Queen Kristina

Queen Kristina of Sweden

Queen Kristina is mostly known as the queen who abdicated and moved to Rome. The fact that she became a Catholic was one of the reasons that she did so. As a person she was highly gifted and widely reading. She was one of the most educated women in all times.

Kristina was born on December 8, 1627 in the old Stockholm castle "Three Crowns". She was Gustav II Adolf’s only child in his marriage to Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg. At court they were very disappointed because they wanted a male successor to the throne, so they gave her a male upbringing. At the death of her father in 1632 she was nearly 6 years old. Then Kristina replaced her father, but a regency Axel Oxenstierna ruled until she assumed full royal power in 1644. Her mother Queen Maria Elenora was seen indisposed to raise the daughter Kristina to be the regent of Sweden.

Queen Kristina

Maria Elenora

The counsel decided to separate the mother and the daughter. In 1640 the Queen Maria Elenora escaped to Denmark but returned to Sweden 8 years later.When Kristina was 9 years old, in 1636, she was taken care of by her aunt who belonged to the Pfalzic court in Stegeborg.
Kristina was a very clever girl. When she was 14 years old she started to rule a little bit. When she was 20, she could speak and write 7 different languages.

Kristina becomes a Catholic
The French minister Pierre Chanut in Stockholm, opened a closer acquaintance with Queen Kristina. He was one of her closest friends. Their conversations were mostly about the major philosophic and religious happenings of that time. This was one of the reasons why Kristina changed her faith and became a Catholic. One of the other reasons was that, inspite of high education and her interest of her subjects she was unable to solve the major social problems of her day. This meant that, in 1654, she decided to leave the crown. She was forced to do so.
Because of that the economic arrangement between the Swedish government and Kristina wasn’t concluded yet, Kristina didn’t want the people to know of this change.
The day after she had left the crown, Kristina begun a journey from Stockholm to a German harbour. There some ships had to take all Kristina’s valuables that she wanted to bring. She herself preferred to take the mainroad through Denmark to Hamburg. There she stayed a couple of days before the journey began to Antwerp and finally to Brussels in Belgium. On Christmas night in 1654 Kristina secretly took the oath of becoming a Catholic. This made it possible for her to meet the pope Alexander VII.

Kristina in Rome
The first days in Rome Kristina was a guest of the pope Alexander VII. She got a new name Maria Alexandra. When she entered Rome she was followed by over 200 people and some of them were Swedes. She wanted to be in focus in all ceremonies and give parties. She also wanted to be looked upon as a favourer of science and art. After the move to Rome and the change over to Catholicism, she began to go out of money. To try to get it right, she started to have a big interest in politics. One of the other reasons was that she wanted to be the queen in Naples. While Kristina lived in Italy she moved to several different places, Alexander VII for example the little town Pesaro by the Adriatic Sea and the palace in Riario. Kristina never married. In 1689 Kristina got a decease, and died a short time after.

Alexander VII

Still today scientists ask themselves "Why did Queen Kristina resign?" Was it because of her change to Catholicism, her unwillingness to get married or her interest in the Italian culture?

Writers: Linda Jogedal (sp00-11@park.se), Helena Pettersson (sp00-21@park.se) and Sara Häggqvist (sp00-09@park.se).
HTML by: Andreas Westin (nv01-23@park.se).