by Mary Gindling

Created on: June 20, 2009

Queen Christina of Sweden did her best to take her father's place among his people. But in the end, she gave up her throne to follow a different destiny.

A Royal Birth

In 1626, Sweden celebrated the birth of a baby to their King and his Queen. But instead of a prince, the royal family welcomed a new little princess named Christina. Her father was the legendary warrior-king Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. Her mother was Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg.

Gustavus Adolphus readily accepted the little princess instead of the hoped-for male heir, but her disappointed mother never forgave Christina for being a girl. It is likely that the Queen's attitude influenced Christina's own attitudes and actions throughout her life.

The King is Dead

The little princess became queen at the age of six when her father died of wounds sustained in the Battle of Lutzen in 1632 during the Thirty Years' War. She had last seen her father two years before his death, but she idolized him. Gustavus Adolphus' chancellor, the great Axel Oxenstierna, ruled Sweden as regent until Christina took over her duties as Queen in 1644, and continued as her chief minister throughout her reign.

Christina Rules the Swedes

Gustavus Adolphus was a hard act to follow, but Christina did her best to rule Sweden, and proved to be quite capable, at least for the first years of her reign. She was instrumental in negotiating the Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years War very favorably for Sweden. She worked to expand trade and built up a powerful Swedish mercantile fleet.

With the aid of her father's old minister of finance, Louis de Geer, Christina supported the founding of a West African trading company which ultimately failed when the Swedes were unable to hold a part of the coast of Ghana. She also supported Oxtenstierna's attempt to found a colony called Fort Christina (now Wilmington, Delaware), located at the mouth of the Delaware River. The Swedes were unable to resist the Dutch colonies to the north and eventually were forced to retreat.

Christina had a brilliant mind and an intense curiosity. She loved art and literature, especially the works of Titian and Rafael, and she encouraged scholars from France and the Netherlands to come to Stockholm. Unfortunately, the journey proved dangerous to two great scholars. Grotius, a noted jurist and theologian, left Stockholm to return to Holland at the beginning of the winter of 1645, but died on his way home. The great Rene Descartes served

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>