Source:
The London Encyclopaedia, volume 5, pages 658 to 660, published by Thomas Tegg, 1829; original at the University of Minnesota
Above: Kristina.
The article:
CHRISTINA (Alexandra), daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, was born in 1626, and succeeded to the crown in 1633, when only seven years of age [sic]. This princess discovered even in her infancy, what she afterwards expressed in her memoirs, an invincible antipathy for the employments and conversation of women. She was fond of violent exercises, and such amusements as consist in feats of strength and activity. She had also both ability and taste for abstract speculations; and amused herself with language and the sciences, particularly that of legislature and government. She derived her knowledge of ancient history from its source; and Polybius and Thucydides were her favorite authors. As she was the sovereign of a powerful kingdom, many of the princes in Europe aspired to the honor of her alliance. Among her suitors were the prince of Denmark, the elector Palatine, the elector of Brandenburgh, the king of Spain, the king of the Romans, Don John of Austria, Sigismund of Rokocci [sic], count and general of Cassovia, Stanislaus king of Poland, John Casimir his brother, and Charles Gustavus, duke of Deux-Ponts, son of the great Gustavus's sister, and consequently her first cousin. To this nobleman, as well as to all his rivals, she rufused [sic] her hand; but she caused him to be appointed her successor by the states. Political interests, differences of religion, and contrariety of manners, furnished Christina with pretences for rejecting all her suitors; but her true motives were the love of independence, and a strong aversion she had conceived, even in her infancy, for the marriage yoke. 'Do not force me to marry', said she to the states, 'for if I should have a son, it is not more probable that he should be an Augustus than a Nero.' An accident happened in the beginning of her reign which gave her a remarkable opportunity of displaying the strength and equanimity of her mind. As she was at the chapel of the castle of Stockholm, with the principal lords of her court, a poor wretch, who was disordered in his mind, came to the place with a design to assassinate her. This man, who was in the full vigor of his age, chose, for the execution of his design, the moment in which the assembly was performing what in the Swedish church is called an act of recollection — a silent and separate act of devotion, performed by each individual kneeling, and hiding the face with the hand. Taking this opportunity he rushed through the crowd and mounted a balustrade, within which the queen was upon her knees. The baron Braki [sic], chief justice of Sweden, was alarmed, and the guards crossed their partisans to prevent his coming further; but he struck them furiously on one side, leaped over the barrier, and being then close to the queen made a blow at her with a knife, which he had concealed without a sheath in his sleeve. The queen avoided the blow, and pushed the captain of her guards, who instantly threw himself upon the assassin, and seized him by the hair. All this happened in a moment. The man was known to be mad, and therefore nobody supposed he had any accomplices: they therefore contented themselves with locking him up, and the queen returned to her devotion without the least trepidation. One of the great affairs which engaged Christina's attention while she was upon the throne was the peace of Westphalia: it was concluded in October, 1648. The success of the Swedish arms rendered Christina the arbitress of the treaty. No other public event of importance took place during the rest of Christina's reign; for there were neither wars abroad nor troubles at home [sic]. Her reign was that of learning and genius. She drew about her, wherever she was, all the distinguished characters of her time, — Grotius, Pascal, Bochart, Descartes, Gassendi, Saumaise, Naudé, Vossius, Heinsius, Menage, Lucas, Holstenius [sic], Bayle, madam Dacier, Filicaia, and many others. The arts never fail to immortalise the prince who protects them: and almost all these illustrious persons have celebrated Christina, either in poems, letters, or other literary productions, which form a general mass of testimonials, that may be considered as a solid basis of reputation. Christina, however, may be justly censured with want of taste in not properly distinguishing merit. The rapid fortune which the adventurer Michon, known by the name Bourdelot, acquired by her countenance and liberality, was also a great scandal to literature. He had no pretensions to learning, and, though sprightly, was yet indecent. He was brought to court by the learned Saumaise; and, for a time, drove literary merit out of it, making learning the object of his ridicule, and extracting from Christina an exorbitant tribute to the weakness and inconstancy of her sex. At last she was compelled by the public indignation to banish this unworthy minion[,] and she immediately forgot him. This Bourdelot, during his ascendancy over the queen, had supplanted count Magnus de la Gardie, son of the constable of Sweden, who was a relation, a favorite, and perhaps the lover of Christina. M. de Motteville, who had seen him ambassador in France, says, in her memoirs, that he spoke of his queen in terms so passionate and respectful, that every one concluded his attachment to her to be more ardent and tender than a mere sense of duty can produce. This nobleman fell into disgrace because he showed some inclination to govern [sic]; while M. Bourdelot seemed to aim at nothing more than to amuse, and concealed, under the unsuspected character of a droll, the real ascendancy which he exercised over the queen's mind. About this time an accident happened to Christina which again displayed her presence of mind. Having ordered some ships of war to be built at the port of Stockholm, she went to see them when finished; and as she was going on board, across a narrow plank, with admiral Fleeming [sic], his foot slipping, he fell, and drew the queen with him into the sea, which in that place was nearly ninety feet deep. Anthony Steinberg, the queen's first equerry, instantly threw himself into the water, laid hold of her robe, and, with such assistance as was given him, got the queen ashore; during the time of this accident her recollection was such that the moment her lips were above water she cried, 'Take care of the admiral.' When she was got out of the water she discovered no emotion, either by her gesture or countenance; and she dined the same day in public, where she gave a humorous account of her adventure. Though she was at first fond of the power and splendor of royalty, yet she began at length to feel that it embarrassed [burdened] her; and the same love of independence which had determined her against marriage, at length made her weary of her crown. At last she resolved to abdicate; and, in 1652 [sic], communicated her resolution to the senate. The senate zealously remonstrated against it, and were joined by the people, and even by Charles Gustavus himself, who was to succeed her: she yielded to their importunities, and continued to sacrifice her own pleasure to the will of the public till 1654, when she carried her design into execution. The ceremony of her abdication was a mournful solemnity, a mixture of pomp and sadness, in which scarcely any eyes but her own were dry. She continued firm and composed through the whole; and as soon as it was over prepared to remove into a country more favorable to science than Sweden was. Concerning the merit of this action the world has always been divided in opinion; it has been condemned alike both by the ignorant and the learned, the trifler and the sage. It was admired, however, by the great Condé: 'How great was the magnanimity of this princess', said he, 'who could so easily give up that for which the rest of mankind are continually destroying each other, and which so many throughout their whole lives pursue without attaining!' Christina, besides abdicating her crown, abjured her religion; an act universally approved by one party and censured by another; the Papists triumphed and the Protestants were offended. No prince, after a long imprisonment, ever showed so much joy upon being restored to his kingdom as Christina did in quitting hers. When she came to a little brook, which separates Sweden from Norway, then under the dominion of Denmark, she got out of her carriage, and leaping to the other side, cried out in a transport of joy, 'At last I am free, and out of Sweden, whither, I hope, I shall never return.' She dismissed her women, and laid aside the habit of her sex. 'I would become a man', said she, 'yet I do not love men because they are men, but because they are not women.' She made her abjuration at Brussels, where she saw the great Condé, who, after his defection, made that city his asylum. 'Cousin', said she, 'who would have thought, ten years ago, that we should have met at this distance from our countries?' The inconstancy of Christina's temper appeared in her continually travelling from place to place: from Brussels she went to Rome, from Rome to France, and from France she returned to Rome again; after this she went to Sweden, where she was not very well received; from Sweden she went to Hamburgh, where she continued a year, and then went again to Rome; from Rome she returned to Hamburgh, and again to Sweden, where she was still worse received than before; upon which she went back to Hamburgh, and from Hamburgh again to Rome. She intended another journey to Sweden, but it did not take place; she also planned an expedition to England, where Cromwell did not seem well disposed to receive her; and after many wanderings, and many purposes of wandering still more, she at last died at Rome, in 1689. Her journeys to Sweden, however, had motives of necessity, for her appointments were very ill paid, though the states often confirmed them after her abdication: but to other places she was fed merely by a roving disposition, and there was no event in Europe in which she was not ambitious of acting a principal part. During the troubles in France, by the faction called the Fronde, she wrote with great eagerness to all the interested parties, officiously offering her mediation to reconcile their interests and calm their passions, the secret springs of which it was altogether impossible she should know. This was first thought a dangerous, and afterwards a ridiculous behaviour. During her residence in France she gave universal disgust, not only by violating all the customs of the country, but by practising others directly opposite. She treated the ladies of the court with the greatest rudeness: when they came to embrace her, she, being in man's habit, cried out, 'What a strange eagerness have these women to kiss me! Is it because I look like a man?' The murder of Monaldeschi is, to this hour, an inscrutable mystery. It is, however, of a piece with the expressions constantly used by Christina in her letters, with respect to those with whom she was offended; for she scarcely ever signified her displeasure without threatening the life of the offender. 'If you fail in your duty', said she to her secretary, whom she sent to Stockholm after her abdication, 'not all the power of the king of Sweden shall save your life, though you should take shelter in his arms.' Bayle was also threatened for having said that the letter which Christina wrote, upon the revocation of the edict of Nantes, was 'a remain of Protestan[t]ism;' but he made his peace by apologies and submission. She had wit, taste, parts, and learning: she was indefatigable upon the throne; great in private life; firm in misfortunes; impatient of contradiction, and, except in her love of learning, inconstant in her inclinations. The most remarkable instance of this fickleness is, that after she had abdicated the crown of Sweden she intrigued for that of Poland. She was, in every action and pursuit, violent and ardent in the highest degree; impetuous in her desires, dreadful in her resentment, and fickle in her conduct. She says of herself that 'she was mistrustful, ambitious, passionate, haughty, impatient, contemptuous, satyrical, incredulous, undevout, of an ardent and violent temper, and extremely amourous;' a disposition, however, to which, if she may be believed, her pride and her virtue were always superior. In general her failings were those of her own, and her virtues those of the other sex.
Note: The story of Kristina at the border brook or creek is a myth, as is the creek itself, made up by Jacques Picques to denigrate her.
No comments:
Post a Comment