Source:
Memoirs of Christina, Queen of Sweden, volume 1, pages V to VI, by Henry Woodhead, 1863; original at the University of Michigan
The introduction:
PREFACE.
—
FEW eminent persons have had less justice done to them by posterity than Christina.
Protestants felt such indignation at her conversion, that they were prejudiced against any account which placed her character in a favourable light, and this must be one reason why so striking and interesting a life has not been written already in English by some abler hand.
Several Lives of Christina have been published in French, German, Swedish, and Italian, but they are generally extravagantly hostile, or unreasonably eulogistic.
The memoirs of Archenholtz [sic], indeed, are generally fair; but they are so excessively voluminous as to be almost the work of a life. They are so prolix and digressive that few persons would read them through for amusement.
I have not suppressed any unfavourable traits in Christina's character which are supported by reasonable evidence; but I have endeavoured to show that her genius, and the services she rendered to art, science, and learning, have not hitherto been acknowledged in any popular work.
The time has gone by in England, when justice was denied to all who did not hold our orthodox creed; and if the "Memoirs of Christina" fail to be attractive, the reason will be that an interesting subject has not been properly handled.
Above: Kristina.
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