Source:
Eccentric Biography; or, Memoirs of Remarkable Female Characters, Ancient and Modern, pages 88 to 89, by anonymous author, 1803; original at The British Library
The biography:
... Christina, having attained her 48th year [sic], on the 18th of December, 1644, took the reins of government into her own hands, and was, in every respect, able to manage them. As she was the sovereign of a powerful kingdom, it is not strange that almost all the princes in Europe aspired to her bed. Among others were the prince of Denmark, the elector Palatine, the elector of Brandenburg, the king of Portugal, the king of Spain, the king of the Romans, don John of Austria, Sigismund Rakocci [sic], count and general of Cassovia; Ladislaus, king of Poland; John Cassimir, his brother, and Charles Gustavus, duke of Deux Ponts, of the Bavarian palatinate family, son of her father the great Gustavus's sister, and consequently her first cousin. To this nobleman, as well as to all his competitors, she constantly refused her hand, but she caused him to be appointed her successor by the states. Political interests, difference of religion, and contrariety of manners, furnished Christina with pretences for rejecting all her suitors; but her true motives were the love of independence, and an unconquerable aversion which she had conceived even in her infancy, for the yoke of marriage. 'Do not force me to marry', said she to the states, 'for if I should have a son, it is not more probable that he should be an Augustus than a Nero.' ...
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Above: Kristina.
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