Francis William Bain on Kristina surviving the 1647 assassination attempt and the 1652 near-drowning incident, and on her calm, fearless, joking or trivialising reactions and strong presence of mind during them

Source:

Christina, Queen of Sweden, pages 209 to 210, by Francis William Bain, 1890; original at the University of Connecticut Library

https://archive.org/details/christinaqueenof00bain/page/208/mode/2up

The account:

On more than one occasion Christina's life was in danger, and in every case she displayed the same cool courage and presence of mind. In 1647, in the Castle Church, a lunatic seized the moment when the congregation was kneeling after the sermon was over, to rush into the elevated gallery, where she was, and got within two steps of her; quite unmoved, she rose, and pushed her Captain of the Guards, who seized him by the hair. It was doubtful what the man's intentions were; two knives were found on him; however that may be, the incident showed the steadiness of the Queen's nerves. In June, 1652, she went at four in the morning to inspect the fleet which was being fitted up at Stockholm. While Admiral Herman Fleming was showing her a new ship, they were standing together on a plank; it suddenly tilted up, and the Admiral fell into the sea, in very deep water, dragging the Queen after him; fortunately her Equerry, Steinberg, being close by, jumped in just in time to seize her by the skirt of her dress, only just visible, as the Admiral, who had sunk, was clutching hold of her petticoats. Several people hurried up, and succeeded in getting her on board. Though she had fallen in head first and swallowed a lot of water, she was no sooner pulled out than she bade them save the Admiral, who was still grasping her clothes. So far from blaming him for this, she praised him, as he would certainly have drowned if he had not. She was moreover, she said, used to drinking cold water, only not salt and dirty; but the Admiral, she maliciously added, must have found the change from beer and wine unpleasant. She made no fuss about it, and dined in public as if nothing had happened.

Above: Kristina.

Notes: The man who tried to assassinate Kristina was Christoffer Presbeckius.

The incident where Kristina and Herman Fleming almost drowned happened in May 1652, not June.

salt = salty.