Henry Woodhead on Kristina and Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie and on her sending him as ambassador to France in 1646

Source:

Memoirs of Christina, Queen of Sweden, volume 1, pages 184 to 185/186, by Henry Woodhead, 1863; original at the University of Michigan

https://books.google.com/books?id=XI02AAAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=maria+euphrosyne&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The account:

Christina's next minister at Paris was of a very different character.

Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie was the son of the old General Jacob de la Gardie. His mother was the lovely Ebba Brahe, to whom Gustavus Adolphus had been an unsuccessful suitor.

Magnus inherited his mother's beauty and elegance. He was just four years older than Christina, and possessed all the qualities by which ladies' hearts are usually won.

He had travelled in France, Germany, and Italy, and the handsome young Swede had been quite the fashion in Paris, where Mazarin treated him with great attention and offered him a regiment. He returned to Sweden in 1644, and soon won the Queen's favour by his agreeable manners, his fine person, and his present of the silver throne. The next year he was made Colonel of the Life Guards, and it was soon whispered that the Queen thought of marrying him. Magnus had, however, been for some time attached to her cousin, Maria Euphrosyne, the sister of Charles Gustavus. Christina, unlike our own Elizabeth, did not expect that admiration for herself would so fill her courtiers' hearts as to supply the place of all other attachments. She encouraged his passion for her cousin, and when he was betrothed to her in 1645 the Queen's favour to him increased, and she determined to send him on an embassy to France, for the purpose of strengthening her alliance with that country. His embassy was on a very different scale from that of Grotius. The young Count's suite consisted of more than 200 persons, and they were conveyed to the French shores in a life-of-battle ship and two frigates.

[Chanut, the French resident at Stockholm, gave his own Court a hint of the new Ambassador's favour and influence with the Queen, which was not lost upon the French ministers. Magnus was entertained splendidly with fêtes, dancing, and hunting parties, in all of which his graceful manners were particularly remarked. He used to speak of his Queen with such passionate devotion that the quick-witted Parisians naturally suspected the existence of other sentiments besides those of duty. ...]

Above: Kristina.

Above: Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie.

Above: Marie Euphrosyne.