Anna Brownell Jameson's biography of Kristina, part 6

Source:

Memoirs of celebrated female sovereigns, volume 1, pages 47 to 50, by Anna Brownell Jameson, 1831; original at the University of Toronto

https://archive.org/details/memoirsofcelebra02jameuoft/page/46/mode/2up

The biography:

The style of learning and philosophy which prevailed in Christina's court seems to have been precisely that which Molière has so happily ridiculed in the "femmes savantes", and which is now out of date, — a mixture of scholastic pedantry and elaborate trifling.

On looking over the list of "savans" who were entertained in the Swedish Court, we find few of any real merit or celebrity; there are two or three, however, who deserve to be more particularly noticed; of these, one of the most remarkable was De Saumaise, better known by his Latin appellation, Salmasius, as the political and literary antagonist of Milton: the erudition of this man was wonderful, almost, says Johnson, "exceeding all hope of human attainment;" and since the death of Grotius had left him without a rival, he had reigned not only the monarch, but the tyrant of literature. He was a proof, were any proof wanted, that the true value of all human knowledge consists in its application; instead of being numbered among those "great and good men whose published labours have advanced the good of posterity", he has sunk into a mere name, which is only interesting as associated with that of Milton; while the one blot upon the pure and transcendent fame of the poet, is connected with the name of Salmasius. Isaac Vossius, a very celebrated theologian, antiquarian, and critic of that time was another whom Christina particularly distinguished. The private character of both these men was hateful, and they are supposed to have exercises a most mischievous influence on the mind of the young queen. It appears that they first unsettled her religious opinions, and blunted her moral feelings, by continually occupying her with idle metaphysical disputes, under pretence of studying philosophy.

Descartes, who had often declared that he valued his liberty at so high a rate, that no monarch of Europe could buy it from him, was at length induced, by the flattering and earnest entreaties of Christina, to visit her capital. He fondly believed that he had insured his independence, by stipulating that he should be exempted from all court-ceremonial. The queen consented; but she required his attendance in her library every morning at five o'clock. The unhappy philosopher, whose health was extremely delicate, was obliged to comply with his despotic patroness. These early hours, and the extreme coldness of the climate, threw him into a consumptive disorder: his malady was increased by the haughtiness and negligence with which Christina resented his admiration of the Princess Palatine (The eldest daughter of Elizabeth of Bohemia.), and at the end of four months he died at Stockholm.

The want of judgment which Christina displayed in the choice of some of her literary favourites, her capricious treatment of others (She made Naudé and Meibom, two famous Greek scholars, execute a Greek dance for her amusement; and Bochart, one of the gravest and most profound scholars of the time, play at battledore and shuttlecock. — Vide Bayle.), the immense sums she lavished upon them, either to purchase or to reward their venal flattery, — their mutual hatred and envy, — their disputes, which often embroiled her court, — instead of introducing among the Swedes, who were a plain, rough, straightforward people, any taste or reverence for literature, tended to degrade it in their eyes, dissipated the treasures of the state, and lowered Christina both in their estimation and their love.

Above: Kristina.

Above: Anna Brownell Jameson.

Anna Brownell Jameson's biography of Kristina, part 5

Source:

Memoirs of celebrated female sovereigns, volume 1, pages 44 to 47, by Anna Brownell Jameson, 1831; original at the University of Toronto

https://archive.org/details/memoirsofcelebra02jameuoft/page/44/mode/2up

The biography:

The next event of importance was her coronation, which was celebrated at Stockholm with the utmost pomp and solemnity, on the 20th of October 1650. On this occasion Christina's love of classical antiquity induced her to give her people the novel spectacle of a Roman triumph, as described in Plutarch. Crowned with laurels and sparkling with jewels, she paraded the streets of her capital seated in a car [carriage] drawn by four white horses; her treasurer marched before, scattering medals among the populace, and the heralds proclaimed her, according to the custom of the country, KING of Sweden. The festivities continued for several days, during which shows were exhibited to the people, and masques, ballets, and banquets daily took place at court; there were also reviews, mock fights, riding at the ring, and other military sports, at which the queen distributed the prizes; and Prince Charles and the young Landgrave of Hesse were particularly distinguished by their gallantry, the splendour of their habits, and the number and magnificence of their retinues. But that which caused the greatest delight and astonishment, was a glittering triumphal chariot, which moved along the arena upon hidden springs; and in the same manner an artificial mountain forty feet in height, representing Mount Parnassus, was seen to glide self-impelled before the wondering spectators, while on its summit a company of musicians, habited as Apollo and the Muses, filled the air with harmony; orations in almost every known language were pronounced, celebrating the greatness, the virtues, the charms, and the learning of the queen; and a lofty pyramid, which according to a pompous (and lying) classical inscription, was erected to the honour of Christina by Antiope, Penthesilea, and Thalestris, the three queens of the Amazons, was constructed as a memorial of these festivities.

The character of these exhibitions sufficiently indicates the taste which had for a long time prevailed in the court of Sweden; after the year 1648, we find Christina almost entirely devoted to study and literature, even to the exclusion of the duties and cares of government. She carried on a diligent correspondence with many of the most eminent literati of Europe; among others, with Gassendi, Menage, and Blaise Pascal, names still celebrated; she was surrounded by learned men, soi-disant philosophers, and professors in every branch of science, whom she attracted to her court by gifts, by pensions, or by promises, and whose interested and extravagant flattery completely bewildered a head already half turned by vanity, unrestricted power, and indulged self-will. She collected manuscripts, books, and medals, and sent commissioners into Italy and other countries to purchase pictures, sculptures, and other rarities of art; these pursuits, in themselves praiseworthy, were carried to an excess which rendered them ridiculous and blameable. Not having herself the experience or taste to which she pretended, she was pillaged and cheated to an incredible extent; it is said, that at the instigation of one of the antiquarian pedants in her court, she offered 30,000 florins for a bronze medal of Otho; on another occasion, when some fine and valuable pictures arrived from Italy, this Queen of the Goths had them cut down to a uniform size to fit certain panels in one of the royal apartments.

Above: Kristina.

Above: Anna Brownell Jameson.

Ada Harrison's biography of Kristina, part 25

Source:

Christina of Sweden, pages 92 to 95, by Ada Harrison, 1929

https://books.google.com/books?id=xJvrtq4DCv0C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=memoires+concernant+christine+1760&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

The last years of Christina's life, in spite of her courage, appear melancholy. She lived on in her great palace, wayward, eccentric, pugnacious, still defiantly giving rise, in her person and her household, to every kind of scandal; but brilliant though the talk still was, and desperately keen the antagonisms and enthusiasms, much of the zest must have departed. Age and infirmity were weaknesses which, whatever front she showed them, she could not wholly defy. She lost heart to struggle against her squalid insolvency, and was reduced at last to beg.

'Pomponne will tell you', she wrote at her lowest ebb to Louis XIV, 'of the deplorable state into which Sweden, my thankless country, has thrust me. I appeal to your Majesty, who is the arbitrator of sovereigns. Your friendship alone can soothe my woes. It would be an offence to make you a long and humble prayer to bring you to embrace my cause. I am a queen and wretched. You are just and generous. My grief, my plaints and my misfortune will cease at your bidding.'

Her vulnerable points grew weaker as she grew older. She had always lacked kin and comfortable friends; her natural need of them was now increased. She had always, since she took up residence in Rome, been the typical expatriated woman, living by art and culture, instead of by human relationships. The pathos of this way of life now became stronger as she still clung desperately to outside things, still persisted in the delusion that she was the centre of the world and must keep up. She had never been able to lean; she remained to the end painfully independent and upright. She finally confessed her unhappiness in Rome by opening negotiations to end her days with some distant relations in Germany, although she lacked the strength to uproot herself, and she realised too that even if she could not be contented in Rome[,] she could never be anything but unbearably wretched away from it.

Happily Christina did not grow really old in years. She did at sixty-three [sic], in nearly full possession of her powers. She had suffered intermittently from erysipelas. In February 1689, she was seized by so violent an attack that it was thought impossible for her to recover. She had patched up a peace with the Pope, and Innocent wished to be at her bedside, but he was at this time himself too ill to go abroad, and she received his blessing and the last unction from Cardinal Ottoboni. Then, amidst rejoicing, her fire reasserted itself and she surprisingly rallied, but she suffered another attack in April, from which she could not recover. She faced death very peacefully and with great courage on the morning of April 19th, making an end in every way worthy of herself.

She left a will naming Azzolino her sole heir. Though she had not much money, her art treasures were very valuable. She had always collected superbly, irrespective of what she could afford. Azzolino did not enjoy her inheritance for long, for he died a few months after Christina. He in his turn left the collections to a nephew, and to all it seemed a strange dispensation of Providence that an inconspicuous gentleman of Ancona should inherit the magnificent art treasures of a queen.

It is evident that Azzolino was working his way systematically through the queen's correspondence, destroying it as she had directed him, when he was interrupted by death. Thus Christina's Hamburg letters, the outcome of their last long separation, survived.

The queen had desired to be buried very simply in the Pantheon, under the inscription: 'Christina lived sixty-three years.' Her wishes, like her father's, were not regarded, and she was buried in St Peter's with a grandiloquent tomb and text. For her last as for her first journey through Rome[,] her route was lined with gazers, and once again St Peter's, draped in black instead of crimson, seemed too small for the thronging crowd.

The spectacle was not out of place. All her life, by deeds and by circumstances, Christina had been spectacular, and it was fitting that the end should harmonise. She was infallible at catching the public eye and the public imagination, and she was scarcely dead before she inspired a number of panegyric, abusive, and highly and falsely coloured Lives and Descriptions of herself. The tongue of scandal, having murmured all her life, broke into a triumphant shout the moment she was dead. She was accused of everything. She was a monster of immorality, the leader of a vile and debauched court. Yet everyone agreed with the writer of the 'Intrigues and Gallantries', the most scurrilous pamphlet of all, that 'she always maintained the majesty of a queen, both in person and in character, to the highest degree, and her wit and parts were so very extraordinary that they raised the admiration of all.' For in spite of its flamboyance, Christina's nature was founded upon rock. She had a fine brain, a fine strength and a fine energy. She was unfruitful, but she was undeniably great. She had glaring faults, the products, most of them, of the ill-assimilated divine right of kings, but she had certain virtues that were golden. Her honest and laborious attachment to letters, in an age full as any of the jargon and shallowness of dilettantism, was golden; her generosity and her sincerity were golden; her courage, that was impetuous, that was wrong-headed, that warred continually against her own comfort and interest, was, in a world that is destined always to know too little of it, purest gold.

Above: Kristina.

Ada Harrison's biography of Kristina, part 24

Source:

Christina of Sweden, pages 89 to 92, by Ada Harrison, 1929

https://books.google.com/books?id=xJvrtq4DCv0C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=memoires+concernant+christine+1760&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

Christina rubbed along in the pontificate of Clement X, but she came into open conflict with his successor, Innocent XI. Innocent was a puritanical Pope, a man of high personal principles, which he rigidly imposed on Rome. Under him the city enjoyed one of its periodical purifications. All expenditure was cut down; all frivolity was discountenanced. The theatre was frowned upon as a promoter of licence, paid performances were stopped and Innocent attempted to forbid women to appear at all upon the boards. Christina, threatened in her dearest pleasure, was instantly up in arms, especially since Innocent, as Cardinal Odescalchi, had often sat in her box at the theatre, and since she herself had introduced women upon the Roman stage. At her instigation paid performances were advertised as private, and every purging measure introduced by the Pope she either circumvented or defied. It is to be feared that her final occupation, which lasted intermittently up till the time of her death, was quarrelling with the Pope. Passages of arms were many. In 1682, Christina asked, not unreasonably, for theatrical performances during Carnival. This request was brusquely refused. She immediately arranged for the performance to be given in her own house. Innocent retaliated by having three of Christina's gentlemen arrested for whispering in church. His next move was the legitimate but cruel one of cutting off her pension of twelve thousand crowns, allowed her since the days of Alexander VII. Touched in this vital spot Christina still sounded her defiant note, but it was with a break in the voice. 'The twelve thousand crowns given me by the Pope was the single blot on my life', she wrote hysterically, 'the greatest mortification God could have inflicted for the humiliation of my pride. I see well that I am in favour with Him, since He has done me the singular grace of removing it.'

To Innocent's sumptuary laws about female dress, Christina responded with her tongue in her cheek. A ban having been published on décolletage, she appeared before him in a high-necked gown, coat and cravat, making the Roman ladies who saw her die of laughing. Whenever Christina had a request to make, Innocent snubbed it outright, and in the end definitely refused her audience. Whenever the Pope had an edict to issue for the good of his city, the stranger did her utmost to make it appear foolish.

Their most serious conflict, which was indeed no minor matter, was the so-called affair of the quarters. A scandal in Rome, much grown by use and negligence, was the asylum afforded to criminals in the privileged quarters. These had originally been the seats of the foreign representatives, but by now they had grown to be whole streets around the embassies. There was thus a substantial portion of the city outside the reach of justice.

Innocent set himself heroically to abolish these pestiferous neighbourhoods. When the determination was first published, Christina wrote, glowing with magnanimity and approval, to offer her support. 'Most Holy Father', ran her letter, 'in order to second the very pious views of Your Holiness, I voluntarily resign into your hands forever all those privileges which from the justice and politeness of your predecessors, as well as of your Holiness, I have enjoyed. ... I acknowledge that I offer nothing to your Holiness but what pertains to you. ... I neither expect nor desire from your Holiness any return.' But though the spirit was professed willing, the queenly flesh, when it came to the test, was weak. While driving through one of the quarters, Christina came upon the Pope's men in their purifying act. The criminal whom they were attempting to arrest escaped their clutches, and clung to the queen's carriage-wheels for sanctuary. Touched in her royal ego, Christina, as usual, suffered a mist before the eyes. The Pope's men attempted to do their duty. Christina, choking with indignation, ordered her gentlemen to fight them off. Without further preliminary the war was in full rage.

A species of Guelf and Ghibelline struggle ensued. Numerous acts of blood were committed by the troops and bravoes in the name of their superiors. As in the case of Alexander VII, Christina forgot her submission. 'If he be a Pope', she said, 'I will make him remember that I am a queen!' Her household were delighted to have a pretext for brawling, and rallied round her with enthusiasm. At one point, as a demonstration, she summoned them and dramatically dismissed them all, as having no power to protect them, whereat they all tearfully swore themselves back into her service. Christina was subject now not only to the Pope's stringent displeasure, but also to constant insults, mortifications and alarms, and yet, in spite of her wretchedness, she relished it all. Since infancy 'Engage!' had always been her motto, whatever the size of the adversary. She could not help loving a fight.

She loved it all the more now because she was growing old, and proof that she was still strong was becoming dear to her. To grow old was not an easy business for Christina. She was not like the rushes that bend. That fire of hers, always her most splendid quality, lasted with her, and she could not bear the thought of it burning low enough through physical failure. She dreaded not to die, but to decline.

'I have naturally a violent aversion to the thought of old age', she wrote to Mlle de Scudéry, 'and cannot imagine how I shall ever accustom myself to bear its infirmities. Was the choice of old age or death in my power, I think I should prefer the latter without hesitation; but since that is a point upon which we are never consulted[,] I study to make life as agreeable as I can.'

It could not honestly be said that she ever grew old. Her dauntlessness remained. She never sank to any moderation. She was 'perfectly well', she would protest, refusing to be otherwise, and flinging herself as ardently as ever into some new pursuit. She would vow every now and then that she had become a spectator at the feast of life, but she never for an instant meant it. Nor did her sentiments grow any quieter. Once, when Terlon, the French ambassador, had invited her opinion about the Huguenots, she had rushed to paper. 'I am rejoiced to deliver my sentiments on this important subject', she wrote. 'That I neither fear nor flatter any person living has always been my assertion.' To the end she rejoiced to deliver her sentiments without fear and particularly without flattery. In 1686 she was writing of Innocent IX: 'The Pope looks like a man of eighty, recovering from a bad illness. You can imagine that my joy would be great if he happened not to revive. But he is so little inclined to benefit the human race that he will give me this satisfaction as late as possible, and as he is lengthy in all his operations, he will not hurry to. ...!'

Innocent, in the end, did not give Christina this satisfaction at all. It turned out that she was obliged to give it him, a contingency never entertained by her confidence.

Above: Kristina.

Above: Pope Innocent XI.

Ada Harrison's biography of Kristina, part 23

Source:

Christina of Sweden, page 88, by Ada Harrison, 1929

https://books.google.com/books?id=xJvrtq4DCv0C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=memoires+concernant+christine+1760&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

But the queen's greatest enthusiasm in art seems to have been for medals, a passion not difficult to understand when we remember that all the medals she collected bore the head of Christina. She never missed an opportunity for having a medal struck. She employed Carlo Fontana and other first-rate workers in bronze, and so left us not only a variety of likenesses of herself but some fine works of art. She had a fancy for putting a cryptic design and inscription on the reverse, after the fashion of the academies with their mottoes and devices, and for setting scholars to guess her meaning. On one occasion she had MAKELOS engraved about a phoenix on the reverse of her usual portrait. This apparently Greek inscription baffled everybody until Christina revealed that it was nothing more than the Swedish for 'matchless.' The queen professed to hate flattery in her likenesses, but like every other member of her sex she submitted to it. A medal of the year 1681 compares curiously with a drawing of the same date. The medal shows her curled and triumphant, with something of the look of a Flavian empress. The drawing shows a little[,] lop-sided, uncorseted old woman in particularly unheroic costume.

'In 1681', the Baron de Bildt wrote of Christina, 'she was in her fifty-fifth year. In the seventeenth century folk aged quicker than they do to-day, and Christina was far from being well-preserved. She was a little old woman with short hair turning grey, a big nose and a double chin, slightly bearded. A plain skirt, a big blouse with a wide waistband placed low to support a fulness that now exceeded her height, a man's cravat and flat shoes — this was her ordinary costume.'

Above: Kristina.

Ada Harrison's biography of Kristina, part 22

Source:

Christina of Sweden, pages 85 to 88, by Ada Harrison, 1929

https://books.google.com/books?id=xJvrtq4DCv0C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=memoires+concernant+christine+1760&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

Like most people whose interest in writing is keen enough, Christina occasionally attempted it herself. She wrote, according to her time, her Maxims or Thoughts, a type of demi-literature not particularly attractive in itself, but preferable to its only alternative, occasional verse. Christina was no artist, but she was a sound wielder of the pen, and her Pensées have a certain fine flavour of strength and scorn. They are much concerned with princes, and vengeance, and loving and punishing. Christina's heroes of antiquity are introduced, and women and marriage occur naturally at a disadvantage. The moral thoughts are somewhat stereotyped, but every now and then she strikes off her own personal anvil a bright spark. Such a one is: 'There is no greater folly than to take too much care of health. It should be enjoyed and put to every test.' She made, too, a respectable comment upon Cicero: 'Cicero was the only coward in history capable of great things.'

But Christina's letters far excel in interest her studied writings. Her style is excellently clear and simple; her feelings were invariably so keen that they carried her along in vigorous flow. She was so little a respecter of persons that her invective is a constant source of liveliness. One could have as soon wrung a letter of pure compliment out of Christina as a gushingly feminine speech; and in letter-writing, as elsewhere, sincerity is sterling.

In the act of writing Christina preserved her customary atmosphere of rabid activity. She herself was indefatigable, and required that her secretaries should be the same. She made them copy and recopy for the slightest fault, and when some alteration of hers passed unnoticed, the manuscript would be returned once again with an admonishment in the margin: 'Ouvrez les yeux!' In literary matters, however, she did not insist on being invariably right. 'C'est moi qui suis une bête', she once apologised handsomely in the margin, 'pardonnez moi!' She wrote in French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Swedish and Latin. Her linguistic standard must have been high, for she always protested that she was not proficient to write in Italian, although she lived in Rome for thirty years and doubtless spoke the language freely. She wrote French most easily, as was natural to the age, but, in her private correspondence, not very correctly. Her caligraphy has the omissions and inexactitudes of a writer whose mind is too impetuous to be followed closely by the hand.

Christina read as zealously as she wrote. Those tall orders she issued to 'send me everything worth reading' were quite sincere. None of the books remained with uncut pages. She took this pleasure seriously and annotated profusely as she went. It is pathetic to think of the poor quality of much of her pabulum, and of the time she wasted upon the output of the Arcadians. A sumptuous and foolish little volume dedicated to Christina — 'How much more the beauty of the soul attracts than that of the body' — bears annotations in her swift, somewhat illegible hand, three to a page, amounting sometimes to almost as much matter as the text itself. 'Good! Very good! True! Well said! Not true! I don't believe it!' she painstakingly exclaims beside every sentiment; and once, when she is compared with Alexander to his detriment, 'It is not true, and I won't have it!' Though she could appreciate Plato and Pascal[,] she seemed unaware of the stupidity of this kind of literature. Perhaps the fact that she sponsored these talents did not admit of her finding fault with them.

Christina's interest in works of art, though keen, was rather less intelligent than her interest in books. She was here more of the collector than the lover, and she is said by her detractors to have allowed valuable pictures to be cut up to decorate her ceilings. She carried her enthusiasm for Italy and her distaste for Germany even into the world of art. 'I have an infinite number of pictures', she wrote before her abdication, 'but I set little store by any except the thirty or forty Italian masters. There are some by Albert Dürer and by other German masters whose names I don't know. Everyone but me thinks very highly of them, but I swear I would give them all for a couple of Raphaels, and still think I had done them an honour.' She did in the end succeed in acquiring two Raphaels and several Correggios. It was Sweden's good fortune that Christina did not care for the Germans, for in that gigantic flitting of hers in 1654, when she tried to transport all her valuables to Rome and had numbers of them stolen on the way, she left the Dutch and German masters at home to enrich the Swedish galleries.

Above: Kristina.

Ada Harrison's biography of Kristina, part 21

Source:

Christina of Sweden, pages 81 to 85, by Ada Harrison, 1929

https://books.google.com/books?id=xJvrtq4DCv0C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=memoires+concernant+christine+1760&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

Rome, for the moment, adequately suggested paradise. The return was cloudless. The amiable Clement IX was Pope, Azzolino was secretary of state, Christina would in all probably be Queen of Poland. The cordiality of the welcome home for once masked no ulterior sentiment. It was Christina's golden moment. Now[,] for the first time[,] she could see Rome as she had dreamed it in Sweden fifteen years ago. Charming company was at her call; there were music, pageants, dramatic representations galore, with no censorious Pope to forbid. The queen returned as Basilissa to grace her Academy, and had the gratification of seeing Clement himself become a member. Privately she made herself happy by establishing connections with half the learned men in Europe, and by spending long hours with Azzolino and their friend the Marquis of Palombara in the little distilleria or laboratory she had fitted up in her palace, pursuing the forbidden but irresistible delights of alchemy. She could fancy for the moment that all her hopes would be realised, and peering into a future made radiant to her optimism by the unusually fair present, could even dream of the tiara for her lover.

But the good time did not last. In 1660 [sic], the same year in which the new King of Poland was elected, Clement IX died. He, like Christina, had been a lover of Near Eastern schemes, and had actually put one into execution, and when this failed and the island of Cyprus was lost to the Turk, his distress was so great that it killed him. With Clement IX the halcyon days ended. But before, under his successor, old troubles were renewed, there was an interregnum of a kind particularly dear to Christina. This was the period of the conclave of Clement X.

Clement IX had been made Pope without the participation of Christina. This error was to be amply repaired in the election of Clement X. Christina was not a member of the sacred college, but was bound to one body and soul, and it was inevitable that she should be as busy as ten cardinals. The conclave was indeed a time of seething activity for all concerned. No sooner was the dead Pope buried than the Vatican resounded to the hammers and chisels of the five hundred masons, carpenters, and miscellaneous workmen who, under the direction of the artist Bernini, had to knock up the elaborate temporary accommodation of the conclave. Not only the cardinals had to be provided for, but a veritable army of confessors, doctors, chemists and lesser servants. At last the cells were ready, and the cardinals, attended by friends, dependants and hangers-on, filed in and drew lots for their icy winter-quarters. Christina was near Azzolino, taking from him, most likely, her last-minute instructions, and brilliantly dissembling their choice by remarking of him audibly: 'He is out of the question!' There was the usual cry of Extra Omnes, she wrung his hand for the last time, the doors were sealed up and the conclave began. To elect a Pope a two-thirds majority was necessary, and the voting was taken twice every day.

As soon as the conclave became imminent, Christina had taken for Azzolino the splendid palace of the Borgo Nuovo, which was inside the Vatican circuit, and thus allowed messengers to ply between it and the Vatican without a pass. From its garden Christina could see the windows of Azzolino's cell. She had herself a workroom fitted in the palace, and here she established herself to work, as usual, until she fainted at her post. She was henceforth, for the period of the conclave, transformed into a sensitive instrument picking up messages from all Rome and beyond, and relaying them in cipher to Azzolino at the rate of four long letters a day.

While Azzolino worked for his candidate with every subtle means inside the Vatican, Christina did likewise in the city. Many factions went to the making of a Pope. There were numerous well-defined parties among the cardinals themselves, and powerful outside influence was wielded by the Roman Catholic sovereigns. Christina occupied herself with these. Her candidate, Vidoni, was that of neither France nor Spain, but of the so-called Flying Squadron. She therefore set to work with the French and Spanish ambassadors, playing them off indefatigably against each other, in order to induce them both, by her own devious methods, to vote according to her choice. It was an exhausting game. 'If it please God[,] I have good news for you', she wrote to Azzolino, 'but I cannot give it you, for I can no more. I must eat a mouthful. Then I will write you.'

Meanwhile inside the Vatican they voted and voted again. Almost every cardinal's name came up, but none received the requisite number of votes. Azzolino excelled himself in industry and diplomacy, making coalitions with group after group. But in the end astuteness overshot its mark. When the conclave was over four months old the factions, without giving him a hint of their intentions, suddenly combined and elected Cardinal Altieri, who had never up till then been closely in the running. Azzolino was left completely in the cold.

Altieri received the news with sincerest anguish. He was eighty, and he prayed the cardinals with tears to let him be. But he was not allowed to make the great refusal. He was hailed Pope, and the doors were thrown open. Christina, in spite of her cruel disappointment and Azzolino's, was the first to kiss his foot, but she departed from her congratulations 'with so melancholy a mien that it was well known she was not pleased.' Still, the Pope was old. No doubt she was soon turning over in her mind whom next would she put on Peter's throne.

Clement X gave the lie to expectations by living for seven years. He was no friend to Christina, and during his pontificate she put aside her larger schemes and turned to art and letters once again. In these pursuits her better side was uppermost. Her generosity, strong as ever, showed to advantage with her literary friends. She educated the sons of Vi[n]cenzo Filicaia, one of the poets of the period who have not stood the test of time, and was as eager as ever to help poor men of talent. Carini, who wrote the history of the Arcadia, into which her little Accademia Reale grew, said of her: 'There was not a mendicant who was not lifted out of his misery, nor a man of letters she did not heap with honours and gifts.' Any poor Swedes whom she met in Rome were certain of the same treatment. A kinsman of hers discovered in rags was recognised, rescued and started again in life. A poor Swede, called Struzzen[s]kiöld, who asked her charity, was given a place in her guard, on condition that he changed his name because the queen could not pronounce it. She looked upon herself as the particular protector of the Swedes who had become Roman Catholics and had had their goods confiscated at home. It was for these charitable purposes that she most hated to lack money: 'My will is not wanting', she said. 'It is money I lack. If God gives it to me I will give it to others.'

But men of talent had a particular claim on her. To them she could be tolerant, and from them she could even brook offences. This she showed in her dealings with Bayle, who declared that a letter she wrote in defence of the Huguenots was a 'fragment of protestantism'. Christina was furious, but when he wrote to ask pardon she granted it readily, only requiring him, as a penance, to send her his own journal and everything in Latin, French or Spanish that was worth reading. But even men of genius must observe certain rules. 'I would have joyfully accepted the Atlantides', she wrote over the question of a dedication, 'if Rubtevius had dedicated the first volume to me, but his idea of dedicating the second volume to me is not honourable. As he has addressed the first to the Emperor, the second must not and cannot be addressed to me. Therefore tell him from me to save my name for another work, which I shall be glad to receive. I am sorry the idea did not occur to him at first, because this excellent book should by rights belong to me.' The divine right of Christina, after so much battering, remained quite unimpaired.

Above: Kristina.

Above: Pope Clement IX.

Above: Pope Clement X.

Above: Cardinal Decio Azzolino.

Ada Harrison's biography of Kristina, part 20

Source:

Christina of Sweden, pages 78 to 81, by Ada Harrison, 1929

https://books.google.com/books?id=xJvrtq4DCv0C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=memoires+concernant+christine+1760&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

The unproductive wrangles with Sweden were resumed, Azzolino's coldness increased, and, Poland appearing remotely on the horizon, Christina flung herself towards it. The campaign was almost burlesque. What she would have done with Poland, or Poland with her, had they fallen to each other, it is impossible to guess. She bid for it out of weariness, and out of her unreflecting habit of crying, 'I want! I want!' without giving a thought to what she would do if she got what she wanted.

The Polish throne became vacant through the King, Jean Casimir, Christina's cousin and last scion of the house of Vasa, abdicating in 1667. The Pope had discouraged him, but Louis XIV, with an idea at the back of his mind of settling Condé on the Polish throne, made him valuable offers if he would abdicate before 1668. Casimir accepted, and the elective throne becoming vacant, the idea of exploiting the Vasa cousinship flashed into the minds of the queen and Azzolino. The Cardinal was immensely enthusiastic about the plan, and began at once working hard for it. Perhaps it seemed to him a solution of what he should do with Christina.

Besides Condé and the queen there were three other aspirants to the throne, the Duke of Neuborg [sic], Charles of Lorraine, and the son of the Tsar of Russia. Christina looked to come in on a split vote. The successful candidate did as a matter of fact come in on a split vote; but it was not Christina.

The queen's first step was to apply to the Pope for approval. Clement IX, whose interest was only that no non-catholic should occupy the throne, had already approved two of the candidates, and saw no reason why he should not approve a third. Armed with this important weapon, she flung herself into the campaign. She and Azzolino began addressing the Polish electors. Christina had put forward her celibacy as a plea for the Pope's approval. Azzolino, deluded by his enthusiasm to be rid of her, assured the Poles that she would marry, and practically guaranteed children. The queen was forty-two, but the Cardinal, in a passage that seems to prove their relationship, writes that one of so ardent a temperament was certain to have issue.

Under the stimulus of an object in life, Christina's spirits rose. She sat on in Hamburg pouring out a spate of letters and disposing merrily of the other candidates. Everything about the Duke of Neuborg [sic], was, as usual, sot, especially his ambassador and the fact that his Duchess could speak only German, a language unknown to the Polish ladies. Also 'the Poles have a fearful hatred and antipathy to the Germans, in which I sympathise with them.' Condé, the erstwhile hero, was denounced as too bloody a man for the position. Besides, 'I think that the French are out in their reckoning, for I believe that the Poles would never take a Frenchman. They fear and hate them too much.' It was obvious that the Poles could choose nothing but a Swede, especially a Swede with the credentials of Christina. 'I governed the Swedes for ten years after my minority', she declared to the electors, 'with more absolute power than any of my predecessors, and at this hour am adored, feared and regretted in that kingdom. ... Do the exigencies of the republic demand my appearance at the head of the army? I shall fly with joy to lead her troops to victory.'

Speculations followed on the possibilities of a readjustment in Europe. After a couple of years on the Polish throne, Christina would put in motion her scheme for the Powers' ousting the Turk. It occurred to her that she had better get back to Rome, where she could not only see the Cardinal, but also make her preparations. We do not hear of her ordering new liveries for her suite as she did preparatory to becoming Queen of Naples, but she did write that she wished to be in a place where she could receive the honour of her election 'avec décence.'

Carried along by this tide, she suddenly sees herself in Poland, and her heart faints at the prospect. She will be inconsolable for Rome. What shall she do in a country of which she knows neither the language nor the customs? The only remedy will be for Azzolino to become polacco as well. What, seriously, does he think of that?

But she distressed herself needlessly. Maresciotti [sic], Christina's agent, who prided himself on seizing the moment, decided at a certain point to confide to the Bishop of Posnania, who was the most influential elector, the Pope's choice. The Bishop was agog to hear it. The meeting was arranged[,] and Maresciotti whispered in his ear. On hearing Christina's name the Bishop started back, crossed himself, and begged Maresciotti not to mention it again for fear of being howled down by universal laughter. Christina's Polish campaign was at an end.

She was back in Rome, however, before she heard of its collapse. Prompted by desire, she found that her affairs at last were in order; more, she was 'leaving in glory after having adjusted everything.' She had, at any rate, she protested, becoming pathetically literal, settled everything in a way that would suit Azzolino. Every place, when the time came to leave it, customarily became odious to Christina, but Hamburg had borne that character almost ever since she had set foot in it, two years ago. 'I am leaving this place at last', she wrote, 'with the joy that souls must feel on leaving purgatory — and I hope here to have worked off part of mine.'

Above: Kristina.

Above: Cardinal Decio Azzolino.

Ada Harrison's biography of Kristina, part 19

Source:

Christina of Sweden, pages 74 to 78, by Ada Harrison, 1929

https://books.google.com/books?id=xJvrtq4DCv0C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=memoires+concernant+christine+1760&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The biography:

The Polish scheme was marvellous, even for Christina. We can only conclude that Hamburg had driven her to it. The year 1666, which she passed at Hamburg, might have driven her to anything. She met only one congenial soul in the city, and that was the aged general Wrangel, a survivor from the days of Gustavus Adolphus, who loved a battlefield better than anything on earth, and treated the Lion's daughter as the most royal of queens. Otherwise she had only the Germans. Christina was driven to giving them and their still duller ladies a banquet, but they did not brighten. To add to her sense of isolation and impotence, she learned that Alexander VII was dangerously ill at Rome. There was a likelihood of a conclave, in which Azzolino would have a vote, and would badly need her assistance. It was unthinkable that a Pope could be made without Christina.

She participated feverishly by post, and as a result of her renewed intimacies with Louis XIV, fell into worse odour than ever with the regents of Sweden. In any case[,] her affairs at home went badly. The Senate refused to recognise her religion, which was one of her chief points, and on top of that news she learnt that Stropp, her agent, had lent two thousand écus of her precarious money to Magnus de la Gardie. She was helplessly furious. To repair her finances she sold her three islands, Gothold [sic], Ösel, and Öland, to two speculators. She implored her agent to get more money than was offered, but in the end was compelled to give in about the price, so imperative was it for her to have a solid sum under her hand. All the time she wrote letters indefatigably, having to use for almost all of them a laborious figure-cipher and for those to Azzolino a special cipher which for secrecy's sake she had to transcribe herself. It was no wonder that with it all, and with Azzolino's coldness[,] she fell ill. By August, 1666, she is complaining, in the midst of her close work, of migraine and fever, of mal de tête and mal de l'estomac, and is submitting unhopefully to being bled.

It was at this moment, and in this frame of mind and body, that Christina took up her pen to write her Memoirs. 'Ce que Vous êtes et ce que je suis m'y oblige', she begins, companionably addressing God. God occurs plentifully in the preface, but chiefly to demonstrate that to no one of lower rank could Christina make her dedication and give her confidence. She casts herself upon God's bosom, but in her own peculiarly unreligious way. It is to be a matter of mutual deference. And as usual the banner of her own glory is kept floating high. 'Permettez-moi, Seigneur', she astonishingly remarks, 'd'admirer toutes Vos dispositions sur moi!' There is something heroic about it. God's dispositions over her were at that moment so peculiarly wretched. But it was always by this fallacy that Christina pulled through.

This Memoir, which also was begun at Azzolino's instance, did not get very far. It takes Christina to the end of her childhood; then, after a preliminary dissertation on the inability of women (in general) to govern, it breaks off. It is unfortunate, for it would be fascinating to have Christina's account, made in the conviction of unbiassed [sic] honesty, of her mature and responsible self.

From Hamburg she resumed relations with two of her early friends, Vossius the scholar, and Bourdelot. Vossius was commanded to write the history of her reign.

'I have remarked', she wrote to him, 'that either ignorance or envy has taken the pleasure to conceal or obscure the greatest and most splendid actions of my reign. You have been an ocular witness of its unparalleled felicity; of you therefore I require reparation in the name of truth, to which every historian ought to render homage. I request only a simple detail of facts. This cannot be suspected of partiality, because all the world knows that the present calamities of Sweden have reduced me to a situation in which I am incapable of paying the price of incense.'

She wrote to Bourdelot thanking him for sending her books:

'The perplexity of my affairs confines me here at Hamburg, this winter; the only consolation to be expected is letters from Rome and books from France. The transfusion of the blood seems a wonderfully ingenious hypothesis; but I should not care to try the experiment, for fear of degenerating into a mere animal; in case of such a metamorphosis a lion would be my choice. ... I am pretty well in health, and make a jest of physic and physicians, but to enjoy it in a state of perfection my sovereign remedy is to breath[e] the air of Rome.'

Yet in Spring, 1667, writing to thank Azzolino for his kind expressions, 'si je les pouvais croire!' she offers to please him by staying out of his sight in Sweden, when she gets there, for three years.

In May, after exchanging some bitter letters with her 'brother and nephew', the little King, and refusing a handsome annuity from the Senate in the justifiable belief that it would not be paid, she did actually arrive in Sweden. As soon as she crossed the frontier[,] she was ordered to dismiss her chaplain. She wrote a furious letter and was for leaving at once, but was persuaded to wait for an answer, which[,] when it arrived[,] was an uncompromising negative. If she wished to worship, she could go to the French Embassy, but as a simple visit. Christina go to the Embassy! 'If Pomponne [French Ambassador in her time] had proposed such a thing, I would have had him beaten.' But there was no help for her. Stung by her unsuccess, she pursued her usual course of threatening and insulting all round. She told de la Gardie 'all she thought worthy of herself and her spirit', and having remarked, as a final shaft, that if the King should die[,] she would have a word to say about the succession, she left on June 4th. 'I thank God', she observed on her retreat while her vituperations still echoed over Sweden, 'that I have not allowed myself to be carried away by anger, and have done myself no wrong.'

This visit finally ruined her country in her eyes. When years later she sent her gentleman, Del Monte, into Sweden on her business, she warned him what he might expect.

'You are going into a country where you must trust neither what you see with your eyes nor touch with your hands. To everything that you hear, good or evil, praise or scorn, give no heed. Be on your guard in everything, and never enter into other folks' affairs. If you do[,] you will fling yourself into an abyss from which there is no escape, and where they will let you die like a dog.'

Back in Hamburg she received one good piece of news. This was that Clement IX, her candidate and Azzolino's, had been elected Pope in place of Alexander VII. She celebrated the occasion, before the eyes of Protestant Hamburg, by illuminations, rockets, and a tasteful set-piece of fireworks depicting the Church trampling heresy underfoot. There was a pontifical mass, punctuated by cannon, a banquet and free wine. The Hamburgers bore it all with ominous quietness. Finally, having nursed their wrath for hours under Christina's windows, they let it explode. There was riot and bloodshed, and the festive cannon were used as instruments of death. Of this affair she wrote: 'It is only in the holy city that decent people can pass their lives. ... Is it not strange that the queen cannot give a party without running the risk of being murdered in her own house?'[,] a passage which shows that her adopted religion was one of the few subjects which moved her to open dishonesty.

Above: Kristina.

Above: Cardinal Decio Azzolino.

Note: The autobiography quoted here is Kristina's most well-known attempt, written in 1681; the version she wrote in the late 1660s is sadly not known to still exist.

Louis-Prosper Gachard on a letter of August 12/22 (New Style), 1654 from Philippe Chifflet, the Abbé de Balerne, to his nephew Jules Chifflet on Kristina's arrival and stay in Brussels (actually it was Antwerp), report dated March 28, 1844

Sources:

Rapport de M. Gachard sur ses recherches en Espagne, report written by Louis-Prosper Gachard for Compte-rendu des séances de la Commission royale d'histoire, ou recueil de ses bulletins, volume 9, page 288, 1845

https://books.google.com/books?id=wsZJAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=gachard+recherches+en+espagne&source=gbs_navlinks_s

La reine Christine de Suède à Anvers et Bruxelles 1654-1655, page 4, by Carl Johan Reinhold Burenstam, 1891

https://archive.org/details/8T150NOR/page/n13/mode/2up

L'ancien Palais de Bruxelles et de ses hôtes princiers, article written by Edmond Marchal for Bulletins de la classe des lettres et des sciences morales et politiques et de la classe des beaux-arts, pages 692 to 693, published by the Belgian Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Art, 1905

https://books.google.com/books?id=aLY6AAAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=Philippe+Chifflet+lettre+22+ao%C3%BBt+1655&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The account:

... Une lettre qu'écrivait de Bruxelles, le 22 août 1654, l'abbé de Balerne à Jules Chifflet, chancelier de la Toison d'Or, son neveu, sur l'arrivée et le séjour en cette ville [sic] de la reine Christine de Suède. On y lit, entre autres particularités, que la reine parlait très-bien le français; qu'elle jouait au billard et au mail avec une adresse merveilleuse; qu'elle était d'une vivacité telle, qu'elle ne pouvait rester longtemps dans le même endroit, et que, dans la conversation, on avait de la peine à la suivre. Une des choses qui frappèrent aussi l'abbé, fut que, quoiqu'étant d'une petite taille, Christine portât les souliers très-bas.

Swedish translation (my own):

... Ett brev skrivet från Bryssel den 22 augusti 1654 av abbéen av Balerne till Jules Chifflet, kanslern för det gyllene skinnet, hans nevö, om ankomsten och vistelsen i denna stad [sic] av drottning Kristina av Sverige. Man läser där bland annat att drottningen talade franska mycket väl; att hon spelade biljard och malj med fantastisk skicklighet; att hon var så livlig att hon inte kunde stanna länge på samma ställe och att det i samtalet var svårt att följa henne. En av de saker som också frapperade abbén var att Kristina, fastän hon var liten, bar sina skor väldigt lågt.

English translation (my own):

... A letter written from Brussels on August 22, 1654, by the Abbé of Balerne to Jules Chifflet, Chancellor of the Golden Fleece, his nephew, on the arrival and stay in this city [sic] of Queen Kristina of Sweden. One reads there, among other particulars, that the Queen spoke French very well; that she played billiards and mall with marvelous skill; that she was of such vivacity that she could not stay long in the same place, and that, in conversation, it was difficult to follow her. One of the things that also struck the Abbé was that, although she was small, Kristina wore her shoes very low.

Above: Kristina.

Above: Louis-Prosper Gachard.

Note: the mall = pall mall, a 17th century game in which a ball was driven along an alley and through a hoop using a mallet.

Kristina's open letter for the burghers in Norrköping, dated April 8/18 (Old Style), 1661

Source:

Riksarkivet, page 231 in K 89; Utgångna och ingångna skrivelser; Drottning Kristina d. y. (Christina Alexandra); Svenska drottningars arkivaliesamlingar i riksarkivet; Kungliga arkiv

https://sok.riksarkivet.se/nad?postid=Arkis+6fd2562f-1eb6-4fa4-90be-b830f4d5eb53&s=Balder

The letter (copy):

Christina Alexandra.

Giöre witterligen, deth Wij af serdeeles Gunst och Nådhe, som och i betrachtande till Wåre Vndersåthares bettre förkåfring i Wår Stadh Norköping, Nådigst hafwe förvndt och effterlåtit, som Wij och hermedh i krafft af detta Wårt öpne bref, vppå een Oß behageligh tidh, förvnne och bewillie, deth all inkommande Spanmåhl, skall för Lille Tullens erleggiande, alldeeles wara fri och okrafd; Och fördhenskuldh befalle Wij alle som wederböre, och Oß medh hörsamheet och lÿdno förplichtade äre, Men i sÿnnerheet Wår Jnspector öfwer bemellte Lille Landt Tull, Sigh dhenna Wår Nådige bewillningh till rättelse att stella, på deth såledhes Wåre Vndersåthare i Norköpingh, detta behagelige tidz beneficium, oturberadhe åthniuta måge: Doch skole likwäl Wåre Tullnerer Hersammastedhes serdeeles noga acht hafwa låtha, att ingen Spanmåhl anten till Landz eller wattns herifrån må igen afgå och vthskeppas, medh mindre Oß tillförnde, effter Ordinantiens innehåldh, all wederbörligh Licent eller Tull dervthaf fullkombligen är præsterat och betalt worden: Doch Allmeena borgerskapets A:o 1660 den 8. Martij i Götheborgh erhåldne Resolution oförkränkt. Till ÿttermehra wisso, hafwe Wij detta egenhändigen vnderskrifwit, och medh Wårt Kongl. Secret bekräfftat. Datum Norköping den 8. Aprilis 1661 ./.

Christina Alexandra.

J: Stropp.

With modernised spelling:

Kristina Alexandra.

Göre veterligen det Vi av särdeles gunst och nåde, som ock i betraktande till Våra undersåtares bättre förkovring i Vår Stad Norrköping nådigst have förunt och efterlåtit, som Vi ock härmed i kraft av detta Vårt öppna brev uppå en oss behaglig tid förunne och bevilje det all inkommande spannmål skall för lilla tullens erläggande alldeles vara fri och okravd; och fördenskull befalle Vi alla som vederböra och Oss med hörsamhet och lydno förpliktade äro, men i synnerhet Vår inspektör över bemälte lilla landtull, sig denna Vår nådiga bevillning till rättelse att ställa, på det således Våra undersåtare i Norrköping detta behagliga tids beneficium oturberade åtnjuta måge.

Dock skola likväl Våra tullnarer härsammastädes särdeles noga akt hava låta att ingen spannmål anten till lands eller vattens härifrån må igen avgå och utskeppas, med mindre Oss tillförne, efter ordinantiens innehåll, all vederbörlig licent eller tull därutav fullkomligen är presterad och betalt vorden; dock allmänna borgerskapets anno 1660 den 8 martii i Göteborg erhållna resolution oförkränkt. Till yttermera visso have Vi detta egenhändigen underskrivit och med Vårt Kungliga Sekret bekräftat. Datum Norrköping, den 8 aprilis 1661.

Kristina Alexandra.

J. Stropp.

French translation (my own):

Christine Alexandra.

Nous faisons savoir que par faveur et grâce spéciales, comme Nous l'avons aussi très gracieusement accordé et permis pour le meilleur avancement de Nos sujets dans Notre Ville de Norrköping, comme Nous accordons et permettons aussi par la présente, par le pouvoir de Notre lettre ouverte, à un moment qui Nous convient, que tout le grain entrant sera complètement libre et exempté du paiement de petits droits de douane; et pour cette raison, Nous ordonnons à tous ceux qui sont en autorité et qui sont obligés de Nous obéir, mais en particulier à Notre inspecteur desdits petits droits de douane terrestres, de mettre cette gracieuse concession en vigueur, afin que Nos sujets à Norrköping puissent profiter du bénéfice de ce moment opportun sans entrave.

Toutefois, Nos douaniers veilleront particulièrement à ce qu'aucun grain, transporté par voie terrestre ou maritime, ne quitte le pays et ne soit réexpédié sans que, conformément au texte de l'ordonnance, tous les droits de licence et autres taxes y afférents n'aient été intégralement acquittés. La résolution du conseil municipal, reçue à Gothembourg le 8 mars 1660, demeure toutefois intacte. En foi de quoi, Nous avons signé ce document de Notre main et l'avons confirmé par Notre Sceau Royal. Fait à Norrköping, le 8 avril 1661.

Christine Alexandra.

J. Stropp.

English translation (my own):

Kristina Alexandra.

We make known that out of special favour and grace, as we have also most graciously granted and permitted for the better advancement of our subjects in our City of Norrköping, as we also hereby grant and permit, by the power of this our open letter, at a time convenient to us, that all incoming grain shall be completely free and exempt from the payment of small customs duties; and for this reason we command all who are in authority and who are obliged with obedience to us, but particularly our inspector of the said small land customs duties, to put this our gracious grant into effect, so that our subjects in Norrköping may enjoy the benefit of this convenient time without hindrance.

However, our customs officers here shall take special care that no grain, either by land or water, shall depart and be shipped from here again unless, according to the contents of the ordinance, all due license or duty thereon has been fully paid and paid; however, the resolution of the general burgherdom received in Gothenburg on March 8, 1660 remains intact. For further assurance, we have signed this with our own hand and confirmed it with our royal seal. Given at Norrköping, April 8, 1661.

Kristina Alexandra.

J. Stropp.

Above: Kristina.

Kristina's open letter to Seved Bååth for Professor Johan Scheffer (Johannes Schefferus), dated April 8/18 (Old Style), 1661

Source:

Riksarkivet, page 230/231 in K 89; Utgångna och ingångna skrivelser; Drottning Kristina d. y. (Christina Alexandra); Svenska drottningars arkivaliesamlingar i riksarkivet; Kungliga arkiv

https://sok.riksarkivet.se/nad?postid=Arkis+6fd2562f-1eb6-4fa4-90be-b830f4d5eb53&s=Balder

The letter (copy):

Christina Alexandra.

Efftersåsom troo Man och Skattmästaren General Gouverneur Wälborne Her Sevedh Bååth, Wij Gunsteligen hafwa bewilliat Professoren Her Johan Schäffer, att af Wåre innestående Restantier vthi Provintzierne bekomma Femton Hundrade dahler Sölfwermÿnt, på deth, deth af Oß, Honom Committerade Arbete, så mÿkit för må förfärdigas, och till ändskap bringas; Alltså begäre Wij af Eder Nådeligen, deth J bem:te Summa af 1500 D:r SölfwerM:t Honom Professoren Schäffer, eller dhes Fullmächtige af berörde Restantier, och effter handen afföllia och Contentera låthe; Befallandes Eder i deth öfrige Gudz trogne beskÿdd, Nådeligen. Norköpingh den 8. Aprilis A:o 1661 ./.

Christina Alexandra.

J: Stropp

With modernised spelling:

Kristina Alexandra.

Eftersåsom, tro man och skattmästaren, generalguvernör, välborne herr Seved Bååth, Vi gunstligen have beviljat professoren herr Johan Scheffer att av Våra innestående restantier uti provinsierna bekomma femtonhundrade daler silvermynt, på det det av Oss honom kommitterade arbete så mycket förr må förfärdigas och till ändskap bringas, alltså begäre Vi av Eder nådeligen det I bemälte summa av 1,500 daler silvermynt honom professoren Scheffer eller dess fullmäktiga av berörda restantier och efter handen avfölja och kontentera låte, befallandes Eder i det övriga Guds trogna beskydd nådeligen. Norrköping, den 8 aprilis anno 1661.

Kristina Alexandra.

J. Stropp.

French translation (my own):

Christine Alexandra.

Parce que, féal homme et trésorier, gouverneur général, le bien né seigneur Seved Bååth, Nous avons favorablement accordé au professeur Jean Scheffer de recevoir quinze cents dalers de pièces d'argent provenant de Nos soldes impayés dans les provinces, afin que le travail que Nous lui avons confié puisse être achevé et mené à terme au plus tôt, Nous désirons donc gracieusement que vous fassiez payer au professeur Scheffer ou à son plénipotentiaire la somme de mille cinq cents dalers de pièces d'argent provenant desdits soldes et que vous les leur fassiez livrer et les contenter, vous recommandant pour le reste à la fidèle protection de Dieu. Norrköping, le 8 avril 1661.

Christine Alexandra.

J. Stropp.

English translation (my own):

Kristina Alexandra.

Whereas, faithful man and treasurer, governor general, well-born Lord Seved Bååth, We have favourably granted Professor Johan Scheffer to receive fifteen hundred dalers of silver coins from Our outstanding balances in the provinces, so that the work entrusted to him by Us may be completed and brought to an end as soon as possible, We therefore graciously desire that you let Professor Scheffer or his plenipotentiary be paid the sum of 1,500 dalers of silver coins from the said balances and to let deliver them be delivered to them and to content them, commending you for the rest to God's faithful protection. Norrköping, April 8, 1661.

Kristina Alexandra.

J. Stropp.

Above: Kristina.

Above: Seved Bååth.

Kristina's open letter for the chaplain Daniel Folcherus, dated April 6/16 (Old Style), 1661

Source:

Riksarkivet, page 230 in K 89; Utgångna och ingångna skrivelser; Drottning Kristina d. y. (Christina Alexandra); Svenska drottningars arkivaliesamlingar i riksarkivet; Kungliga arkiv

https://sok.riksarkivet.se/nad?postid=Arkis+6fd2562f-1eb6-4fa4-90be-b830f4d5eb53&s=Balder

The letter (copy):

Christina Alexandra.

Giöre witterligen, Deth Wij af serdeeles benägenheet, och för wiße skiähl och orsaker skuldh, Nådigst hafwe efftergifwit och bewilliat, som Wij och, förmedelst detta Wårt öpne brefs krafft förunne och bewillie Cappellanen her i Norköping Hederligh och wällärdhe Daniel Folcherus, att nÿttia och Åbo Sine begge Tompter, dhen eene wedh Stoore Gatun, som går åth Söder TullPort, vthi Hörnet geentemot Rådhmannen Hans Pederson dhen Elldres, och dhen andre Kåhlgårdz Tompten emellan begge Twärgaturne i samma quartall belegen, fri för Tomptören, och all annor afgifft i Sin och Sin Hustrus Lifstidh; Och fördhenskuldh befalles alle som wederbör, i sÿnnerheet Börgemestare och Rådh Her i Wår Stadh Norköping Nådeligen, deth dhe Honom Daniel folcherum och Hans Hustru på ofwanskrefne sätt, dhenna Wår Nådige bewillningh åthniuta låta, Heriempte af Wår General Gouverneur begärandes, deth å Wåre wegnar Han Honom, Herwidh werkeligen maintenerer och handhafwer. Till ÿttermehra wisso etc. etc. Datum Norköping den 6. Aprilis A:o 1661 ./.

Christina Alexandra

J: Stropp

With modernised spelling:

Kristina Alexandra.

Göre veterligen det Vi av särdeles benägenhet och för vissa skäl och orsakers skull nådigst have eftergivit och beviljat, som Vi ock förmedelst detta Vårt öppna brevs kraft förunne och bevilje kapellanen här i Norrköping, hederlig och vällärde Daniel Folcherus, att nyttja och åbo sina bägge tomter, den ena vid Stora Gatan, som går åt söder tullport uti hörnet gentemot rådmannen Hans Pedersson den äldres, och den andra Kålgårds tomten emellan bägge tvärgatorna i samma kvartal belägen, fri för tomtören och all annor avgift i sin och sin hustrus livstid; och fördenskull befalles alla som vederbör[a], i synnerhet borgmästare och Råd här i Vår Stad Norrköping nådeligen det de honom Daniel Folcherum och hans hustru på ovanskrivna sätt denna Vår nådiga bevillning åtnjuta låte, härjämte av Vår generalguvernör begärandes det å Våra vägnar han honom härvid verkligen maintenerar och handhaver. Till yttermera visso, etc., etc. Datum Norrköping, den 6 aprilis anno 1661.

Kristina Alexandra.

J. Stropp.

French translation (my own):

Christine Alexandra.

Nous faisons savoir que par inclination particulière, et pour certaines raisons et causes, Nous avons très gracieusement accordé et conféré, comme Nous aussi, par le pouvoir de cette Notre lettre ouverte, accordons et conférons à l'aumônier ici à Norrköping, l'honorable et savant Daniel Folcherus, d'utiliser et d'occuper ses deux parcelles, l'une sur Stora Gatan, qui s'étend au sud de la porte des douanes dans le coin en face du conseiller Hans Pedersson l'Ancien, et l'autre la parcelle Kålgård entre les deux rues transversales dans le même quartier, libre de l'impôt foncier et de tous autres frais pendant sa vie et celle de sa femme; et par conséquent, tous ceux qui sont en autorité, en particulier le bourguemaître et le Conseil ici dans Notre Ville de Norrköping, sont gracieusement commandés de permettre à Daniel Folcherus et à sa femme de profiter de cette Notre gracieuse concession de la manière écrite ci-dessus, Nous désirons que Notre gouverneur général l'entretienne véritablement en Notre nom. En foi de quoi, etc., etc. Donné à Norrköping, le 6 avril 1661.

Christine Alexandra.

J. Stropp.

English translation (my own):

Kristina Alexandra.

We make known that out of particular inclination, and for certain reasons and causes, We have most graciously granted and bestowed, as We also, by the power of this Our open letter, do grant and bestow the chaplain here in Norrköping, the honourable and well-learned Daniel Folcherus, to use and occupy both of his plots, one on Stora Gatan, which runs south of the customs gate in the corner opposite the councilman Hans Pedersson the Elder, and the other the Kålgård plot between both cross streets in the same quarter, free from land tax and all other fees during his and his wife's lifetime; and therefore all who are in authority, particularly the Mayor and Council here in our City of Norrköping, are graciously commanded to allow Daniel Folcherus and his wife to enjoy this Our gracious grant in the manner above written, We desiring of Our governor general that on Our behalf he truly maintain him. For further assurance, etc., etc. Given at Norrköping, April 6, 1661.

Kristina Alexandra.

J. Stropp.

Above: Kristina.

Kristina's open letter for Louis de Geer the Younger and Johan de Geer, dated April 6/16 (Old Style), 1661

Source:

Riksarkivet, page 229 in K 89; Utgångna och ingångna skrivelser; Drottning Kristina d. y. (Christina Alexandra); Svenska drottningars arkivaliesamlingar i riksarkivet; Kungliga arkiv

https://sok.riksarkivet.se/nad?postid=Arkis+6fd2562f-1eb6-4fa4-90be-b830f4d5eb53&s=Balder

The letter (copy):

Christina Alexandra.

Giöre witterligen, Hurulunda Wij till Brukewerkets hersammastedhes desto bettre framgångh och förkåfringh hafwe vppå een Oß behageligh tidh Gunsteligen förvndt och Concederat, att allt deth Messingswerke som widh Wäll. De Geerernes bruk her i Norköping i detta Åhr och framgeent anferdigas och vthskeppas, skall vthi SiöTullen, anten bem:te Godz på fritt: Halfft fritt eller ofridt Skepp, inlastat och afsendt wardher, niuta Twå och een Tridie dheels Rikzdahler på Hwart Skeppundh lindringh, och såledhes allenast bethala till Oß eller Wår Tullner, Halfwa Parten af dhen förhögningh, som A:o 1658. vppå Swenske Skepp är Messingen tillsatt worden: Doch skohle bem:te de Geerer, eller dhe som å dher[as] wegnar brukat hersammastedhes förrestå och drifwa, deremot Obligerat wara, bem:te Werk medh een sådan flit och ifwer att föresättia, deth Wij vthi Wåre wanlige Jntrader, förmedelst dhenna efftergifft och bewillningh icke måge lida någen afgångh, vthan mÿkit mehra bruket såledhes excoleras, att mÿkenheeten af Tillwerkadhe Messings Arbete, må kunna Oß dhen afsaknat igen vpfÿlla: befallandes Wij heriempte Wår General Gouverneur Cammareraren och Tullner i Norköping, Nådeligen och Alfwarligen, deth dhe dhenna Wår förordning Sigh i alla måtto till effterrättelse stella, låthandes dhensamma Sin wederbörlige framgångh winna, effter sådant medh Wår Nådige willie och meeningh öfwereens kommer. Till ÿttermehra wisso. Datum Norköping den 6. Aprill 1661 ./.

Christina Alexandra

J: Stropp

With modernised spelling:

Kristina Alexandra.

Göre veterligen hurulunda Vi till brukverkets härsammastädes desto bättre framgång och förkovring have uppå en Oss behaglig tid gunstligen förunt och koncederat att allt det mässingsvärke som vid väl de Geerernas bruk här i Norrköping i detta år och framgent anfärdigas och utskeppas skall uti sjötullen, anten bemälte gods på fritt, halvt fritt eller ofritt skepp inlastat och avsänt varder njuta två och en tredjedels riksdaler på vart skeppund lindring och således allenast betala till Oss eller Vår tullnare halva parten av den förhöjning som anno 1658 uppå svenska skepp är mässingen tillsatt vorden.

Dock skola bemälte de Geerer eller de som å der[as] vägnar brukat härsammastädes förestå och driva, däremot obligerade vara, bemälte värke med en sådan flit och iver att föresätta det Vi uti Våra vanliga intrader förmedelst denna eftergift och bevillning icke måge lida någon avgång, utan mycket mera bruket således exkoleras att myckenheten av tillverkade mässingsarbete må kunna Oss den avsaknad igen uppfylla, befallandes Vi härjämte Vår generalguvernör, kammareraren och tullnare i Norrköping nådeligen och allvarligen det de denna Vår förordning sig i alla måtto till efterrättelse ställe, låtandes densamma sin vederbörliga framgång vinna, efter sådant med Vår nådiga vilje och mening överenskommer. Till yttermera visso [etc.]. Datum Norrköping, den 6 april 1661.

Kristina Alexandra.

J. Stropp.

French translation (my own):

Christine Alexandra.

Nous faisons savoir que pour le meilleur succès et le progrès des usines de laiton, Nous avons, à un moment qui Nous convient, favorablement accordé et concédé que toute la dinanderie fabriquée et expédiée à l'usine de laiton de Geers ici à Norrköping cette année et à l'avenir bénéficiera d'une exonération de deux et un tiers de riksdalers sur chaque chargement de navire des douanes maritimes, qu'il s'agisse de fret chargé sur un navire libre, demi-libre ou non libre, et ne paiera ainsi à Nous ou à Notre agent des douanes que la moitié de l'augmentation qui a été ajoutée au laiton en 1658 sur les navires suédois.

Toutefois, les de Geers, ou ceux qui ont été chargés de gérer et d'opérer en leur nom, sont tenus d'être dirigés avec diligence et zèle afin que, dans Nos pratiques habituelles, grâce à cette concession et autorisation, Nous ne subissions aucun préjudice, et surtout que la pratique soit ainsi améliorée afin que l'abondance de laiton manufacturé puisse à nouveau combler Notre déficit. De plus, Nous ordonnons gracieusement et sérieusement à Notre gouverneur général, chambellan et officier des douanes de Norrköping de tenir pleinement compte de ce Notre règlement et de lui permettre d'obtenir le succès qui lui est dû, car cela est conforme à Notre gracieuse volonté et à Notre opinion. En foi de quoi, [etc.]. Donné à Norrköping, le 6 avril 1661.

Christine Alexandra.

J. Stropp.

English translation (my own):

Kristina Alexandra.

We make known that for the sake of the better success and advancement of the brass works, We have, at a time convenient to Us, favourably granted and conceded that all the brassware that is manufactured and shipped at the de Geers' brass factory here in Norrköping this year and in the future shall enjoy a relief of two and a third riksdalers on each ship's load of sea customs, whether it is freight loaded on a free, half-free or non-free ship, and thus only pay to Us or Our customs officer half of the increase that was added to the brass in 1658 on Swedish ships.

However, the de Geers, or those who have been used to manage and operate on their behalf, on the other hand, are obliged to be directed with such diligence and zeal so as to ensure that We in Our usual ways, by means of this concession and authorisation, may not suffer any detriment, but much more that the practice be thus improved so that that the abundance of manufactured brass work may be able to fill the deficiency for Us again. In addition to this, We graciously and seriously command Our governor general, chamberlain and customs officer in Norrköping that they take this Our regulation into account in every way, allowing it to gain its due success, as such agrees with Our gracious will and opinion. For further assurance, [etc.]. Given at Norrköping, April 6, 1661.

Kristina Alexandra.

J. Stropp.

Above: Kristina.