Faith Compton Mackenzie on Kristina's health, on her constant defiance of Pope Innocent XI (formerly Cardinal Benedetto Odescalchi), and on the affair of the Quarters (1687)

Source:

The Sibyl of the North: The Tale of Christina, Queen of Sweden, pages 247 to 250, by Faith Compton Mackenzie, 1931; original scan at the Universal Digital Library

https://archive.org/details/sibylofthenortht008021mbp/page/n261/mode/2up

The account:

... When Clement X died, Christina was fifty [sic], but Azzolino's surmise when he was working for her election to the throne of Poland was correct. She showed no sign of age, and her health was better than ever before. Bourdelot was giving her good advice from Paris, but, when he told her not to eat so much, she was justly indignant. "A man may be as temperate as he likes — he can't eat less than I do. You say I have done well to give up wine, which I have not given up, because I never drank it." Christina's taste was still simple, and she enjoyed eating chestnuts with her maids a great deal more than sitting down to a solemn meal. To Bourdelot she also wrote her indignation at the publication of Chanut's alleged Memoirs, which contained pages of disgraceful slander about herself. It was proved later that, as she thought, not Chanut her good friend, but the venomous French Minister who followed him, Picques, had added the slanders to Chanut's own work.

She was never to leave Rome again. There were to be no more agitating journeys and heartbreaking absences. Azzolino, less occupied than she could wish at the Vatican, was yet on that account more than ever at the Riario, and their friendship grew and flourished with never a withering leaf. She worked, but only a little, for the Conclave of 1676. She was interested in Cardinal Conti, because he was a relation of the Duke of Poli, one of her gentlemen. But it was a half-hearted business, because it was a foregone conclusion that Odescalchi really would be Pope this time. As Innocent XI he ruled severely, being especially hard on those diversions which he had enjoyed in his cardinal days. Experience had cured Christina of reverence for the wearer of the fisherman's ring. "I have known", she wrote, "four Popes, not one of whom had common sense." When the edict went forth that décolletée for ladies was to be strictly forbidden — it was said that the Pope's spies confiscated too deeply-cut garments — she arrived with her ladies for an audience clothed in angelic white garments, innocenti run riot, and convulsed the Court with mirth. Public festivities were forbidden at carnival time, therefore Christina organized an enormous fête at the Riario. So it went on — she defied the Pope on every possible occasion.

The scandal of freedom of Quarters was a very real one, and the Pope attempted with a bold hand to sweep away the privilege of ambassadors of immunity from Roman law. This immunity had been abused by foreigners who took up residence in the neighbourhood of their ambassadors, so that the greater part of Rome became sanctuary for all sorts of criminals, male and female. All the embassies submitted to the Pope's new decree except France, and Christina, who had been given the same privilege as the embassies, was, surprisingly, one of the first to accept it. But on the first possible occasion she defied it. A seller of contraband spirits, caught by the Papal police on Easter Day, hiding in a church, escaped from his captors, and tried to find refuge in one of Christina's coaches, which was standing near by. It was locked, so he clung on to the padlock with such strength that it was impossible to drag him away. The police were obliged to get him off by putting a rope round his neck and nearly strangling him. Such an act of violence and disrespect to the royal carriage brought an excited and indignant crowd to the spot. The Queen herself came out from Mass, and when she heard what had happened sent Landini with one of her valets and commanded the police to release the prisoner, "or she would know what to do". Such a vague threat alarmed them, and they delivered him up without more ado. The result of this affair was that Landini and the valet were condemned to death by the Pope. Christina declared that if they died they should not die alone. It was a long business, but nobody died, and in the end the Pope merely said in explanation of Christina's conduct, "È donna", which annoyed her more than anything that had gone before.

Above: Kristina.

Above: Pierre Bourdelot.

Above: Cardinal Decio Azzolino.

Above: Pope Innocent XI.

Above: Faith Compton Mackenzie.