Source:
Pictures of Swedish Life: Or, Svea and Her Children, pages 360 to 364, by Sarah Schoonmaker Baker, 1895; original at the University of Wisconsin - Madison
The account:
GUSTAF ADOLF'S DAUGHTER.
KRISTINA (1632-1654).
THE poet Snoilsky describes the six-year-old Kristina sitting in a room dark with black velvet hangings. The wise face and questioning eyes of the child now and then turn furtively towards her mother. The sorrowing Queen, in her widow's garb, sits weeping over the golden casket which holds her treasure, the heart of the dead Gustaf Adolf. The door is respectfully opened. There steps in the figure of a strong man, with hair tinged with gray, a wide lace collar under the square-cut beard, and black silk stockings closely fitting the well-formed legs. He greets, with a courtier's grace, the silent mourner and the little Queen, but there is something in his bearing which tells that here he rules. It is Axel Oxenstierna, the friend of Gustaf Adolf, the stay of the widowed Queen, — the wise, firm man, who is to govern the kingdom for Kristina.
Perhaps it would have been well for Sweden if her people had used their old elective privileges, and had chosen at once Axel Oxenstierna for their king. As it was, he did his best for the country, while Kristina's wise Aunt Katarina took charge of the little girl, to be brought up with her playfellow and cousin, Karl Gustaf. The playfellows became in time betrothed lovers.
Axel Oxenstierna ruled the kingdom wisely and well. He was without personal ambition, and could be called "cousin" by the French King without wishing to have the usual crowned claims for such a familiarity. The post-office system was now introduced into Sweden, and newspapers began their great work for good or ill. The "New Sweden", of Gustaf Adolf's imagination, took form. The great captains of the great King brought ever-increasing honor to the banner of Sweden, which now waved nearly round the Baltic. The nobility meanwhile increased in riches and power, and lived in their magnificent castles like kings rather than subjects.
In 1644 the young Queen, now eighteen years of age, came formally to the throne. A learned and gifted woman, without balance, without a deep-rooted sense of right [sic], changeable and incomprehensible, she did not understand how to rule herself or her kingdom [sic]. She lavished treasure on her favorites and her pleasures, began to frown on wise Axel Oxenstierna, and to smile on the handsome and luxurious Magnus de la Gardie, who had more strong castles than he had letters in his name.
As for Kristina's cousin, Karl Gustaf, she declared that it was impossible for her to marry him; but she made him a royal amende, by first managing to have him appointed Crown Prince, and then leaving him her throne. Queen Kristina's course of study and folly and extravagance was soon run. She was weary of the restraints and cares and duties of royalty, and the day was approaching for her voluntary, formal, and final abdication. She had been ten years a reigning queen, and longed to be a free, irresponsible woman, to indulge the whims and fancies of her unsettled, unbalanced nature. She would leave her throne, her crown, and her kingdom behind her, and begin a new[,] if not a better[,] life.
It was a June morning, and summer was in its fresh beauty, when in the great hall of Upsala Castle the abdication was to take place. The wise and the powerful of the kingdom were there, in solemn assembly and in magnificent array. Kristina appeared in full royal apparel, and took her place on the throne, with her counsellors about her. At a short distance from the central group stood Karl Gustaf, in a full suit of black velvet, the former lover and future king.
The act of abdication was read. The Queen then motioned to the high officials to come forward and take her crown. No one stirred. She herself lifted the crown from her head, and was then soon relieved of sceptre, apple, and royal mantle.
Simply attired in white silk, and without ornaments, Kristina stepped down from the throne and dais, as "beautiful as an angel", writes a contemporary [Per Brahe]. She spoke freely and nobly, without embarrassment. Sometimes, for an instant, her voice was choked with emotion; and courtiers and court ladies, old counsellors and young admirers, felt their eyes suddenly filled with unexpected tears.
She first addressed herself to her cousin, and commended her kingdom to his care. She thanked the honored Council for the help they had given her, and asked forgiveness of them and her people for all her shortcomings, and then bade farewell to her crown and her subjects. Attended by Karl Gustaf, she turned to leave the assembly. At the door of the hall she motioned to her cousin to precede her; but he fell back, and Kristina passed out for the last time as a queen.
In the afternoon of the same day the new King was crowned, with all due ceremony. Kristina was not present at the coronation.
Twelve Swedish vessels-of-war had been prepared to take Kristina to Germany; but she started the day after her abdication, with some foreigners and a very few Swedes, on her journey southward by land. As she passed from the Swedish possessions to those of the Danes on the peninsula, she hopped girlishly over the little stream that marked the boundary, saying, "Now I am free, and out of Sweden, and hope never again to return!"
"What did Kristina do at Innspruck?" asked, lately, one of the most gifted teachers of Stockholm of a class of little girls.
A child eagerly rose to answer; but her eyes filled with indignant tears, in a choked voice she said, "I cannot tell it!" and sat down. Not one of the class was willing to recount how Gustaf Adolf's daughter had abjured the faith for which he had been willing to die. The teacher must tell the sad story herself.
On entering the Catholic Church, Kristina took the added name of Alexandra.
Fêted, but in heart despised, Kristina went from court to court. The polite Parisians were sorely shocked at the hoydenish manners of the Queen of the North. Settled at Rome, she gathered around her, as usual, an odd circle of lovers of pleasure and lovers of knowledge, and managed long to enjoy their society. She "received" and wrote and danced and studied until old age and loneliness came upon her.
Twice Kristina made her appearance in Sweden, not unwilling to resume the crown she had cast aside; but her abdication had been too open and too fully accepted. In the land of Gustaf Adolf there was no place for a Catholic Queen.
"Thou art poor, Kristina Alexandra,
When life's drama nears its close",
says Snoilsky, in one of his beautiful historical poems. Poor, indeed, in all that makes life worth living, was the Swedish Queen, when she closed her eyes in a far foreign land, in 1689, thirty-five years [sic] after her abdication.
Her library is treasured in the Vatican. Her remains lie in St. Peter's at Rome.
In Kristina's reign the treaty of Westphalia signalized the close of the Thirty Years' War. This long-desired peace is a nobler glory to associate with the time of Gustaf Adolf's daughter than even the victories of her great generals.
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Above: Kristina.
Notes: Although the legend is famous and widespread, in reality no one refused to take the crown off of Kristina's head, and Kristina did not take the crown off herself.
The story of Kristina at the border brook or creek is likewise a myth, as is the creek itself, made up by Jacques Picques to denigrate her.
hoydenish = tomboyish.
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