She was born on a bitterly cold December night in 1626 and, in the candlelight, mistakenly declared a boy. On her father's death six years later, she inherited the Swedish throne. She was tutored by Descartes, yet could swear like the roughest soldier. She was painted a lesbian, a prostitute, a hermaphrodite, and an atheist; in that tumultuous age, it is hard to determine which was the most damning label. She was learned but restless, progressive yet self-indulgent; her leadership was erratic, her character unpredictable. Sweden was too narrow for her ambition. No sooner had she enjoyed the lavish celebrations of her officialcoronation at twenty-three than she abdicated, converting to Catholicism (an act of almost foolhardy independence and political challenge) and leaving her cold homeland behind for an extravagant new life in Rome. Christina, Queen of Sweden, longed fatally for adventure.

Freed from her crown, Christina cut a breath-taking path across Europe: spending madly, searching for a more prestigious throne to scale, stirring trouble wherever she went. Supported and encouraged in turn by the pope, the king of Spain, and France's powerful Cardinal Mazarin, Christina settled at the luxurious Palazzo Farnese, where she established a lavish salon for Rome's artists and intellectuals. More than once the cross-dressing queen was forced to leave town until a scandal died down. She loved to buckle on a sword and swagger like the men whose company she adored, but the greatest mystery in her life was the true nature of her elusive sexuality, which biographer Veronica Buckley explores with sensitivity and rigor. For a time it seemed there was nothing this extraordinary woman might fear attempting, until a bloody tragedy of her own making foreshadowed her downfall.

Pairing painstaking research with a sparkling narrative voice and unerring sense of the age, Veronica Buckley reclaims a protean life that had been preserved mostly as myth. Christina was a child of her time, and her time was one of great change: Europe stood at a crossroads where religion and science, antiquity and modernity, peace and war all met. Christina took what she wanted from each to create the life she most desired, and she dazzled all who met her.

Christina, Queen of Sweden

The Restless Life of a European EccentricBy Buckley, Veronica

Fourth Estate

ISBN: 0060736178

Chapter One

Birth of a Prince

In the spring of 1620, a delegation of German nobles made their way along the river Spree toward the town of Berlin. The town wasnot what it had been; years of plague had depleted its people, and its oncethriving trade had dwindled to the narrow service of luxury goods to its residentcourt. Now, among the low wooden buildings, only the vast old castleimpressed upon the visitor that Berlin was still a place of power, the residenceof the Hohenzollern family of Brandenburg, electors of the Holy Roman Empire.To them, together with six other princes, fell the privilege and the dutyof electing the empire's ruler. In Berlin, a new elector, the young Georg Wilhelm,had held his stately office for just a year.

Now, toward the castle, the nobles rode, down the bridle path under thelinden trees that would one day give their name to the town's most lovelythoroughfare. The delegation was led by Johann Kasimir, the Count of Pfalz-Zweibrücken, and in his train were two young gentlemen who had joinedhim from the homeland of his wife, the Princess Katarina of Sweden. One ofthese was "Adolf Karlsson," a strongly built and handsome man with theblond hair and keen blue eyes of the north. The other, his friend, was JohanHand, an eager observer of all that passed and who kept a lively record of thejourney in the pages of his personal diary.

The count was related to the elector's wife, Elisabeth, and it was ostensiblyto see this princess that he had made his present journey. The visit had beentimed strategically, for the Elector Georg Wilhelm himself was not at home,nor did the count regret his absence. A matter of importance was now at hand,in which the elector's mother, the Electress Dowager Anna, would cast the decidingvote. The count had hopes of persuading her to his own views, and heknew that Anna would hear him more readily if her son was not there to speak against him. The matter at hand was no less than the marriage of Anna'sdaughter, Maria Eleonora, and the proposed bridegroom was the count's ownbrother-in-law, Gustav Adolf, King of Sweden. He had made the journey himself,just to have a look at the lady, for "Adolf Karlsson" was in fact the king.

A marriage between Maria Eleonora, now age twenty, and Gustav Adolf,five years her senior, had been under consideration for some years already. Offersfor the hand of the young countess were not wanting: among her suitorsshe could boast Gustav Adolf 's cousin, the Crown Prince Wladyslaw Vasa ofPoland, and Prince Charles Stuart, heir to the English throne. Her father hadbeen ambivalent toward a possible Swedish match, but his son, the new elector,had taken a clear stand against it. Sweden was a fiercely Protestant land,and he had no wish to antagonize the Catholic emperor, or the king of neighboringCatholic Poland, whose vast country lay only two days' march fromBerlin. The Swedes were already at war there, and Georg Wilhelm thoughtlittle of their chance of victory. Though a Calvinist himself, and ruler of aLutheran state, he felt his sister would do better to marry the Crown Prince ofPoland. In the Habsburg lands, not so far to the south, the emperor had recentlyreasserted his power over the luckless Protestants of Bohemia, whoseill-starred "Winter King" was the brother of Georg Wilhelm's own wife. Religiousneutrality seemed the wisest course as the match set in Prague began tokindle. But by family custom it was the privilege of the electress to decide herdaughter's marriage, and on this the Swedes had pinned their hopes. An alliancewith Brandenburg could strengthen their hand against Poland, andmight hasten the formation of a new bloc of Protestant states against theCatholic Habsburgs. The elector's fear was Gustav Adolf 's hope.

For his journey now, however, the young king had paid a great personalprice. A spirited and warmhearted man, he had been passionately in love withthe daughter of one of Sweden's noblest families, the beautiful Ebba Brahe.Ebba had returned his love, but the king's strongminded mother had felt thata match between them would not serve Sweden's diplomatic interests. Intriguingand determined, she had set to with a will to break off the romance,at one point even laying her own violent hand on the lovers' go-between. Indue course, she had succeeded. Ebba was married off to the scion of anothernoble family. The sad and disappointed king dispatched a beautiful letter offarewell, wishing his love "a thousand nights of gladness" in her husband'sarms, and at length he turned his thoughts toward Brandenburg, where hismother's gaze had long been fixed.

Happily, the object of his present attentions was well formed and incitednew passion in the young man's heart. Maria Eleonora was a genuine beauty,her figure rounded, her face soft and full, with a sweet bow mouth, a strongnose, and large, beautiful eyes. She was blond, and her manner was lively,giving an impression of girlish gaiety to all those who saw her.

At first, though, it seemed that her young suitor might not succeed in seeingher at all. Her father had died in the previous December, and the courtwas still in mourning. Dark hangings draped the rooms, and the few permittedcandles flickered on his doleful, black-garbed retainers. Five months afterhis death, the old elector's body lay, embalmed but still unburied, in the castlechapel. The usual bustling life of the court was suspended, and visitorsreceived only the simplest civilities. But the pulse of youth was strong in theburgeoning spring, and besides, Gustav Adolf could not afford to wait; therewas too much to do at home ...

Continues...

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