Source:
Queen Christina of Sweden: Lothian Prize Essay for 1880, pages 69 to 71, by Arthur Henry Hardinge, 1880; original at the University of Michigan
The essay:
Christina felt that, devoid as she was of all real power, her title of queen, and her personal merits, gave her no influence in the politics of Europe, and that her attempts at taking part in them only laid her open to rebuffs. She became more and more weary of her life at Rome; once more her thoughts turned back towards her former kingdom, and she set to work to negotiate with the Senate for her return to Sweden. It was to no purpose that Heinsius, her faithful correspondent at Stockholm, warned her that the government would make difficulties about her priests and Italian servants; she was received to make the attempt, and by the summer of 1666 she arrived at Hamburg. She remained there until the following spring, enjoying the society of the men of science who were to be found there, and taking part in balls, plays, and masques. In April, 1667, she started for Sweden; and[,] passing through Sleswig[,] Fyen and Sjæland, reached Helsingborg in May, and proceeded northward towards Stockholm. On arriving at Norköping, however, a courier met her from the Court, to inform her that no Catholic priest could be allowed to accompany her; and that if she persisted in keeping her chaplains with her, they would have to be proceeded against according to Swedish law, by which the punishment for nonconformity to the established Church was death. It was easy to imagine the effect of such a message on a woman of Christina's temper. Her first impulse was to return at once to Hamburg; but she was at length persuaded by Count Pontus de la Gardie, who had been sent by the king as her escort, to allow him to write in her name to the Court, and to try and obtain some concessions as to the priests, whilst she herself pushed on to await the answer in her own domain at Norköping. On arriving at that city, she received the reply of the Senate: it was short and harsh. Not only was the queen to be deprived of her own chaplains, but she was forbidden even to attend Mass at the chapels of the Roman Catholic embassies at Stockholm. No amount of Protestant zeal could justify an act like this: to prevent a princess, who was not a subject of Sweden, and who was a declared Catholic, from being present at Catholic services, which were themselves permitted by the government, was a proceeding which could only be looked upon as proving the determination of the oligarchical party to use every means in their power, down to the most wanton and deliberate insults, for the purpose of driving Christina from the country.
She now hastened back to Hamburg, in the hope that[,] at the approaching meeting of the Estates[,] the conditions imposed by the Senate would be revoked, and that some demands she had made on the subject of the management of her revenues, and for the exchange of Pomerania for Bremen, might meet with a favourable hearing. She was not altogether disappointed; for at the ensuing Diet the unnoble orders, and especially the clergy, were far more friendly to her than she had supposed would be the case. The general feeling seems to have been that the Senate had treated her badly, and that their conduct had been influenced, not by those religious considerations which they affected to rate so highly, but by mere political fears that Christina's presence in Sweden would, perhaps, endanger the present power and future schemes of the oligarchy. In truth, this appears to have been the main reason for the action of the Senate. The life of the young king was looked upon as very uncertain; and if he were to die without heirs, the aristocracy might at last do what they had hoped to have been able to do after the death of Christina, and what they actually did do after that of Charles XII.; they might make the monarchy elective, and reduce their elected king to the position of a puppet in the hands of the ruling families: on the other hand, if the king were to die while Christina was in the country, the presence of an heir with a claim to the crown would render their scheme more difficult; the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus would only require to embrace the Lutheran faith, to have the clergy, and peasants, and all the discontented democracy on her side; and who could be sure that an ambitious woman, weary of private life, and suspected of indifference to all religions, would not gladly seize the chance thus offered of regaining the crown. It was their suspicion that these were the real motives of the Senate, and their growing discontent with the rule of the nobles, which made the lower estates rather more favourable to her, and explains what some writers have regarded as the inconsistent attitude of the clergy. They readily agreed to her demands about the bishopric of Bremen, and inserted in the resolution, in which they granted them, a passage in which they spoke in terms of high praise of the personal merits of Christina, and of the glory and prosperity of her reign.
It was whilst residing at Hamburg at this time, that Christina learnt the news of the death of Pope Alexander VII., and the election of Cardinal Giulii Rospigliosi [sic] to the Papal throne. The new Pope, who took the name of Clement IX., was an intimate friend of the queen, and in his love for luxury and display presented a striking contrast to his predecessor. To celebrate his accession, Christina had her house at Hamburg illuminated, though dissuaded by her friends from thus provoking the strong Protestant feelings of the population. She further set up in the square opposite her house two fountains, made to run with wine, and thus attracted a large crowd to the place. When the evening came, the illuminations and fireworks took the form of a representation of the new Pope's arms, and of various figures symbolising Catholic doctrines, one of them of the Church trampling upon the monster, Heresy. This wanton exhibition of Popish emblems in a Lutheran town produced its natural effect. The mob, which had collected in the square, and which was mainly composed of Dutch, Danish, and English sailors, all zealous Protestants, and all more or less drunk, began to howl and throw stones at the windows and illuminations. A shot fired by a servant of the queen's, which slightly wounded one of the rioters, increased the tumult; the populace broke in pieces, every window in the palace, and were about to burst in and pillage it, when the town-guard was called out, and after a slight resistance, the mob dispersed. Christina, during the riot, had been conveyed by a back gate to the house of the Swedish resident; but she returned on the following day to her palace, and remained at Hamburg more than a year after these events, only going on occasional visits to Stade, Bremen, and other places in the neighbourhood.
Above: Kristina.
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