Source:
Christina, Queen of Sweden, pages 187 to 191, by Francis William Bain, 1890; original at the University of Connecticut Library
Kristina's letter of August 14/24 (Old Style), 1652 to Axel Oxenstierna is here:
The account:
Among her more intimate associates in the latter year of her reign was the Spanish ambassador, Don Antonio Pimentelli. On his arrival in 1652, Christina wrote to the Chancellor, bidding him pay special attention to his reception and see that nothing was wanting to make his lodging comfortable. Pimentelli speedily became a very great favourite with the Queen. It is said that at his first audience he made her a profound bow, and retired immediately, without a word. The next day he presented himself again, and addressed to her a studied and flattering discourse. Thereupon Christina asked him the meaning of his withdrawing on the previous day: he replied, that he had been so much struck with Her Majesty's presence, that the interval had been necessary to him in order to collect himself. Whatever truth there may be in this story, the Spanish ambassador was certainly a man of great courtliness of demeanor and captivating address. Whitelocke calls him "a man of great parts and ingenuity, and of a very civil deportment." When he came to see Whitelocke, "he fell into a commendation of the Queen, her singular parts and abilities for government and public affairs, excelling all women, and scarce giving place therein to any man he had ever met with; and that she was of an admirable spirit and courage beyond her sex, well skilled for military affairs, and as fit as possibly a woman could be to lead an army." He was a prominent figure at her receptions, and possessed much of her confidence; being one of the few to whom she communicated her design of becoming a Catholic.
Two other men are worthy of notice, both of whom had influence at a later time on Swedish politics. These were Count Corfiz Ulfeld, a native of Denmark, and Radziejowski, a Pole, both political refugees. The former, the favourite of Christian IV., had married a daughter of that king by a second marriage, had been Viceroy of Norway, and Grand Master of the Danish Court; after Christina's death [sic] his abilities and great influence aroused the jealousy of Frederick III., who sought to ruin him by bringing various false accusations against him; in 1651 he fled with his wife in the disguise of a page to Sweden, and claimed the protection of Christina, which she afforded him. To the remonstrances of Denmark she pleaded a clause in the Treaty of Stettin in 1570, by which political refugees of the various states concerned were allowed to claim shelter in the others; precedents were also adduced of Swedish refugees in Denmark in the time of Sigismund. Ulfeld was accused by Charles II., then in exile, of appropriating to his own use 24,000 dollars, which ought to have been paid to himself; it turned out, however, that so far from this being the case, Ulfeld had even increased that sum with half as much again of his own. He remained at Stockholm, and endeavoured to induce Christina to make war on his own country for the purpose of restoring him, giving her all the information he could about its resources; the war, however, did not come in her time.
Similar appeals were made to her by the other fugitive, Radziejowski, a resolute and daring intriguer, who had been Vice-Chancellor of Poland. Suspecting an intrigue between his wife and John Casimir, he had attempted to rouse ill-feeling against the king; his wife during his absence from home took refuge in a convent, whereupon Radziejowski collected a band of men and endeavoured to storm it; failing in this, and feeling himself in danger, he fled the country, going to the Courts of Transylvania, and the Emperor, and lastly to Sweden, in 1652. Here he busied himself in trying to arouse the Cossacks against the King of Poland, and also to excite a war between that country and Sweden, for which purpose he betrayed to Denmark the designs of Ulfeld, to prevent his plans from getting a start. He got what he wanted as soon as Charles X. came to the throne.
The national hatred of Roman Catholics and the Imperialist and Spanish party, the distrust of foreign influence, and the rancour of the envious French have succeeded in presenting Christina's relations with these four men in an entirely erroneous light. They are supposed to have corrupted her morals and perverted her policy; it was hinted that Bourdelot and Pimentelli were strenuously working to alienate her mind from her old allies, the French, and substitute Spain in her good graces, by working on her admiration of Condé (in whose service Bourdelot had formerly been, and who was at this time in the Spanish interests), by commending the advantages of a commercial treaty with Spain, and depreciating the salt trade with Portugal. Pimentelli, we are told, was inducing her to form an alliance with Spain and England against Holland, and drawing her near to the Emperor; rumours were whispered of a marriage between her and the King of Hungary; still darker "there-be-an-if-they-mights", "we-would-an-if-we-coulds", were thrown out about her and the fascinating Spanish ambassador. All this figments are, however, in flagrant contradiction with the facts.
To begin with, Christina was at no time more closely allied with Pimentelli than other ambassadors whom she thought it necessary to conciliate for political reasons. The insinuations against him are due to his country and his religion, and were never directed against another ambassador to whom she showed equal if not greater favour, Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke, who was sent by Cromwell to Sweden in 1653 to negotiate a commercial treaty with England and establish friendly relations between the two countries. ...
Above: Kristina.
Above: Antonio Pimentel.
Above: Corfitz Ulfeldt.
Above: Hieronim Radziejowski.
Note: Stettin is the German name for the city of Szczecin in what is now the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland.
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