of her adroitness are almost too wonderful to be believed; for it is said that while on horseback, and at a gallop, she could shoot a hare with a single ball. When the rest of her attendants were thrown out, she frequently continued the pursuit, accompanied only by the strongest and most expert huntsmen. It is a fact little in accordance with the character generally given to Christina, that notwithstanding her love for the excitement of field-sports, she never witnessed the death of an animal without showing strong feelings of pity, sometimes even to the extent of being moved to tears.
Christina experienced an irreparable loss in the death of her aunt. This amiable Princess expired, after a short illness, in December, 1638, and left her charge not quite thirteen years old, and without any female about her who possessed her confidence.
Two days before her death[,] she called Christina to her bed-side, made her read the prayers for the day, and exhorted her to devotion towards God, and to obedience towards her tutors and governors. The dying woman next charged her to love Sweden, and to perform her high duties with diligence and zeal. Lastly, and not without tears, she begged the young Queen's favour and protection for the husband and children she was leaving behind.
Never was a dying injunction more faithfully observed than this last. Christina resigned her crown to Catharine's son, and resigned the man she loved to Catharine's daughter.
During this interview the attendants broke into lamentations for their beloved mistress. She endeavoured to console them, and said gently: "I leave here many friends, but many others have gone before me, and are now expecting me in the place to which I am hastening."
John Skytte said of her, "she was universally beloved, as a pattern of religion, patience, and all Christian virtues — yes, she was truly a pearl among Sweden's royal daughters."
Christina wrote a letter of condolence to her uncle, and promised to do all the good in her power to him and his children, in return for the truly maternal care she had experienced from the late Princess. Notwithstanding Christina's brilliant qualities[,] she seldom inspired much affection, nor can it be said that she possessed an affectionate disposition; but she met with sympathy and love from her aunt, and always cherished her memory with peculiar tenderness.
The Regents found considerable difficulty in supplying the place of the Princess Catharine. Anna Banér, the wife of Gabriel Oxenstiern, was invited to take charge of Christina, but she declined to undertake it, on the plea that she did not wish to leave her own children; but in fact, she, as well as Helena Bjelke, the wife of Klas Fleming, to whom it was next offered, did not wish to incur the responsibility. At last the Chancellor's sister [sic], Beata Oxenstiern, was chosen, but her office was hardly more than a nominal one, for Christina neither asked nor took advice from any one except Axel Oxenstiern, Axel Banér, and John Matthiæ.
The Chancellor had taught Christina about a year, when she discovered so much capacity, that[,] although she was only thirteen years old, he recommended she should be gradually initiated in public affairs. She entered into these matters with so much interest and intelligence, that by the time she was fourteen, it was decided she should be present at the deliberations of the Council on the most important occasions, "so that she might learn government was a heavy responsibility, and might not hereafter throw all the cares of it on her ministers, as the German Princes did."
The Council also wished her to take some part, as early as possible, in the conduct of affairs, because they anticipated that at a future time people would not be wanting to accuse their management. During the next few years[,] Christina's course of life was regular, and her efforts were unremitting in the acquisition of that vast stock of knowledge for which she afterwards became so famous. Her faults also continued to develop themselves. Her line of knowledge made her take a keen delight in the conversation of able men; but, unfortunately, her dislike increased for the habits and society of women. She felt no sympathy for the old Scandinavian doctrine, that there is something divine in the nature of women, independent of, and superior to, acuteness of reason. The philosophers of her court gladly encouraged a frame of mind in their queen which was so favourable to their own influence, a frame of mind which acknowledged only one form of excellence, and ignored the charms of grace and beauty.
The rudeness and coarseness of manner which men acquire when they have been long debarred from female society, has often been noticed, and it is frequently found that refinement of feeling is lost at the same time with elegance of manners.
It is still more injurious to a young woman to be separated from persons of her own sex; she then sees no example and can aim at no standard than a masculine one. She seldom reaches this, even to her own satisfaction, but she loses her own natural grace and dignity in the effort. She is ignorant of the amiable qualities which she does not see, and she this acquires a contempt for women which is never felt, and seldom pretended, except by the worst of men. There had not been many queens to serve as a model for Christina, but she had carefully studied the life of Elizabeth, and may have derived from her career the impression that vigour was inseparably connected with a rough and masculine manner. Had she lived to our own time, she might have learned from another English Queen [Victoria] how to combine every womanly virtue with a wise and active administration.
Christina carefully avoided the vices of men, although she acquired much of their hardness and coarseness. She always expressed great abhorrence of drunkenness, which was the besetting sin of the Swedes; in fact, she carried temperance to an extreme, for she drank nothing but water, and was so indifferent to the pleasures of the table, that she was never known to say a word either in praise or in blame of the repast that was set before her; but she indulged in another habit, which is now considered almost as shocking as that of drinking, viz., the habit of profane swearing.
It would not be fair, however, to take this habit as an indication of a depraved or irreligious disposition in the 17th century.
Oaths were commonly used in conversation at this time, not only in Sweden, but in the more civilized England. Our own Queen Elizabeth used to indulge in this sort of language, and more than a hundred years after her time[,] a lady was recognized at once as a woman of quality because she swore so horribly.
Christina confesses this fault in her Memoirs, and says that as soon as she became aware of it she endeavoured to correct it; but she adds that no one in Sweden of either sex used to speak without an oath.
Although swearing was not especially a masculine habit, yet in other respects she affected the manners of the male sex to an absurd degree. She wore a black handkerchief like the soldiers, she used to bow and salute as men did, and it was even said she carried the whim so far as to go through the form of twirling a moustache.
Christina was never diffident of her own powers, and must have felt that none of her ministers, except Oxenstiern, had abilities equal to her own; yet strangely enough she often dwelt on the unfitness of women for government, and this idea gives the clue to her apparently childish and silly imitation of men. She said in her Memoirs, "It is almost impossible that a woman should perform the duties required on the throne. The ignorance of women, their feebleness of mind, body, and understanding, makes them incapable of reigning."
Yet Christina must have felt her superiority to the ignorant soldiers about her, in everything but physical strength.
_-_Nationalmuseum_-_18075.tif~3.jpg)
Above: Kristina.
_-_Nationalmuseum_-_15922.tif~3.jpg)
Above: Princess Katarina.
Above: Axel Oxenstierna.
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