A queen for all seasons

"Drottning Kristina" is a book by Dick Harrison about one of Sweden's strangest and most controversial monarchs, Christina (Kristina in Swedish), who ruled from 1644 to 1654.

Christina was the daughter of the warrior-king Gustavus Adolphus (Gustav II Adolf), who intervened on the Protestant side during the Thirty Year War, making Sweden a regional great power in the process. After a turbulent reign, Christina abdicated in 1654, left Sweden and - sensationally - converted to Catholicism. That the daughter of the feared "Lion from the North" would embrace the faith of his enemies was a huge propaganda victory for the papacy and an equally large scandal in the strictly Lutheran Sweden (were Catholicism was illegal). 

Harrison points out that Christina is an anomaly mostly because she was Swedish. Female rulers, high-ranking converts and royal abdications weren't unusual in Europe at the time, and neither were Christina's opulent feasts and celebrations, or prolific spending habits. They look weird only to an insular Swedish observer. Christina was actually a noblewoman very much in tune with her times. What makes here an oddity was that she was young (only 27 years old) when she abdicated, and thus could live an active life for decades after. 

Harrison is very "exoteric" in his approach to the queen. He hardly mentions the many extravagant speculations surrounding Christina, some of them modern, others from her own time. Was she a lesbian, a hermaphrodite, an esotericist seeking to change her gender through mysterious alchemical means? And why on earth did she convert to Catholicism? The pope often complained about her impious behavior... 

Instead, the author concentrates on her public actions: her Swedish and Italian intrigues, learned passtimes, extravagant feasts, and constant money-problems. It's actually quite interesting! 

"Drottning Kristina" is a good read for another reason, too. Harrison devotes several chapters to the broader Swedish context. How could Sweden, an underdeveloped nation with a small population, become a feared and respected great power? How did the class structure look like? What about the political, economic and fiscal systems? This author has a weird and wonderful way to summarize such complex topics in a popularized way! 

As a ruler, Christina was a near failure. Her political shenanigans in exile weren't much better. She gives the impression of having been an overconfident privileged girl obsessed with her supposed royal prerogatives. I wonder if she also inherited that infamous short temper from her illustrious Vasa ancestors? It was probably for the best that she abdicated, Christina being in her right element when concentrating on forming learned societies or throwing baroque masques... 

Despite not being a particularly "good" Catholic, Christina was eventually buried in the Church of St Peter in Rome, perhaps being one of the more colorful converts to "Holy Mother Church". 

Even so, I wonder about that alchemical transformation...