Source:
The Sibyl of the North: The Tale of Christina, Queen of Sweden, page 250, by Faith Compton Mackenzie, 1931; original scan at the Universal Digital Library
Kristina's letter of October 13/23 (New Style), 1683 to King Jan III Sobieski of Poland is here (please excuse the addressee error in the permalink, I had misread the address when I first transcribed and posted it from Arckenholtz's publication):
The account:
One of the greatest moments of those twenty years in Rome came when she heard the news of Sobieski's victory over the Turks at Vienna in 1683. She wrote to him: "... Your deed shows you to be worthy not only of the crown of Poland, but of the monarchy of the whole world. ... I feel envious, a sentiment which until now was a stranger to me. I do not envy you your kingdom, nor your treasures and spoils, but your title of Liberator of Christianity."
Above: Kristina.
Above: King Jan III Sobieski of Poland.
Above: Faith Compton Mackenzie.
Note: The Battle of Vienna took place at Kahlenberg Mountain near Vienna, Austria on September 12, 1683 after the city had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire. The battle was fought by the combined forces of Holy Roman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, under the command of King Jan III Sobieski of Poland, and the opposing military forces of the Ottoman Empire and its vassal states (the Crimean Khanate, Moldavia, Transylvania, Upper Hungary and Wallachia), under the command of Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa. The Ottoman army numbered approximately 90,000 to 300,000 men.
The siege had begun on July 14. Among other units, the Ottoman forces consisted of 60 ortas of 12,000 janissaries — an elite infantry unit whose members were taken as children from Christian families in Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Romania, Serbia and the Ukraine through the devşirme (child levy or blood tax) system — with an observation army of some 70,000 men watching the countryside, hence Kristina's terror that Vienna might as well have already been lost.
The Christian Coalition won the battle, the siege was lifted, the Ottomans of course failed to take Vienna, suffered heavy losses and were severely weakened, and the Coalition established the Holy League under Pope Innocent XI to further push back the Ottomans. The Coalition forces also invaded the Ottoman-occupied territories of Morea (the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece), Dalmatia (a historical region of Croatia) and Danubia in Hungary and the Balkans.
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