Source:
Fair Women at Fontainebleau, pages 225 to 235, by Frank Hamel, 1909; original at the University of California
Kristina's letter to Isaac de Benserade, written sometime in 1653, is here:
The biography:
CHAPTER VIII
CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN
(THE SYBIL OF THE NORTH)
"WE can still see at Fontainebleau in the great salon the blood of the man she caused to be murdered there", wrote Elisabeth-Charlotte, Princess Palatine, in 1717 [sic]. Sixty years had passed since Queen Christina took the law into her own hands and punished with a traitor's death the man to whom she had unwisely entrusted her confidence. The nature of his perfidy has never been revealed. History hesitates between assigning the cause of Christina's act to the jealousy of an outraged woman, or to the pride of a queen betrayed by a servant. Madame concluded her bitter verdict with phrases which were unjust. "She did not wish that all that he knew about her should come to be known, and she thought certain things would surely be divulged unless she put an end to his life. He had already begun to tattle, out of jealousy for another man who had supplanted him in her good graces. She was very vindictive and given to all sorts of debauchery. If she had not so much intellect[,] no one could have endured her."
The truth was that very few women understood Christina, and that she shocked them almost all. They were unable to estimate impartially the strange personality of one of their own sex who could throw aside a crown for the joys of foreign travel. They resented her independent attitude. They could not follow the workings of her masculine mind. Christina, with characteristic indifference, expressed her contempt openly for everything feminine. It was her boast that she liked men not because they were men, but because they were not women. No woman was clever enough to make the obvious retort that she disliked Christina not because she was a woman, but because she was not a man. Christina might have thought that clever, and have sworn friendship with the originator in spite of her sex. Having no one to snub her, however, she went her own way without guidance, and came to grief in trying to follow an ideal ad absurdum. She wanted to be regarded as a great ruler of a country rich in learning, in culture, in progressive conditions, and to have the attention of Europe centred upon her. In aiming to be a model king, she neglected to cultivate the characteristics which make a sensible woman, and so failed to become even a good queen.
A strange being was this Christina; brilliant and enigmatic, grand, and at the same time grotesque, noble but perverse, the daughter of a fine, level-headed man, and utterly incapable woman, born of a simple and grave northern race, with all the fire and passion of a southern nationality in her blood.
Nothing was wanting to complete the happiness of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, and his wife Maria Eleanora, daughter of the Elector of Brandenburg, save the birth of an heir to the throne. After six years of marriage[,] two daughters had come and died when Christina arrived bringing further disappointment with her. At first it was thought that the king's dearest hopes had been fulfilled. "I came into the world all over hair", she wrote in her Memoirs; "my voice was strong and harsh. This made all the women think I was a boy, and they gave vent to their joy in exclamations which at first deceived the king, prepared as he was to wish for an heir." When he was told the truth[,] he made the best of it, saying, "I am satisfied. I pray God to keep her safe for me." On the other hand, the queen was inconsolable. "She could not bear to see me", declared Christina, "because she said I was a girl, and ugly to boot; and she was right enough, for I was as tawny as a little Moor."
When Christina was still a tiny baby[,] she heard guns fired for the first time. It had been suggested that the sound might frighten her, but the king commanded the gunners to proceed, saying, "She is the daughter of a soldier; she must grow accustomed to it." To the surprise of everybody[,] the baby showed the greatest delight, and, though unable to speak, clapped her hands, and made signs that she wished the firing to be repeated. Unfortunately[,] this fond and proud father, who made many plans for the great future of the princess, was killed at Lutzen in 1632, when Christina was barely six years old. Maria Eleanora, who, though beautiful and gentle, was greatly wanting in common-sense, and was ordinarily much given to weeping, made the occasion of her husband's death one of continuous tears for weeks, which grew into months of mourning. She shut herself up in her own apartment, which was hung with black from ceiling to floor, the windows also being draped, and, by the dim glow of wax-lights which burned day and night, sat brooding over a golden casket in which her husband's heart was enclosed. She desired to make her little daughter take part in this orgy of sorrow, but[,] fortunately for Christina[,] the king had left explicit instructions regarding her upbringing and education, and she was placed under the guardianship of a regency council, her mother being excluded from having any say in the matter of her daughter's education or the government of the country. Chancellor Oxenstierna, who was the real ruler during Christina's minority, sent the queen-mother to one of her castles, where she might nurse her grief without affecting other people, and himself superintended the classical education which had been decided upon for the princess. From the very beginning she scorned all feminine pursuits, and devoted herself entirely to the studies which would have fallen to her share had she in reality been a prince. There was no end to the intellectual accomplishments which she acquired during the years of her youth, in which she worked unremittingly week in, week out, continually surrounded by learned men from whom she drew vast stores of knowledge, and whom she even outstripped in aptitude. She knew all the languages, most of which she spoke passably. She read Petronius and Martial, and studied Tacitus, which she called "her game at chess", every day. If she was not the most dangerous of pedants[,] she certainly did not escape the worst characteristics of the brilliant blue-stocking. She was usually ink-stained, always untidy, her toilet was performed in a quarter of an hour, and a comb combined with a knot of ribbon constituted her head-dress when she did not wear a wig. Her linen was not beyond reproach; she did not care in the least what she ate, and[,] as long as she might eat it in private[,] was never heard to remark upon her food. She burnt the candle at both ends, and was satisfied with three or four hours' sleep at night. An erudite woman such as Christina, bubbling over with emancipated and extraordinary ideas, seems entirely out of place in the pleasure palace of Fontainebleau. But she rendered her stay there peculiarly and markedly conspicuous, which makes it necessary to study her personality, and endeavour to understand[,] if possible[,] the conditions and causes which were at the root of her behaviour. Three of her actions called most loudly for an explanation: her irrevocable determination to remain single, her conversion to Roman Catholicism, and her abdication of the throne. In reality[,] these much-cited events were the natural outcome of inexplicable idiosyncrasies. It is exceedingly difficult to estimate correctly a character so intricate, so unbalanced as that of Christina of Sweden. With the strongest bias towards things intellectual, reasonable and cool-headed, she was liable to be carried away by her enthusiasms, to lose all sense of proportion and to judge matters from her own personal standpoint without the slightest regard to their political significance or their effect upon the people involved. She laid down certain tenets to which she rigidly adhered without considering whither their indulgence might carry her, and at the same time chose to disregard many ordinary laws of conduct which would have done much to smooth her path in life. She prided herself upon being utterly fearless. It was her boast that she feared death no more than sleep. Yet she refused to entertain the idea of matrimony and motherhood, saying that she was born free and intended to die free. At least she knew some of her own faults, and wrote of herself, "I was distrustful, suspicious, ambitious to excess. I was hot-tempered, proud and impatient, contemptuous and satirical. I gave no one quarter. I was, too, incredulous and little of a devotee." But she never realized that she was remarkably easily led in some directions, and fell a prey to the unscrupulous influence of quacks and poseurs. She collected round her a group of philosophers, savants, mystics, poets, intriguers of all kinds, with but little discernment as to the value of their art or science, and less calculation of what your presence was to cost her. In spite of her matter-of-fact training she dabbled in occultism, spending fortunes in her endeavours to discover the truth. On this score she was held up to ridicule, and it was said of her contemptuously that "Love was not the only amusement of this royal lady; chemistry was her more serious business, though she had lost considerable sums of money by it at Hamburg; and particularly with one Borry, a chemist of Milan, who is now condemned to perpetual imprisonment for heresy in the castle of St. Angelo, and who returned her only cinders and smoke for two or three thousand crowns." At Rome she built a great laboratory in her palace "and consumed the best part of her ready cash, not so much in coals and ingredients as the roguery of the people she employed in this miserable trade."
But in Sweden, during the early years of her reign, she made a genuine attempt to raise the standard of culture. Somaize [sic] spent a year with her; Descartes, to please her, journeyed to Stockholm. She corresponded with Scarron, who sent her one of his comedies; with Scudéry, who dedicated "Alaric" to her. Ménage wrote an eclogue in her honour, and she exchanged bon mots with him, and presented him with a gold chain, as well as bestowing one upon Balzac, who sent her his works to read. Mlle. de Scudéry received help from her, and Mezeray was also in receipt of her pecuniary favours. She tried to persuade Benserade to become one of her Court, and when he refused she wrote him the following characteristic letter —
"You may bless your fortunate star which has prevented you from coming to Sweden. A mind so delicate as yours would have caught a chill here, and you would have gone home with a spiritual cold in your head. You would have been all the rage in Paris, with a square beard, the coat of a Lapp, with shoes to match, just back from the country of hoar frost."
It may be objected that this and much that is to follow is irrelevant to the story of Fontainebleau. But Christina played a whole act in the drama of the palace, and is therefore entitled to an introduction which should help to elucidate how, why, and in what mood she arrived there. Indeed, all that throws a light on her early life and tastes is valuable, even necessary, as a guide to her extraordinary personality and the motives which prompted her to a deed of violence. Moreover, she is a fascinating subject, and is not easily dismissed in a few sentences.
She possessed, then, undoubted leanings towards the French. She was infected by the spirit of preciosity. Not only was she enamoured of their literature, their culture and their mode of living, but she gladly spent fortunes in gratifying her foreign tastes and producing an artificial French atmosphere in her own capital. Even her secretaries and her doctors were Frenchmen, and these alien hangers-on devoured the hard-earned wealth of the Swedish people, who were starving while she squandered their money in injudicious attempts to reconstitute Court life. Suddenly she showed the instability which was fundamental in her character. Up to this time she had never ceased to devote her attentions to the actual government of the country as well as to her studies and hobbies, but quite unexpectedly she yielded herself entirely to the influence of a French quack, Bourdelot — he was said to be the son of a barber — who turned her Court into an absurd caricature of the Louvre, persuaded her to desist from study and government, and replaced these exacting occupations by dancing, masquerading, madcap pranks and childish frivolities of all kinds. The country was thrown into consternation; every one thought the queen had lost her senses. The treasury was empty, ruin was staring the people in the face. The money that she had previously spent on collecting manuscripts, books and objets d'art was still wrung from the poor to be thrown away on revelry and feasting. The dissatisfaction which had been felt for some time past now came to a head, and was everywhere openly expressed. At last the queen yielded to the entreaties of her people. Bourdelot was sent about his business. Then the Court quieted down somewhat, and there seemed hope of permanent reform, when of a sudden Christina announced her desire to abdicate the throne. It was not the first time she had expressed some such intention, but she refused to listen to any further opposition on the part of her ministers. She wished to travel, her people failed to interest her, and queenship was no recompense for being thwarted of freedom or deprived of means wherewith to gratify her extravagant tastes. Seizing everything of value which was portable[,] she started for Denmark, went from thence to Hamburg, to Brussels, where in 1654 she changed her religion, to Antwerp and to Inspruck [sic], where in 1655 she made a public profession of [the] Catholic faith. In short, she travelled "like a vagabond from province to province, visiting all the Courts of Europe", arriving finally at Rome, which for the time being she called her headquarters, and where she established herself with an almost royal household, sending for her manuscripts and other collections and purchasing additions whenever possible.
Above: Kristina.
Note: The word "Lapp" is an antiquated and now offensive term for the indigenous Sámi people. To not acknowledge offensive language towards peoples is to ignore it and deny its offensive qualities. The Sámi live in the north of Sweden as well as in the north of Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia, although in the distant past their range in Norway and Sweden might have extended further south. They are distantly related to the Finns, the Estonians, the Hungarians and the various Balto-Finnic, Finno-Ugric and Uralic peoples of Latvia, Russia and Siberia.
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