Christina of Sweden (18 December 1626 – 19 April 1689) was Queen of Sweden from 6 November 1632 to 6 June 1654, succeeding Gustavus Adolphus and preceding Charles X Gustav. Christina was famous for being one of the most educated women of the 17th century, her status as a patron of the arts, and for being a bisexual royal.
Biography[]
Christina as a child
Christina was born in Stockholm, Sweden on 18 December 1626, the daughter of King Gustavus Adolphus and Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg. Her father died at the Battle of Lutzen in 1632 during the Thirty Years' War, and Christina's mother went insane, keeping Gustav's body in an open-coffin state at her residence for eighteen months. Chancellor Axel Oxtenstierna later had the royal guards take Christina from her insane mother, and Oxtenstierna groomed Christina to become an efficient ruler upon her coming of age. She was educated as a royal male would have been, and she was known to be very intelligent and not at all effeminate.
Queen of Sweden[]
In 1644, she was declared an adult, but her coronation was delayed due to the "Torstenson War" with Denmark. The result of the war would be Sweden's conquest of several Danish possessions in Sweden proper. Christina came to have very different political views than Chancellor Oxtenstierna, as she supported immediate peace during the Thirty Years' War, while Oxtenstierna supported the continuation of the fight until victory was achieved. Oxtenstierna would later blame Sweden's limited gains in the 1648 Peace of Westphalia on Christina's undue interference in politics.
Christina was known to be a patron of the arts, as she was interested in religion, philosophy, mathematics and alchemy, and invited many students to Stockholm to learn the arts. Christina sought for Stockholm to become the "Athens of the North", and Christina herself would be nicknamed "the Minerva of the North", in reference to the Roman goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare. Christina was a very unusual ruler for her time, as she was a strong female ruler, an alleged atheist (as she ignored her Protestant tutors' protests at her reading the works of the Catholic philosopher Rene Descartes, and was not pious), and either lesbian or bisexual; she refused to marry, she had a relationship with Countess Ebba Sparre, and she dressed as a man.
Her controversial decision not to marry, her interest in converting to Catholicism, her sale or mortaging of crown property to increase the number of noble families from 300 to 600, and her alleged care for nothing but sport and pleasure led to Christina becoming unpopular. In 1654, she decided to abdicate the throne, and she left the country in man's clothing. She set off for Rome after becoming a Catholic, and she attempted to mediate between France and Spain in their contest to control Naples. She became a leader of the theatrical and musical life of Rome and protected many Baroque artists, composers, and musicians, and she lived as the guest of five consecutive popes. She died in Rome in 1689 at the age of 62, and she was one of the few women buried in the Vatican grotto.