Christina of Sweden: Biography from Answers.com

Christina (1626-1689), Queen of Lutheran Sweden, who abdicated at the height of Sweden's power during the Thirty Years' War, converted to Catholicism, and spent the second half of her life in Rome.

Queen Christina is one of the most unusual monarchs in European history. Inheriting her throne at the age of six, she was raised by brilliant tutors to face a complex and dangerous political world. Intellectually gifted, with a highly complex personality, she confounded her advisors first by refusing to marry, then by voluntarily surrendering her throne, and finally by converting to Catholicism in an age of bitter religious warfare, although her Swedish kingdom was then leader of the Protestant powers. The 1933 movie Queen Christina, starring Greta Garbo, which made the queen's name familiar to 20th-century audiences is entirely misleading about the historical Queen Christina, but it is not alone; she has been the subject of extravagant praise from some observers and detestation from others - so much so, that reliable information in English has remained the exception rather than the rule.

Christina was the daughter of King Gustavus II Adolphus, one of the great military heroes of Swedish history. Entering the Thirty Years' War in 1630 when the "Protestant Cause" was at its lowest ebb, Gustavus Adolphus won a succession of sweeping victories over the armies of the Catholic Holy Roman Empire, culminating in the triumphs of Breitenfeld (1631) and Lützen (1632). At this second battle, however, Gustavus was killed, and although his generals fought on through the following two decades, none could quite match him for strategic daring or tactical elan. At his death Christina, his only child, inherited his throne. For the immediate future, power went to her regent, Axel Oxenstierna, a brilliant politician who continued Gustavus's active policy in northern Europe. He negotiated favorable terms for Sweden in its war against Denmark, settled at Bromsebro in 1644. By winning title to extensive south Baltic lands and ports for Sweden in the general pacification of Westphalia (1648), Oxenstierna showed unmistakably that Christina's Sweden had become the major power of northern Europe.

Not until December 1644, her 18th birthday, did Christina become queen in her own right, though by then she had been attending meetings of the Regency Council for two years. In the meantime, Oxenstierna had taken her away from her mentally unbalanced mother and put her education in the hands of Johannes Matthiae, a broad-minded and widely learned man, who gave her a thorough grounding in history, philosophy, theology, and the sciences, in accordance with her father's early orders that she should be raised like a boy. Matthiae nourished in her a passion for philosophy and whetted her intellectual appetite, preparing for the days when she would be one of the chief patrons of European intellectual life. She became a confident speaker of French, German, Latin, Spanish, and Italian, but her written works - letters, aphorisms, and an autobiography - suggest that, although she was surely bright, she was not the genius whom flattering courtiers described in their dedications.

As she matured, Sweden faced domestic and international crises. In the late 1640s, Swedish statesmen watched anxiously as a revolution overthrew the English monarchy and beheaded King Charles I. In Paris, the Fronde rebellion came close to unseating the French monarchy, and the boy-king Louis XIV had to flee for his life. Revolutions in these and other parts of Europe alarmed Oxenstierna, and he feared that the high taxes he had levied for war and for Christina's court expenses might spark a peasant revolt at home. In 1650, Sweden's representative assembly, the Diet, met at a time of widespread hunger following a poor harvest and protested against the power and privileges of the aristocracy, the price of food, and the costs of a foreign policy from which ordinary Swedes gained nothing. The Diet also argued that Oxenstierna's policy of giving away crown lands, in the hope that they would yield more revenue when taxed than when farmed, benefited none but the aristocracy.

Noting the Diet's formal Protestation, Oxenstierna tried to curb Christina's lavish tastes in art, architecture, and music when she began to rule in her own right - one of several sources of tension between the old servant and his new mistress. She, however, scorned Oxenstierna's efforts at frugality and defied him by giving large gifts of lands to returning veterans when the long series of wars came to an end. As the leading historian of Sweden, Michael Roberts, notes: "She had neither interest in, nor grasp of, finance; and after 1652 seems to have been cynically indifferent to the distresses of a crown she had already decided to renounce." She also rewarded her favorites, such as Magnus de la Gardie, lavishly and tactlessly, and angered Oxenstierna further by introducing men into the royal council whom he thought unsuitable but could no longer oppose.

Every 17th-century European monarchy had to think about and plan for the succession. The presence of a queen made matrimonial diplomacy even more hazardous and more necessary than usual because the wrong husband could be politically disastrous. As an adolescent Christina was in love with, and planned to marry, her cousin Charles (the future Charles X), with whom she was educated at Stegeborg Castle. The attraction was mutual and led him to hope for a throne. But as she matured Christina's ardor cooled. Though she kept alive the possibility of a marriage to Charles, it was more as a tactic to secure the succession than from affection. Her Council of Regents and her Parliament were also eager to assure a politically suitable royal marriage of this kind, which could eventuate in the birth of heirs.

But once she was queen in fact as well as in name, Christina was in no hurry to tie the knot. Like Queen Elizabeth I of England a generation earlier, she realized that the promise of her hand in marriage was a more potent instrument than marriage itself. Once wed, her power would probably decline, whereas the hope of it beforehand would keep Charles, and other possible suitors, guessing as to her intentions and assure her dominance. Meanwhile, she endured rumors which alleged that she was involved in a lesbian affair with her friend Countess Ebba Sparre.

After lengthy disputes with her councillors, she agreed in 1649 to the principle that if she married it would be to Charles, but added that she could not be compelled to marry at all. She was more eager to have Charles formally recognized as her heir. Since the two of them were nearly contemporaries, it was unlikely that Charles would enjoy a long reign after her. In the meantime, he had to skulk on his estates where, according to the court gossip of the day, he spent much of his time in a drunken stupor.

Christina was therefore still unmarried when, in 1651, she told Parliament of her intention to abdicate. A collective cry of dismay from the Swedish statesmen delayed her, but in 1654 she renewed the project and this time carried it out, leaving Sweden permanently in June of that year, and traveling to the Spanish Netherlands. From there, traveling in fine style and assured (as it then seemed) of a lifelong income from her Swedish estates, she went to Innsbruck in Austria, and during her stay openly declared her conversion to Roman Catholicism. To nearly all Swedes her conversion, even more than her abdication, appeared as a horrific form of betrayal. In that age of bitter, protracted religious wars, in which Lutheran Sweden had been pitted for 30 years against the Catholic Empire, a conversion of this sort seemed not so much an act of personal conscience as a symbolic declaration of allegiance to the enemy. Why she took these steps has always been a mystery, and has continued to be the subject of a keen dispute among Swedish historians. Her often-voiced conviction that women were unsuited to rule may have played a part in the decision, but religious conviction was probably more decisive.

Generations of historians have also debated the exact sequence of events and causes surrounding this amazing set of actions. While still in Sweden, Christina had been secretive about her interest in Catholicism, because of its politically volatile implications. She had certainly been strongly impressed by the Catholic French ambassador to her court, Chanut, and by the French philosopher Rene Descartes, also a dedicated Catholic, who spent the last year of his life at her court in Stockholm (he died there of pneumonia in 1650). Next she had encountered Antonio Macedo, who was a Jesuit priest posing as the Portuguese ambassador's interpreter. Christina had several conversations with Macedo and told him that she would welcome the chance to discuss Catholicism with more members of his order. When he hurried to Rome with this news, the Father General of the order responded by sending two learned Jesuit professors, Fathers Malines and Casati, also incognito, to her court. After winning her notice by their pose as Italian noblemen, they quickly recognized that she was a thoughtful and gifted person, "a twenty-five year old sovereign so entirely removed from human conceit and with such a deep appreciation of true values that she might have been brought up in the very spirit of moral philosophy." They recalled later that "our main efforts were to prove that our sacred beliefs were beyond reason, yet that they did not conflict with reason. The queen, meanwhile, shrewdly absorbed the substance of our arguments; otherwise we should have needed a great deal of time to make our point."

Christina may have converted as early as 1652, more than a year before her abdication, but if so she did it secretly. When she went to the Netherlands in 1654, she was still accompanied by a retinue which included a Lutheran chaplain. But while there, he died and was not replaced. Christina, meanwhile, gained a reputation in those years, 1654 and 1655, for having a caustic and dismissive attitude towards all forms of Christianity, which may have been a smokescreen to allay suspicions of her conversion. At any rate, after her open confession of her new faith, scandalous tales of her atheism died away. On the other hand scurrilous rumors of her real motives, printed in an avalanche of hostile and lurid pamphlets, were to follow her to the grave and to mislead historians in the ensuing three centuries.

Arriving at Rome in high style after her stately progress through Europe, she took up residence in the Farnese Palace, alarmed Pope Alexander VII by meeting him in a red dress (the color usually reserved for Roman prostitutes) and entertained lavishly, but with little outward sign of religious fervor. Her home quickly became a salon, where intellectuals, cardinals, and noblemen met, and it inevitably became the focus of political intrigues. Despite Christina's lack of outward piety, she was the most prominent convert of the century, and Rome countered Protestant taunts with an avalanche of its own propaganda, singing her praises. She declared that other European princes should follow her lead and end the Reformation rift which had divided Europe for the last 150 years, but none did so.

Charles X, her successor in Sweden, gained a crown sooner than he had dared hope. He proved an effective - and sternly Protestant - monarch, carrying on the policy which Gustavus Adolphus had initiated, of gaining conquests in what is now Poland and North Germany, on the south shore of the Baltic. One pamphleteer noted that while the Pope had gained one lamb in Queen Christina he had lost an entire flock in Poland at the hands of Charles. Lands and tax revenues from this area strengthened the monarchy in its continuing conflict with the aristocracy, and facilitated the paradox of Sweden, a nation of very small population and indigenous resources, remaining a major European power for the best part of a century.

As for Christina, the second half of her life saw her embroiled in the complex politics of baroque Rome, in which she gained the greatest possible leverage from her royal position and felt constrained only by lack of money. When she arrived, the city was one of the focal points of a conflict between pro-French and pro-Spanish factions: France and Spain themselves were at war. At first the common view was that she was pro-Spanish, but her old friend Chanut reassured his master, Cardinal Mazarin, Louis XIV's chief minister, that this was not true. Sure enough, the early months of 1656 bore witness to a gradual deterioration of Christina's courtesy towards the Spanish ambassadors and her cultivation of French envoys and diplomats. She recognized that France was becoming the dominant power in Europe and that it could better serve her interests than any other nation. Among other things her income had fallen precipitously despite her precautions at the time of abdication. Since less than a quarter of the anticipated revenue was coming to her from her Swedish estates, she hoped Mazarin might offer her a substitute. In late 1656, therefore, she traveled to Paris and was again accorded a sumptuous royal welcome; she then settled down to debating with Mazarin the possibility that she might be made queen of Naples. The Kingdom of Naples, constituting what is now southern Italy, was then in Spanish hands, and making it an independent, pro-French monarchy was one of the central aims of Mazarin's diplomacy. Christina seemed a likely candidate for monarch, and the two of them signed an accord at Compiegne which drew up a timetable for the achievement of this plan.

The expedition of conquest, prepared in secrecy, was due to sail from Marseilles to Naples in February 1657, but French military commitments elsewhere led to a delay. Christina returned from Italy to France and urged Mazarin to hurry, lest he lose the element of surprise. Sure enough, an Italian member of her own entourage whom she had treated lavishly in the past but who now felt slighted, the Marquis of Monaldesco, warned the Spanish Viceroy in Naples of the impending attack. The Viceroy prepared his fortifications to repel it, and Mazarin canceled the expedition. In a fury of disappointment and rage, Christina retaliated against Monaldesco, whose mail she had intercepted, by having his throat cut in her presence at Fontainbleau Palace, despite his agonized pleas for mercy. News of this bloody act, undertaken while she was a foreign king's guest and in his house, undermined her reputation and nullified the Neapolitan scheme altogether. She had fatally underestimated its consequences for her future. Some pamphlets appeared on the streets of Paris which said Monaldesco had been her lover and that she had killed him to keep the fact a secret; others added that he was just one in a long line of murdered lovers. These allegations were groundless, but the killing was politically inept, especially for a woman who prided herself on her Machiavellian skills and diplomatic tact. In 1659, France and Spain signed the Treaty of the Pyrénées and any lingering hopes of a Neapolitan kingdom for Christina fizzled.

From then on Mazarin would make no more schemes with her and Pope Alexander VII now referred to her as "a woman born a barbarian, barbarously brought up, and living with barbarous thoughts." She returned to Rome without further hope of political power but was still resourceful enough to create one of the most refined and brilliant salons in Europe at the Palazzo Riario. For 30 more years, she remained the great anomaly in Europe, a skilled and talented queen without a realm. A circle of friends and retainers still surrounded her, led by Cardinal Azzolino, who did everything he could to repair her tarnished reputation but was careful always to answer her passionately loving letters in a tone of cold severity, lest further scandal attach itself to her name.

Unable to break the habits of a lifetime, she remained an inveterate intriguer (including an effort to become queen of Poland, and a plan to have Azzolino elected pope) but died in 1689 without making any further impact on the course of events. Without the backing of another monarchy, she lacked the resources for further expeditions, and her Swedish successor, Charles X, himself an ally of France, was careful to do nothing to encourage her. Vatican dismay at the Monaldesco affair had cooled sufficiently after 30 years that Christina the eminent convert could be given the final honor, by Pope Innocent XI, of burial in St. Peter's.

Christina
Queen of Sweden

Reign	6 November 1632 – 6 June 1654
Coronation	20 October 1650
Predecessor	Gustav II Adolf
Successor	Charles X Gustav
Father	Gustav II Adolf
Mother	Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg
Born	18 December [O.S. 8 December] 1626 Stockholm
Died	19 April 1689 (aged 62) Rome
Burial	22 June 1689 St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

Early life

Christina was born in Stockholm, and her birth occurred during a rare astrological conjunction that fueled great speculation on what influence the child, fervently hoped to be a boy, would later have on the world stage.^[2] The king had already sired two daughters, both buried in Riddarholmskyrkan in Stockholm – a nameless princess born in 1620 and then the first princess Christina, who was born in 1623 and died the following year. So great expectations arose at Maria Eleonora's third pregnancy in 1626, and the castle filled with shouts of joy when on 8 December she delivered a child that was first taken for a boy - he was so hairy and screamed with a strong, hoarse voice. Christina writes in her autobiography, "Deep embarrassment spread among the women when they discovered their mistake." The king however was larkhappy, stating that "She'll be clever, she has made fools of us all!" ^[3] Christina was born with what Scandinavians call a victory-shirt (meaning a more or less intact fetal membrane clinging to the newborn baby). This could explain the confusion about Christina's gender; but a victory-shirt was always regarded as a lucky omen. Gustav Adolf was closely attached to his daughter, who admired him greatly, whereas her mother remained aloof in her disappointment at the child being a girl. Before Gustav Adolf left to defend Protestantism in the Thirty Years' war, he secured his daughter's right to inherit the throne, in case he never returned. (He was killed in battle in November 1632.)

Her father gave orders that Christina should be brought up as a prince,^[4] and Christina took the oath as king, not queen, giving rise to the nickname the "Girl King". Her mother, Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, came from the Hohenzollern family. She was a woman of quite distraught temperament, and her attempts to bestow guilt on Christina for her difficult birth, or just the horror story itself, may have prejudiced Christina against the prospect of having to produce an heir to the throne.

Christina wept for three days after her father's departure, although she was a child who rarely took to tears. Letters still exist, written by her in German to her father when she was five - school lessons were to her the highlight of her days. Her mother had fetched the king home from Germany in a coffin. Maria Eleonora ordered that the king should not be buried until she could be buried with him. She also demanded that the coffin be kept open, and went to see it every forenoon, patting it, taking no notice of the putrefaction. The king fell on 6 November 1632, but was not buried until 22 June 1634, more than 18 months later. Soon however the queen took to entering the grave chamber, attempting to reach the corpse. Eventually the embarrassed Chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna, saw no other solution than having a guard posted at the grave to prevent further episodes.^[5]

His daughter, who had inherited his looks, suddenly became centre of her mother's attention. From showing her daughter complete indifference, Maria Eleonora suddenly became perversely attentive to her. Gustav Adolf had sensibly decided that his daughter, in case of his death, should be cared for by his sister, Catharina of Pfalz, who was married to count Johan Kasimir of Pfalz, and had moved home to Sweden after the outbreak of the Thirty Years' war. Christina knew the couple well; their children were Maria Eufrosyne, who later married one of Christina's close friends, and Karl Gustav, who inherited the throne after Christina. But this happy solution did not suit the queen, who had her sister-in-law banned from the castle. She herself was to bring up the child, who suffered with her mother's fits of weeping in the apartment where no daylight was permitted. Chancellor Oxenstierna saw no other solution to this than exiling the queen to Gripsholm castle, while the governing regency council would decide when she was allowed to meet her nine-year-old daughter. This was followed by three good years, with Christina thriving in the company of her aunt Catharina and her family; but when Catharina died in 1639, Oxenstierna had her family moved out of the castle.

The nurses had carelessly dropped Christina to the floor when she was a baby. A shoulder bone broke, leaving one shoulder higher than the other for the rest of her life. Yet she was brilliant on horseback, also taking lessons in the arts of fencing and shooting. She was very mature for her age - on 15 March 1633 she became queen at the age of six, and as her first official assignment received the Russian embassy, who were most impressed with the child. The king had ensured that the theologist Johannes Matthiae Gothus would be her tutor; he gave her lessons in religion, philosophy, Greek and Latin. She also learnt Swedish history as well as modern languages; her talent for languages was nothing short of unique. When the ambassador of France, Pierre Hector Chanut, arrived in Stockholm in 1645, he stated admiringly, "She talks French as if she was born in the Louvre!" Otto Sperling, who was doctor at the household of Christian IVs daughter Leonora Christine, met Christina in Sweden in the winter of 1653, talking with her in Italian, which he was in good command of after having lived in Italy for four years. He was overwhelmed that she, who had never even been to Italy, spoke the language like a native.^[6] She studied Islam, and also read Les trois imposteurs, a work bestowing doubt on all organized religion.^[7]

Christina was a model student, and chancellor Oxenstierna wrote proudly of the 14-year-old girl, "She is not at all like a female", on the contrary she had "a bright intelligence" - after her father, who had studied under Galileo Galilei. Oxenstierna taught her politics. He and Gustav Adolf had used the crown's properties as payment to gentry and generals to win their loyalty, a policy which Christina would later realize came to change the power balance between king and gentry. Her greatgrandfather Gustav Vasa had converted to Protestantism, thereby increasing the crown's property with goods belonging to the Church and abbeys, so that the crown possessed 30% of Swedish land, free farmers a little over half, and gentry 20%. But in part because Gustav Adolf had continued to dole out the crown's land as a reward to gain loyalty, the gentry in Christina's time possessed almost 75% of Swedish land.^[6] During her ten years of reign, the number of noble families increased from 300 to ca 600, as she had no other means of rewarding people for their war efforts.^[8] These donations took place with such haste that they were not always registered, and on some occasions the same piece of land was given away twice.^[9]

Relationship to her mother

Maria Eleonora wrote regularly to her daughter about her and her German court wanting to leave their exile at Gripsholm castle. Christina replied tactfully, knowing that the Council would not permit the queen mother any leave. Eventually she asked to leave Sweden altogether. Christina invited her mother to Stockholm, attempting to persuade her into staying in the country; but in 1640 the queen mother fled together with her lady-in-waiting, Anna Sofia von Bülow, to Denmark in a Danish boat, and was well received by Christian IV - not that it made the demanding Maria Eleonora like Denmark any better. She wanted home to Brandenburg, in which case the electoral prince there demanded financial compensation from Sweden, where on the contrary the Council expected to withdraw her appanage as well as her properties. Finally the teenage Christina succeeded in negotiating a certain alimony for her mother, adding to this from her own purse.

By 1648 her mother returned to Sweden. Christina then bought the newly erected castle Makalös ("Unequalled") for her, close to the royal castle in Stockholm. It would have been enormously expensive, but Christina never paid. Instead she handed it back in 1652. Her mother died in 1655, the year following Christina's abdication.

Visit from Descartes

Queen Christina in discussion with French philosopher René Descartes.

Christina's good friend, ambassador Chanut, corresponded with the philosopher René Descartes, discussing his ideas with Christina. She became interested enough to start corresponding with Descartes herself, and presently invited him to Sweden. She warned him against the winter cold, suggesting he arrive in spring or summer. Instead he arrived on 4 October 1649, and during the following months the cold climate bothered him considerably. He resided with Chanut, but with Christina's strict schedule he came to the castle library at 5:00 AM to discuss philosophy with her and librarian Johan Freinsheim. The premises were icy, and in February 1650 Descartes fell ill with pneumonia and died ten days later; Christina was distraught with guilt.

Queen regnant

In her autobiography from 1681 Christina wrote: "In my opinion, women should never reign." She wrote this in spite of having ruled Sweden for over a decade, with a good deal of success.

The National council suggested that Christina joined the government when she was sixteen; but she asked to wait until she had turned eighteen, as her father had waited until then. In 1644 she took the throne. Her first major assignment was to conclude peace with Denmark. She did so successfully; Denmark handed the isles of Gotland and Ösel (today's Saaremaa in Estonia) over to Sweden, whereas Norway lost the districts of Jämtland and Härjedalen, which to this day have remained Swedish.

Chancellor Oxenstierna soon discovered that Christina held differing political views from his own. To the peace congress in Germany in 1645 he sent his son Johan Oxenstierna, presenting the view that it would be in Sweden's best interest if the Thirty years' war continued. Christina however wanted peace at any cost, and therefore sent her own delegate, Johan Adler Salvius. Shortly before the conclusion of peace she admitted Salvius into the National council, against chancellor Oxenstierna's will and to general astonishment, as Salvius was no aristocrat; but Christina wanted opposition to the aristocracy. In 1645 Christina appointed Benedict (Baruch) Nehamias de Castro from Hamburg as her Physician in ordinary.^[10]

She knew it was expected of her to provide an heir to the Swedish throne. Her first cousin Charles was infatuated with her, and they became secretly engaged before he left in 1642 to do army service for three years in Germany. However Christina reveals in her autobiography that she felt "an insurmountable distaste for marriage"; likewise "an insurmountable distaste for all the things that females talked about and did". She slept for 3–4 hours a night and was chiefly occupied with her studies; she forgot to comb her hair, donned her clothes in a hurry and used men's shoes for the sake of convenience. However she was said to possess charm, and the unruly hair became her. Her best female friend was Ebba Sparre, whom she called Belle. She hosted Ebba's wedding with Jacob De la Gardie in 1653, but the marriage would last only five years. Ebba visited her husband in Elsinore when he was shot down and killed, and their three children all died when small. Ebba herself died in 1662, after four years of widowhood. Christina kept in touch through letters and always expressed great devotion to her friend.

On 26 February 1649, Christina made public that she had decided not to marry, but wanted her first cousin Charles as heir to the throne. The nobility objected to this, but the three other estates - clergy, burghers and peasants - accepted it. Coronation took place in October 1650. Christina went to the castle of Jacobsdal, today known as Ulriksdal, where she entered a coronation carriage drawn with black velvet embroidered in gold, and pulled by six white horses. The procession to Storkyrkan in Stockholm was so long that when the first carriages arrived at Storkyrkan, the last ones had not yet left Jacobsdal. All four estates were invited to dine at the castle. Fountains at the market place splashed out wine, roast was served, and illuminations sparkled. The participants were dressed up in fantastic costumes, like at a carnival.

The Crown of Sweden was hereditary in the family of Vasa, and from Charles IX's time excluding those Vasa princes who had been traitors or descended from deposed monarchs. Gustav Adolf's younger brother had died years earlier, and therefore there were only females left. Despite the fact that there were living female lines descended from elder sons of Gustav I Vasa, Christina was the heiress presumptive. Although she is often called "queen", her father brought her up as a prince and her official title was King. As ruler, Christina resisted demands from the other estates (clergy, burgesses and peasants) in the Riksdag of the Estates of 1650 for the reduction of tax-exempt noble landholdings. Several princes of Europe aspired to her hand; but she rejected them all.

Christina was interested in theatre and ballet. A French ballet-troup under Antoine de Beaulieu was employed by the court from 1638, and there were also an Italian and a French Orchestra at the royal chapell at court, which all inspired her much. She invited foreign companies to play at Bollhuset, such as an Italian Opera troupe in 1652 and a Dutch theatre troupe in 1653. Among the foreign artists she employed at court was Anne Chabanceau de La Barre, who was made court singer. She was also herself an amateur-actress, and amateur-theatre was very popular at court in her days. Her court poet Georg Stiernhielm wrote her several plays in the Swedish language, such as Den fångne Cupido eller Laviancu de Diane performed at court with Christina in the main part of the goddess Diana. She founded the dance order Amaranterordern in 1653.

Religion

Sébastien Bourdon, Christina of Sweden, 1653.

Though raised to follow the Lutheran Church of Sweden, Christina secretly adopted Roman Catholicism as a young adult. Christina remained all her life very tolerant towards the beliefs of others.

Her tutor, Johannes Matthiae, stood for a gentler attitude than most Lutherans. In 1644 he suggested a new church order, but was voted down, as this was interpreted as overly Calvinist. Christina, who by then had become queen, defended him against the advice of chancellor Oxenstierna, but three years later the proposal had to be withdrawn. In 1647 the clergy wanted to introduce the Book of Concord (Swedish: Konkordieboken), a book defining correct Lutheranism versus heresy, making free theological thinking an impossibility. Matthiae was strongly opposed to this, and again was backed by Christina. The Book of Concord was not introduced.

As a young queen, she felt enormous pressure, ruling a Protestant country while she herself was secretly a Catholic. In August 1651 she asked the Council permission to abdicate, but gave in to their pleas for her continuation. She had long conversations with Antonio Macedo, interpreter for Portugal's ambassador. He was a Jesuit, and in August 1651 smuggled with him a letter from Christina to the Jesuit general in Rome. In reply to her letter, two Jesuits came to Sweden on a secret mission in the spring of 1652, disguised as gentry and using false names. She had more conversations with them, being interested in the Catholic views on rationality and free will.

All this secrecy wore her out so much that she turned ill. In February 1652 the French doctor Pierre Bourdelot arrived in Sweden. Unlike most doctors of that time he held no faith in blood-letting; instead he ordered sufficient sleep, warm baths and healthy meals, as opposed to Christina's hitherto ascetic way of life. She was only 25 and should take pleasure in life. Plays had always interested her, especially those of Pierre Corneille, with his emphasis on heroism. Bourdelot attached artists to the Swedish court, which gradually became a centre of culture.

When Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes, abolishing the rights of French Protestants (Huguenots), she wrote an indignant letter, dated 2 February 1686, directed at the French ambassador. The Sun King did not approve of this, but Christina was not to be silenced.

In Rome she made Pope Clement X prohibit the custom of chasing Jews through the streets during the carnival. On 15 August 1686, she issued a declaration that Roman Jews were under her protection, signed la Regina - the queen.

Abdication

The Silver Throne of 1654, which Christina abdicated, is still today the formal seat of the Swedish monarch at Stockholm Palace.

Christina abdicated her throne on 5 June 1654 in favor of her cousin Charles Gustavus in order to either practice openly her previously secret Catholicism, or to accept the same publicly so as to be at the center of a scientific and artistic renaissance. The sincerity of her conversion has been questioned. In 1651, the Jesuit Paolo Casati had been sent on a mission to Stockholm in order to gauge the sincerity of her intention to become Catholic.

Her conversion was however not the only reason for her abdication, as there was increasing discontent with, in the words of her critics, her arbitrary and wasteful ways. Within ten years she had created 17 counts, 46 barons and 428 lesser nobles; to provide these new peers with adequate appanages, she had sold or mortgaged crown property representing an annual income of 1,200,000 riksdaler. There were clear signs that Christina was growing weary of the cares of what remained a provincial government in spite of a large conquered territory.

During the abdication ceremony at Uppsala castle, Christina wore her regalia, which was removed from her, one by one; but Per Brahe, who was supposed to remove the crown, did not move, so she had to take the crown off herself. Dressed in a simple white taffeta gown she held her farewell speech with a faltering voice, thanked everyone and left the throne to Charles X, who was dressed in black. Per Brahe felt that she "stood there as pretty as an angel".

Financially she was secured through revenue from Norrköping town, the isles of Gotland and Öland, estates in Pomerania as well as other places.^{[citation needed]} She left Sweden in the summer of 1654, changed to a man's clothes on the Danish border, and rode as a man through Denmark. Relations between the two countries were still so tense that a former Swedish queen could not have traveled safely in Denmark.

In August she arrived in Antwerp, which at that time was under Spanish control. In her honour parties were held; ambassador Chanut came, as well as the former governor of Norway, Hannibal Sehested. On 24 December 1654, she converted to Catholic faith in archduke Leopold's chapel in Brussels. She dared not state this in public though, in case the Swedish council might then refuse to pay her alimony. On top of this, Sweden was preparing war against Pomerania, which meant that her income from there was considerably reduced. The pope and Philip IV of Spain could not support her openly either, as she was not publicly a Catholic yet. Instead she succeeded in arranging a major loan, so that she could travel to Italy with her entourage of 255 persons and 247 horses. The duke of Tyrol was almost ruined by her visit.

The pope's messenger, the librarian Lucas Holstenius, met her in Innsbruck. He himself had converted. On 3 November 1655, Christina converted in the church at Innsbruck castle, and wrote Pope Alexander VII and her cousin Charles X about it. Now there was no going back.

Political contributions

The importunity of the senate and Riksdag on the question of her marriage was a constant source of irritation. In retirement she could devote herself wholly to art and science, and the opportunity of astonishing the world by the unique spectacle of a great king, in the prime of life, voluntarily resigning her crown, strongly appealed to her vivid imagination. It is certain that towards the end of her reign she behaved as if she were determined to do everything in her power to make herself as little missed as possible. From 1651 there was a notable change in her behavior. She cast away every regard for the feelings and prejudices of her people. She ostentatiously exhibited her contempt for the Protestant religion. Her foreign policy was flighty to the verge of foolishness. She contemplated an alliance with Spain, a state quite outside the orbit of Sweden's influence, the first fruits of which were to have been an invasion of Portugal. She utterly neglected affairs in order to plunge into a whirl of dissipation with her foreign favorites. The situation became impossible, and it was with an intense feeling of relief that the Swedes saw her depart, in masculine attire, under the name of Count Dohna^{[citation needed]}.

Setting off to Rome

The southbound journey through Italy was planned in detail by the Vatican and a brilliant triumph. In Pesaro Christina got acquainted with the two brothers Santinelli, who so impressed her with their poetry and adeptness of dancing that she took them into service. On 20 December she reached the Vatican, the last distance in a sedan chair designed by Bernini. She was granted her own wing inside the Vatican, and when the pope spotted the inscription symbolizing the northern wind, Omne malum ab Aquilone (meaning "all evil comes from the North"), he ensured that it was rapidly covered with paint.

The entry into Rome proper took place on 23 December, on horseback through Porta Flaminia, which today is known as Porta del Popolo. Bernini had decorated the gate with Christina's arms (an ear of corn) beneath that of pope Alexander (six mountains with a star above). Also today one can read the inscription Felici Faustoq Ingressui Anno Dom MDCLV ("to a happy and blessed entry in the year 1655"). Christina met Bernini some days later, and they became lifelong friends. She often visited him at his studio, and on his deathbed he wanted her to pray for him, as she used a language that God would understand.

In St Peter's basilica she knelt in front of the altar, and on Christmas Day she received the sacrament from the pope himself. In his honour she took the additional names Alexandra Maria - Alexandra not only after the pope, but also in honour of her great hero, Alexander the Great. Her status as the most notable convert to Catholicism of the age, and as the most famous woman at the time, made it possible for her to ignore or flout the most common requirements of obeisance to the Catholic faith. She herself remarked that her Catholic faith was not of the common order; indeed, before converting she had asked church officials how strictly she would be expected to obey the church's common observances, and received reassurances. She respected the pope's position in Church, but not necessarily his acts as an individual; she once commented on this to one of his servants. The papal summer residence at that time was the Quirinal Palace, located on Monte Cavallo (literally "Horse mountain"). Christina stated that Monte Cavallo might rather be named Monte degli Assisi ("Donkey mountain"), as she had never met a pope with common sense during her 30 years in Rome.^[11] Christina's visit to Rome was the triumph of Pope Alexander VII and the occasion for splendid Baroque festivities. For several months she was the only preoccupation of the Pope and his court. The nobles vied for her attention and treated her to a never-ending round of fireworks, jousts, fake duels, acrobatics, and operas. At the Palazzo Aldobrandini, where she was welcomed by a crowd of 6,000 spectators, she watched in amazement at the procession of camels and elephants in Oriental garb, bearing towers on their backs.

Celebrations for Christina of Sweden at Palazzo Aldobrandini-Chigi on 28 February 1656.

Christina settled down in Palazzo Farnese, which belonged to the duke of Parma, just opposite the church of Saint Birgitta, another Swedish woman who had made Rome her home. Christina opened an academy in the palace on 24 January 1656, called Arcadia, where the participants enjoyed music, theatre, literature and languages. Every Wednesday she held the palace open to visitors from the higher classes who could enjoy all its works of art. Belonging to the Arcadia-circle was also Francesco Negri, a Franciscan from Ravenna who is regarded the first tourist of North Cape, Norway. Negri wrote eight letters about his walk through Scandinavia all the way up to "Capo Nord" in 1664. Another Franciscan was the Swede Lars Skytte, who, under the name pater Laurentius, served as Christina's confessor for eight years. He too had been a pupil of Johannes Matthiae, and his uncle had been Gustav Adolf's teacher. As a diplomat in Portugal he had converted, and asked for a transfer to Rome when he learnt of Christina's arrival. She on her part felt more attracted to the Spanish priest Miguel Molinos, who had been persecuted by the Holy Inquisition due to his teachings, which were inspired by the mystic Teresa of Avila - the one Christina's friend Bernini had immortalized in the statue Saint Teresa, which stands in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome.

However the arranged appanage from Sweden did not materialize; Christina lived from loans and donations. Her servants burnt the doors to heat the premises; and the Santinelli brothers sold out works of art that came with the palace. The damage was explained away with the staff not being paid.^[6]

29-year-old Christina gave occasion to much gossip when socializing freely with men her own age. One of them was Cardinal Decio Azzolino, who had been a secretary to the ambassador in Spain, and responsible for the Vatican's correspondence with European courts. He was also the leader of the Squadrone Volante, the free thinking "Flying Squad" movement within the Catholic Church. Christina and Azzolino were so close that the pope asked him to shorten his visits at her place; but they remained lifelong friends. In a letter to Azzolino Christina writes in French that she would never offend God or give Azzolino reason to take offence, but this "does not prevent me from loving you until death, and since piety relieves you from being my lover, then I relieve you from being my servant, for I shall live and die as your slave." His replies were more reserved. Christina wrote him many letters during her travels; about 50 of these have survived. They were written in a code that was decrypted by Baron Carl Bildt, ambassador of Norway and Sweden in Rome around 1900.

At times, things got a bit out of hand. On one occasion the couple had arranged to meet at Villa Medici near Monte Pincio, but the cardinal did not show up. Christina hurried over to Castel Sant'Angelo, firing one of the cannons. The mark in the bronze gate in front of Villa Medici is still visible.^[12]

Having run out of money and surfeited with an excess of pageantry, Christina resolved, in the space of two years, to visit France. Here she was treated with respect by Louis XIV, but the ladies were shocked with her masculine appearance and demeanor and the unguarded freedom of her conversation.

When visiting the ballet with la Grande Mademoiselle, she, as the latter recalls, "surprised me very much - applauding the parts which pleased her, taking God to witness, throwing herself back in her chair, crossing her legs, resting them on the arms of her chair, and assuming other postures, such as I had never seen taken but by Travelin and Jodelet, two famous buffoons... She was in all respects a most extraordinary creature".^[13]

The Monaldeschi murder

Spain at that time ruled Milan, Sicily and the kingdom of Naples. The French politician Mazarin, an Italian himself, had attempted to liberate Naples from the Spanish rule against which the locals had fought; but an expedition in 1654 had failed in this. Mazarin was now considering Christina as a possible queen for Naples. The locals wanted no Italian duke on the throne; they would prefer a French prince. In the summer of 1656 Christina set sail for Marseille and from there travelled to Paris to discuss the matter. Officially it was said that she was negotiating her alimony arrangement with the Swedish king.

On 22 September 1656 the arrangement between her and Louis XIV was ready. He would recommend Christina as queen to the Napolitans, and serve as guarantee against Spanish aggression. On the following day she left for Pesaro, where she settled down while waiting for the outcome of this. As Queen of Naples she would be financially independent of the Swedish king, and also capable of negotiating peace between France and Spain.

Mazarin however found another arrangement to ensure peace; he strengthened this with a marriage arrangement between Louis XIV and his first cousin, Maria Theresa of Spain - the wedding took place in 1660. But this was unknown to Christina, who sent different messengers to Mazarin to remind him of their plan. In the summer of 1657 she herself returned to France, officially to visit the papal city of Avignon. In October, apartments were assigned to her at Fontainebleau, where she committed an action which has indelibly stained her memory - the execution of marchese Gian Rinaldo Monaldeschi, her master of the horse. Christina herself wrote her version of the story for circulation in Europe.

Through two months, she had suspected Monaldeschi and secretly seized his correspondence, which revealed that he had betrayed her interests and put the blame on an absent member of court. Now she summoned Monaldeschi into a gallery at the palace, discussing the matter with him. He insisted that betrayal should be punished with death. She held the proof of his betrayal in her hand and so insisted that he had pronounced his own death sentence. Le Bel, a Father who stayed at the castle, was to receive his confession in the Galerie des Cerfs. He entreated for mercy, but was stabbed by two of her domestics in an apartment adjoining that in which she herself was. Wearing a coat of mail which is now on exhibit outside the gallery, he was chased around the room for hours before they succeeded in dealing him a fatal stab. Le Bel who had begged on his knees that they spare the man, was told to have him buried inside the church, and Christina, seemingly unfazed, paid the abbey to hold Masses for his soul. She "was sorry that she had been forced to undertake this execution, but claimed that justice had been carried out for his crime and betrayal. She asked God to forgive him," writes Le Bel.

Mazarin advised Christina to place the blame on Santinelli and dismiss him, but she insisted that she alone was responsible for the act. She wrote Louis XIV about the matter, and 2 weeks later he paid her a friendly visit at Fontainebleau without mentioning it. In Rome, people felt differently. Monaldeschi had been an Italian nobleman, murdered by a foreign barbarian with Santinelli as her executioner. The letters proving his guilt are gone; Christina left them with Le Bel on the day of the murder, and he confirmed that they existed. She never told what was in the letters.

The killing of Monaldeschi was legal, since Christina had judicial rights over the members of her court, as her vindicator Gottfried Leibniz claimed. As her contemporaries saw it, Christina as queen had to emphasize right and wrong, and her sense of duty was strong. Her regarding herself queen regnant lasted all of her life. When her friend Angela Maddalena Voglia was sent to an abbey by the pope, to remove her from an affair with a cardinal at Sacro Collegio, Angela succeeded in escaping from the monastery and went into hiding at Christina's, where she was assaulted and raped by an abbot. Understandably, Christina was most upset that this could happen to someone under her roof, and demanded to have the abbot executed, but he managed to escape.^[14] While still in France, she would gladly have visited England, but she received no encouragement from Cromwell. She returned to Rome and resumed her amusements in the arts and sciences.

Back to Rome

On 15 May 1658, Christina arrived in Rome for the second time, but this time it was definitely no triumph. Her popularity was lost with her execution of Monaldeschi. Alexander VII remained in his summer residence and wanted no further visits from this woman he now referred to as a barbarian. She stayed at the Palazzo Rospigliosi, which belonged to Mazarin, situated closely to the Quirinal Palace; so the pope was enormously relieved when in July 1659 she moved to Trastevere to live in Palazzo Corsini, in those days known as the Riario Palace, designed by Bramante, and from the late 1500s the home of the Sforza family. It was cardinal Azzolino who signed the contract, as well as providing her with new servants to replace Francesco Santinelli, who had been Monaldeschi's executioner and also had stolen from Christina's property for years.

The Riario Palace became her home for the rest of her life. She decorated the walls with paintings, mainly from the Renaissance; no Roman collection of art could match hers. There were portraits of her friends Azzolino, Bernini, Ebba Sparre, Descartes, ambassador Chanut and the doctor Bourdelot. Azzolino ensured that she was reconciled with the pope, and that the latter granted her a pension.

Revisiting Sweden

In April 1660 Christina was informed that Charles X had died in February. His son, Charles XI, was only five years old. In summer she went to Sweden, pointing out that she had left the throne to her first cousin and his descendant, so if Charles XI died, she would take over the throne again. But as a Catholic she could not do that, and the clergy refused to let her hold Catholic Masses where she stayed. After some weeks in Stockholm she found lodgings in Norrköping town, which was her area. Eventually she submitted to a second renunciation of the throne, spending a year in Hamburg to get her finances in order on her way back to Rome. She left her income to the bankier Diego Texeira - his real, Jewish name being Abraham - in return for him sending her a monthly allowance and covering her debts in Antwerp. She visited the Texeira family in their home and entertained them in her own lodgings, which at that time was unusual in relation to Jews.

In the summer of 1662 she arrived in Rome for the third time, followed by some fairly happy years. Some differences with the Pope made her resolve in 1667 once more to return to Sweden; but the conditions annexed by the senate to her residence there were now so mortifying that she proceeded no farther than Hamburg. There she was informed that Alexander VII had died. The new pope, Clement IX, had been a regular guest at her palace. In her delight at his election she threw a brilliant party at her lodgings in Hamburg, with illuminations and wine in the fountain outside. However she had forgotten that this was Protestant land, so the party ended with her escaping through a hidden door, threatened by stone throwing and torches. The Texeira family had to cover the repairs.^[6]

Home to Rome and death

Queen Christina's monument in St. Peter's Basilica

Christina's fourth and last entry in Rome took place on 22 November 1668. As in 1655 she rode through Porta del Popolo in triumph. Clement IX often visited her; they had a shared interest in plays, and Christina established Rome's first public theatre in a former jail, Tor di Nona, which now belonged to an order of monks. When the pope suffered a stroke in late 1669, she was among the few he wanted to see at his deathbed. On 9 December he died, and the new pope, Clement X, worried about the influence of theatre on the moral. When Innocent XI became pope, things turned even worse; he made Christina's theatre into a storeroom for grain, although he had been a frequent guest in her royal box with the other cardinals. He also forbade women to perform with song or acting, and the wearing of decolleté dresses. Christina considered this sheer nonsense, and let women perform in her palace. In her basement there was a laboratory, where she and Azzolino experimented with alchemy. She also wrote - an autobiography, essays on her heroes Alexander the Great and Julius Cæsar, as well as corresponding with the learned around Europe, and acting as patron to musicians such as Arcangelo Corelli, who dedicated his first work, Sonata da chiesa opus 1, to her, and Alessandro Scarlatti.

In February 1689 the 62-year-old Christina fell seriously ill, receiving the last rites. Pope Alexander VIII was too ill to pay her a visit, but sent his regards. She seemed to recover, but in the middle of April she got pneumonia and a high fever. On her deathbed she sent the pope a message if he could forgive her insults - which he could. Cardinal Azzolino stayed at her side until it was over. She died on 19 April, 1689.

Burial

Christina had asked for a simple burial, but the pope insisted on her being displayed on a lit de parade for four days in the Riario Palace. She was embalmed, covered with white brocade, a silver mask, a gilt crown and scepter. Her body was placed in three coffins - one from cypress, one from lead and finally one made from oak. The funeral procession led from Santa Maria in Valicella to St. Peter's Basilica, where she was buried within the papal grottoes - only one of three women ever given this honour. Her intestines were placed in a high urn.

In 1702 Clement XI commissioned a monument for the queen, in whose conversion he vainly foresaw a return of her country to the Faith and to whose contribution towards the culture of the city he looked back with gratitude. This was placed in the body of the basilica and led by the artist Carlo Fontana. Christina was portrayed on a gilt and bronze medallion, supported by a crowned skull. Three reliefs below represented her relinquishment of the Swedish throne and abjugation of Protestantism at Innsbruck, the scorn of the nobility, and faith triumphing over heresy. It is an unromantic likeness, for she is given a double chin and a prominent nose with flaring nostrils.

Christina had named Azzolino her sole heir to make sure her debts were settled, but he was too ill and worn out even to join her funeral, and died in June the same year. His nephew, Pompeo Azzolino, was his sole heir, and he rapidly sold off Christina's art collections. Her large and important library, originally amassed as war booty by her father Gustav Adolf from throughout his European campaign, was bought by Alexander VIII for the Vatican library, while most of the paintings ended in France,^[6] as the core of the Orleans Collection - many remain together in the National Gallery of Scotland. Among others, Titian's Venus Anadyomene originally was in the possession of Queen Christina. Her collection amounted to ca 300 paintings. At first, removing them from Sweden was seen as a great loss to the country; but in 1697 Stockholm castle burnt down, where they would have been destroyed. Venus mourns Adonis by Paolo Veronese, was war booty from Prague, sold by Azzolino's nephew and eventually ended in Stockholm's National Museum.

Personal relationships

Countess Ebba Sparre, ca 1653, by Bourdon.

Christina resolutely refused to marry, despite pressure from her counsellors to fulfil her duty and give Sweden an heir. Her attitude to marriage was critical, 'Marriage is as good as incompatible with love'. Rumours amongst contemporaries were that she was lesbian.^[15] Part of this was no doubt fuelled by a degree of cross-dressing, with her clothing a mix between masculine and feminine styles - although she argued she wore men's shoes for reasons of convenience. Some believed her to have been intersexed, and in 1965 this led to an investigation of her mortal remains which showed she had a typical female body.^[16] Dr Carl-Herman Hjortsjö read the autopsy report on her, written the day after her death, and noted it mentioned nothing about atypical genitalia, so the rumours seem to have had little physical foundation.

Christina sat, talked, walked and moved in a manner her contemporaries described as masculine. She preferred men's company to women's unless the women were very beautiful, in which case she courted them. Likewise she enjoyed the company of other educated women, regardless of their looks. The noted passion of Christina's youth was her lady in waiting Countess Ebba Sparre. Most of her spare time was spent with 'la belle comtesse' - and she often called attention to her beauty. She introduced her to the English ambassador Whitelocke as her 'bed-fellow', assuring him that Sparre's intellect was as striking as her body.^[15] When Christina left Sweden she continued to write passionate love-letters to Sparre, in which she told her that she would always love her. However, such emotional letters were relatively common at that time, and Christina would use the same style when writing to women she had never met, but whose writings she admired.^[6] Later, when in Rome, she formed a close relationship with Cardinal Azzolino.

Legacy

Modern bust of Christina at Halmstad

The complex character of Christina has inspired numerous plays, books, and operatic works. August Strindberg's 1901 play Kristina depicts her as a protean, impulsive creature. "Each one gets the Christina he deserves," she remarks.^{[citation needed]} The Finnish author Zacharias Topelius' historical allegory Stjärnornas kungabarn also portrays her, like her father, as having a mercurial temperament, quick to anger, quicker to forgive. Kaari Utrio has also portrayed her tormented passions and thirst for love.

Christina's life was famously fictionalised in the classic feature film Queen Christina from 1933 starring Greta Garbo. This film, while entertaining, had almost nothing to do with the real Christina. Another feature film, The Abdication, starred the Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann, and was based on a play by Ruth Wolff.

In the Eric Flint alternate history universe portrayed in the 1632 series, Christina is a child living with Americans transposed to Germany. Since in this timeline Gustavus Adolphus is not killed she is still a princess, cooperative but requiring strong discipline to control her "terrifying intelligence."

Christina has become an icon for the lesbian and feminist communities (and inspired comedian Jade Esteban Estrada to portray her in the solo musical ICONS: The Lesbian and Gay History of the World (Vol. 2). Her cross-dressing has also made her a posthumous icon of the modern transgendered community.^{[citation needed]} Finnish author Laura Ruohonen wrote a play about her called "Queen C", which presents a woman centuries ahead of her time who lives by her own rules. Raised as a boy and known by the nickname "Girl King", she vexes her contemporaries with unconventional opinions about sexuality and human identity, and ultimately abdicates the throne. First performed at the Finnish National Theatre in 2002, the play has since been translated into nine languages and staged internationally.^{[citation needed]} The play has been performed at the Royal National Theatre in Sweden, as well as in Australia, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Germany and USA, and as a stage reading in many other countries.^{[citation needed]}

The Swedish settlement Fort Christina and the Christina River in North America (in present-day Delaware) were named in her honour.^{[citation needed]}

Ancestors

Christina's ancestors in three generations

			Gustav I of Sweden (Vasa)

		Charles IX of Sweden (Vasa)

			Margaret Leijonhufvud

	Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (Vasa)

			Adolf, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp

		Christina of Holstein-Gottorp

			Christine of Hesse

Christina of Sweden (Vasa)

			Joachim Frederick, Elector of Brandenburg

		John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg

			Catherine, Princess of Brandenburg-Küstrin

	Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg

			Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia

		Anna, Duchess of Prussia

			Marie Eleonore of Cleves

Christina House of Vasa Born: 8 December 1626 Died: 19 April 1689
Regnal titles
Preceded by Gustav II Adolf as King of Sweden	Queen regnant of Sweden 1632–1654	Succeeded by Karl X Gustav as King of Sweden
Preceded by Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen	Duchess regnant of Bremen and Princess regnant of Verden 1648–1654	Succeeded by Karl X Gustav as Duke of Bremen and Prince of Verden
Preceded by Prince-Bishopric of Verden

References

^ Alexandra was a confirmation name, chosen in honour of the reigning pope, Alexander VII. He had urged her to also add "Maria" in honour of the Virgin Mary, but she did not want it, and signed her name only "Christina Alexandra", although Catholic chroniclers have assigned "Maria" to her - Buckley, p.250.
^ Sweden.se
^ Elisabeth Aasen: Barokke damer, edited by Pax, Oslo 2003, ISBN 82-530-2817-2
^ "Christina Alexandra". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Christina_Alexandra.
^ Peter Englund: Sølvmasken (s. 159), edited by Spartacus, Oslo 2009, ISBN 978-82-430-0466-5
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Elisabeth Aasen: Barokke damer
^ Peter Englund: Sølvmasken (p. 27)
^ Peter Englund: Sølvmasken (p. 61)
^ Peter Englund: Sølvmasken (p. 64)
^ Kruse, Sabine (1992). "Rodrigo de Castro (um 1585-1640)". in Sabine Kruse and Bernt Engelmann. Mein Vater war portugiesischer Jude …: Die sefardische Einwanderung nach Norddeutschland um 1600 und ihre Auswirkungen auf unsere Kultur. Göttingen: Steidl. pp. 73ff..
^ Åmodt, Ola (2007). Roma - legender og merkverdigheter. Oslo: Fritt forlag. ISBN 978-8281790124.
^ Ola Åmodt: Roma - legender og merkverdigheter
^ Memoirs of Mademoiselle de Montpensier. H. Colburn, 1848. Page 48.
^ Ola Åmodt: Rome - legender og merkverdigheter
^ ^a ^b Buckley, Veronica (2004). Christina, Queen of Sweden: The Restless Life of a European Eccentric. London.
^ Buckley, Veronica (2004). Christina, Queen of Sweden: The Restless Life of a European Eccentric. London.

External links

Tomb of Queen Christina in the Vatican Grottoes
Monument to Queen Christina in St Peter's Basilica

Bibliography

"Christine of Sweden". Sweden.se. 1998-01-01. http://www.sweden.se/templates/cs/BasicFactsheet____4403.aspx.
"Queen Christina of Sweden". About: Women's History. http://womenshistory.about.com/od/rulerspre20th/p/queen_christina.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-20.
Åkerman, S. (1991). Queen Christina of Sweden and her circle : the transformation of a seventeenth century philosophical libertine. New York: E.J. Brill. ISBN 90-04-09310-9.
Veronica Buckley: Buckley, Veronica (2005). Christina; Queen of Sweden. London: Harper Perennial. ISBN 1-84115-736-8.
Meyer, Carolyn. Kristina, the Girl King: Sweden, 1638.
Essen-Möller, E. (1937). Drottning Christina. En människostudieur läkaresynpunkt. Lund: C.W.K. Gleerup.
Goldsmith, Margaret L. (1935). Christina of Sweden; a psychological biography. London: A. Barker Ltd.
Hjortsjö, Carl-Herman (1966). The Opening of Queen Christina's Sarcophagus in Rome. Stockholm: Norstedts.
Hjortsjö, Carl-Herman (1966). Queen Christina of Sweden: A medical/anthropological investigation of her remains in Rome (Acta Universitatis Lundensis). Lund: C.W.K. Gleerup.
Mender, Mona (1997). Extraordinary women in support of music. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. pp. 29–35.
von Platen, Magnus (1966). Christina of Sweden: Documents and Studies. Stockholm: National Museum.
Stolpe, Sven (1996). Drottning Kristina. Stockholm: Aldus/Bonnier.
Lars Löfgren: Svensk teater (Swedish Theatre)
Leif Jonsson, Ann-Marie Nilsson, Greger Andersson: Musiken i Sverige. Från forntiden till stormaktstidens slut 1720 ("Music in Sweden. From Antiquity to the end of the Great power era 1720") (Swedish)

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Christina of Sweden

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