Source:
Fifty Famous Women and The Lessons of their Lives: illustrated with numerous wood engravings, pages 108 to 111, by anonymous author, published by Ward, Lock & Co., London, between 1830 and 1850; original at the University of California
The biography:
CHAPTER XI.
CHRISTINA, daughter of the great Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, and of Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, was born December 18th, 1626. She gave very early tokens of that almost masculine firmness and courage which distinguished her throughout her eventful life. Christina was only two years old when her father Gustavus, who was fondly attached to his little daughter, entered the town of Calmar with her. The governor hesitated to fire the customary salute, fearing to alarm the infant, but was ordered to proceed by the King, who declared that "the girl was a soldier's daughter, and should be accustomed to it early." Contrary to all expectations[,] the little princess was delighted with the noise, clapped her chubby hands lustily, and cried out for "more."
She was only seven years of age [sic] when the great misfortune of her life overtook her: — a blow which entailed consequences felt by Christina to her dying day. Her heroic father perished on the field of Lützen, fighting nobly in defence of the Protestant faith in Germany, and thus the little princess was deprived of the invaluable advantage of that great man's guidance, counsel, and example during those critical years of her life when her character was being formed and her habits were developing. The whole career of Christina might have been changed had it pleased Heaven to spare her gallant father, — if the heroic course which closed so gallantly upon the Saxon battle-field had been prolonged for a few brief years.
For the Queen-Mother, upon whose care the little fatherless Christina was now thrown, was a weak, frivolous woman, capricious in temper and unstable in mind. The young girl, who had inherited from her father a keen intellect and great thirst for knowledge, quickly became disgusted with the shallow conversation and narrow views of the women who surrounded her; and, like nine girls out of ten in similar circumstances, she sought among the heroes of antiquity for that ideal which she despaired to find realised in the seventeenth century. Homer and Alexander the Great were her chief favourites. She devoured all books that came in her way; had an extraordinary facility in acquiring languages, insomuch that she read Thucydides in the original at the age of fourteen; showed an aptitude for public business, talking of state affairs with an acumen perfectly marvellous in one so young, and gave promise of great abilities when time should have taught her experience. But she contracted a violent and unaccountable hatred for her own sex; avoided women's society, disliked and despised women's duties, and so gradually lost from her own character every feminine charm and softer grace. She became self-willed, impatient, and exacting; and though she ardently wished to deal justly with all who approached her, she was frequently, in spite of her strong natural sense and acuteness, made the dupe of cunning intriguers, who flattered her vanity and encouraged her weaknesses to attain their own selfish end.
In illustration of her contempt for many things considered highly important by the majority of her sex, may be mentioned her utter disregard of her own personal appearance. Except on extraordinary occasions of state ceremonial, Christina, Queen of Sweden, appeared in a gown of grey stuff or cloth, of much shorter and scantier dimensions than the garments usually worn — for she feared that a longer dress would impede her movements in walking and riding. Her luxuriant light brown hair was often unkempt; for she allowed herself only a quarter of an hour in the morning at her toilet; her usual head-dress was a man's fur cap, or a simple snood of ribbon.
She seems to have had a just appreciation of the greatness of her responsibilities as ruler of the Swedish monarchy. After 1644, when she took the management of affairs entirely into her own hands, her activity and attention to matters of state were incessant. She exercised a very great influence over her council, who were surprised and struck with admiration at the strength of will and fertility of resource displayed by the young Queen. The eight years between 1644 and 1652 form the most useful and admirable period of her life. Sweden, which by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 received a large accession of territory, prospered greatly. The ministers learned to respect and the people to love their Queen; and to all appearances Christina, whose vigorous constitution and excellent health gave promise of a long life, seemed to have a high and glorious course before her.
But now the one great fault of her character, a fault lamentably neglected and allowed to spread unchecked during her earlier years, showed itself in greater force than ever, and put a stop to the career so brilliantly begun. Accustomed to rule others, Christina had never learned to control herself. Almost despotic as she was in her sway over her subjects, her own inclinations played the tyrants to the Queen, who became a slave to every impulse that seized her. The brilliancy of her success in state affairs was not enough to blind her to the fact that majesty itself was a burden; and while it gave power, imposed restraint; and restraint was a thing Christina had never been able to brook. So in 1652 [sic] she announced to an astonished and sorrowing senate, and an indignant people, her intention of abdicating the throne. Remonstrances poured in upon her from all sides; even Charles Gustavus, her acknowledged successor, urged her to reconsider the irrevocable step she was about to take. For a short time Christina hesitated; — then she declared her mind to be unalterably fixed upon laying down a weight of care and responsibility that oppressed her; and in 1664 [sic] she left Sweden. To travel through many lands; to render herself notorious rather than famous; to tarnish by her eccentricities and vagaries a reputation which till her abdication had stood high among the princes of Europe, such was the career upon which Christina now entered. She fancied that in leaving Sweden she should leave behind her the feeling of restlessness and rebellion which made her revolt against those cares and troubles which beset the highest and the lowest alike in the path of early life. She was mistaken, grievously mistaken; as everyone always has been, and always will be, in the endeavour to find peace of mind in an abandonment of duty.
In reading her letters and her memoirs we are continually struck by the want of steadiness of purpose shown by her in the most important events of her life. At times her natural good sense appears to have been clouded over by a sudden ferocity and cruelty hardly to be reconciled with soundness of intellect. The death of her chamberlain Monaldeschi, whom she caused to be barbarously murdered, has left an indelible stain on her character.
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