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employments of state is not nobility, but capa- | extended to the daily life, manners, and habicity." An excellent sentiment, but, like other tations of the people. They were simple, moexcellent sentiments, standing much in need ral and upright then as they are now; for of discrimination in the application. On one travellers in Sweden testify that overreaching occasion-the concluding of peace with Den- and incivility are unknown, and that you may mark in 1645, a step rendered necessary for with perfect safety leave your baggage on the the safety of Sweden-the queen was so satis- highway. Whitelocke recounts, that once fied with the highly advantageous terms pro- when travelling in Sweden, a casket of gold cured by Oxenstiern, that she presented him he was carrying with him burst open, and the with a large estate, created him a count, and contents were scattered on the highway. When pronounced his eulogium in the senate after every one brought to him what he had gatherthe manner of the ancients. We thus see ed, the exact sum was found to be restored. what a large measure of justice and generosity The people, however, were so ill clothed, that was mingled in the other qualities of a char- even the deputies appeared at the Diets in acter which presented, indeed, a strange tissue torn clothing. Among the middle and higher of contradictions. Her name is also honora- ranks, luxury was unknown. The houses of bly associated with the Peace of Westphalia, the most distinguished persons were unsightly, concluded in 1649, after a lengthened con- the rooms whitewashed and without decoragress, the most celebrated in modern Europe, tion, the furniture tasteless and uniform; at until that of Vienna. A woman, with her meals, a kind of canopy was placed over the fatal advice and her allowable ambition, had table, in case the spiders' webs should fall into been the principal cause of the Thirty Years' the food. Riding was usual, rarely were equiWar; a young queen of twenty-three, from pages used. The strangest old usages still her barren little kingdom in the north, now prevailed in dress; and there is a grave and stretched forth her sceptre, and commanded lengthened correspondence extant between peace. Another remarkable woman, the land- the Prince Palatine and his mother, as to whegravine of Hesse, shared with Christina in the ther he should have an everyday suit made, or glory of this peace, part of which has been begin to make use of one of his Sunday suits. claimed by the French historians for Anne of In 1644 lace was prohibited. In the time of Austria, who was nothing but an agent in the Gustavus Adolphus, there was more luxury in hands of her ministers. In this congress, food than formerly; still it consisted chiefly of Christina was represented by John Oxen- large joints of meat; rarely were cakes or stiern, son of the chancellor, and Adler Sal- pastry to be seen at the royal table; and the vius; and her correspondence with them shows same dishes of meat were often served up the a rare mixture of cunning, sagacity, impa- second day. The use of silver was almost untience and resolution. Salvius acted as a sort known; at the marriage of Gustavus Adolphus, of curb and spy on Oxenstiern, whom she sus- the company were served from tin vessels, pected of sharing his father s views, that the" because the king had none other servicecontinuance of the war was almost certain to able." His mother bargained for her own add to the possessions as well as to the glory of wine, and when a merchant presented his bill, Sweden. What Oxenstiern had gained by would beg for delay. Festivals and family making peace before, he now more than lost by meetings, baptisms, betrothals, and weddings his desire for continued war. All the eminent were destitute of all elegance; and such exservices of the family were forgotten, they cesses prevailed in eating, and especially in were treated with caprice and ingratitude, and drinking, that in 1664 an order was issued prothe great statesman suffered the usual penalty hibiting such celebrations. At the marriage of for having served his sovereign too well. Gustavus Adolphus, 177 awms of Rhine-wine Christina loved war and glory, often expressed were drunk, and 144 tons of beer, besides her desire to lead her own armies, and devot-other wines and spirits. Profane swearing edly admired Condé, who was her great hero. was quite usual, even in high ranks, and It is impossible, therefore, not to admire the strong sense, which, in the face of all these predilections, induced her, a young, wilful, powerful and unscrupulous woman, to insist on putting an end to a long and vexatious war.

among otherwise moral people-pervading even the most ordinary conversation; Christina herself being the most noted offender. Scuffles were of every day occurrence, even among the court attendants, who used to throw From contemporary writers-Stiermann, glasses in each other's faces. The nobility Arckenholtz, Puffendorf, and others, including were often most remarkable for a rudeness in our own ambassador Whitelocke-we learn life and manners, to which the long-continued something of the internal condition of Swe-war could not fail to contribute.

den at this period. The progress in cultiva- After the proclamation of peace, which was tion of the arts and sciences, introduced or celebrated by Christina with public rejoicings, encouraged by Gustavus, some of which were the States-general began again to press her still in a state of medieval darkness, had not on the subject of giving a king to Sweden,

and row proposed her cousin Charles Augus- Nero as an Augustus "—a likelihood which her tus, the connection of which they had formerly enemies echoed, only substituting the next debeen so jealous. In 1647, he had been ap- gree of comparison. At length the crown, by pointed general-in-chief of the Swedish forces the constitution of Sweden, not being strictly in Germany; he was brave and accomplished; elective, but the succession subject to the aphe had been her playfellow in childhood, when proval of the States, Christina having artfully she was wont in sport to call him her "little eluded all expression of her intentions, sudhusband;" he was the only suitor for whom denly declared Charles to be crown-prince of she had a personal regard; she always treated Sweden: the act was agreed to by the Diet, him with favor and distinction, but had never and signed in March 1650, the aged Oxenuttered a word on which he could build any stiern weeping and protesting as he signed; hope as a lover. When she was twenty-one, for either his sagacity foresaw, or there had he ventured gently to remind her of her child- already, it is alleged, reached him rumors of ish preference and promise; but she insisted the queen's intended final step of abdication. that all should be forgotten that had passed The same year, the coronation of Christina between them, adding, however, that when she was celebrated with prodigious pomp, the hewas twenty-five, she would declare her final ralds proclaiming her, according to the fashion resolution, and if she did not then marry him, of the country, king of Sweden. Crowned with she would not marry at all, and would take laurel, and sparkling with jewels, she paraded steps to secure his accession to the crown; to the streets seated in a car, drawn by four which he replied with much gallantry, that on white horses, after the manner described by any other terms than as her husband, he would Plutarch; her treasurer marching before and reject the offered crown. She gaily rallied scattering medals among the people. She was him on his romantic ideas; and when he would received at the entrance to the palace by the have gone on to protest, she stopped him, and queen-mother, who had now returned to Swesaid haughtily, that if he should die before the den. But what most delighted the people was period named, it was sufficient honor for him a triumphal car, which entered the arena durthat he had been thought worthy to aspire to ing the sports, and moved along the whole the hand of so great a queen. Šo saying, she length on hidden springs; also an artificial dismissed him. Puffendorf gives all this from mountain, forty feet high, representing Para memorandum left by Charles himself; and nassus, which glided, self-impelled, before the Mathias and Count de la Gardie were present astonished multitude, having a company of during the interview. Charles acted through- musicians seated on its summit, habited as out with the most consummate dexterity, Apollo and the Muses, filling the air with which probably would have succeeded with sounds of harmony. As a memorial of the any other woman; but besides that Christina, event, a lofty pyramid was erected with an inunlike our Queen Elizabeth, never conde- scription on it, drawing largely on the creduscended to contemptible and absurd coquetry, lity of the people, informing them in classical she believed, probably with good reason, that parlance, that it was erected by the three the prince's affections were more pure and di- Amazonian queens in honor of Christina. For rect towards the throne than to her who sat the last two years, Christina had devoted heron it; for when Constable Torstenson said to self to literature and science, to the neglect her, that the prince would never marry any of the duties of government, which will acone unless accepted by her majesty, she re- count for the nature of the displays and the marked sarcastically: "Yes, the crown is a flatteries of her learning, which were propretty girl." When Mathias ventured to hint nounced in almost every language, at her corothat the constitution of the kingdom obliged nation. She was now in correspondence with her to marry, he had to suffer a great outburst most of the learned men in Europe, and atof wrath. “Who upon earth," she exclaimed, tracted to her court men of science, real or "shall oblige me to do so, if I do it not of my pretended philosophers, whose interest and own free will?" Then admitting that the practice it was to flatter her vanity of her new good of her kingdom was a powerful motive, acquirements, causing her court to exhibit to which she might one day yield, but would that mixture of scholastic pedantry and elabo not be bound, she added: “Nor heaven, nor rate trifling so well ridiculed by Molière in his earth shall force my will!" Mathias remarked Femmes Savantes. The celebrated Grotius that all Europe had for years regarded the had been honored by Gustavus Adolphus, and prince as her destined husband. She replied: was afterwards, in the minority of Christina, "What care I? When people are tired of her ambassador to France. She treated him talking about me and my affairs, they will find with great distinction, and when against her some other subject of conversation." When entreaties, he resigned his office, owing to failpressed on another occasion on the score of ing health, she presented him with 12,000 giving an heir to the crown, she replied: "It crowns; and on his death, wrote a feeling letis just as likely I would be the mother of a ter to his mother, purchased his valuable

For intrepidity and presence of mind, when sudden danger assailed, she was remarkable. Two instances in proof of this are recorded. Three years before her coronation, when attending divine service one day in the palace church, at the close of the sermon, when all had knelt down to prayer, a man pressed through the crowd, and entered the gallery where the queen sat, unobserved by all but

library and manuscripts, and presented them her of great part of her curiosities and splento the university of Upsal. Since his death, did library. Having little real taste, and no Salmasius, the antagonist of Milton-a man experience in art, she had been cheated to an whose learning, Johnson says, "exceeded all incredible extent in medals, pictures, and hope of human attainment," which he render- sculptures. A story runs that at the instiga ed vain by failing to apply it-and Vossius, tion of an antiquarian pedant, she offered the celebrated theologian and antiquary, were 30,000 florins for a bronze medal of Otho; chiefly distinguished by Christina, and are con- and she actually cut down some really valua sidered to have exercised an evil influence on ble Italian pictures to fit the panels of one of her, unsettling her religious opinions, and en- her galleries. gaging her in vain metaphysical disputes. Both being men of bad lives, their moral influence was worse than the intellectual. Descartes, too, who had often boasted that he valued his liberty more than the smiles of the most powerful monarch, was won by the flatteries of Christina to visit her capital, where he died in four months-a beacon to all vain boasters to ponder the words, "let him who thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." He had stipulated to be freed Count Brahe, who called to the guards; which from court ceremonial, but the queen required the queen hearing, she arose, and with the his attendance in her library every morning utmost composure, touched the chief guardsat five. This exertion, and the coldness of man, who was still on his knees. He sprang the climate threw him into a consumption. up and seized the man by the hair, when he The single consolation he enjoyed-that of was within two steps of Christina. He had quietly conversing with and looking on the one knife in his sleeve, ready to strike, and beauty of the Princess Palatine, the daughter another in his pocket; and turned out to be a of Elizabeth of Bohemia-was denied him; teacher in the Gymnasium, who had of late and so haughtily resented by the queen, that shown symptoms of unsoundness of mind. the issue of his fatal malady was thereby has- The queen protected him from the popular tened. On the most unworthy of her literary rage, and desired him to be placed under profavorites, who embroiled her court with their per restraint. On another occasion, when on disputes, she lavished immense sums, in re- her way to visit her fleet in the harbor, and ward of their flattery, which degraded litera- passing along a plank from her barge to the ture in the eyes of her simple, rough Swedes. vessel, Admiral Flemming, on whose arm she To gratify her whims, she would make grave leaned, slipped and fell into the water, dragand profound scholars play with her at battle-ging his royal mistress after him by clinging door and shuttlecock; and once made two fa- to her dress. When extricated with difficulty mous Greek scholars perform a Greek dance by her equerry, she called out to them to save for her amusement. What most deeply offend- the admiral, who had sunk; and when he was ed her people, however, was the partiality she afterwards loudly blamed for endangering her showed for a French physician called Bourde- life, she excused him, on the plea of the strong lot, an ignorant, insolent quack, whose powers instinct of self-preservation; and added laughof pleasing consisted in singing little airs, and ingly: "You should rather praise than blame playing on the guitar, being knowing in the him, for he had certainly been drowned had cuisine and in all sorts of perfumes. Having he acted otherwise." She changed her dress, persuaded her that study would injure her and dined in public as if nothing had hap health, she threw aside her books, and insult-pened. She was also the first to discover a fire ed the very men she had invited to her court. which broke out in her own palace, and which He ridiculed or slandered all who possessed lasted from six at night till three in the mornher confidence, and was the cause of the dis- ing, consuming her suite of drawing-rooms, grace of De la Gardie. Her mother remonstrated in vain, till at length the murmurs of her people could no longer be silenced, and she dismissed this creature, loaded with presents; but no sooner was he gone, than she ridiculed him in turn; and threw from her his first letter, saying: "Fy, it smells of rhubarb!" and began now to call him her "agrèeable ignorant." During his influence, which lasted little more than a year, the rest of her former so-called learned favorites amused and revenged themselves by unmercifully pillaging

among other damage. She remained amidst the tumult, and nearly choked with smoke, till papers and valuables were as far as possible saved.

Since the Count de la Gardie had fallen into disfavor, the Oxenstierns had regained their former influence, and Bourdelot had been succeeded by the Spanish ambassador Pimentelli, a man as elegant and polished as the other was low and coarse. Being of insinuating manners and matchless political skill, the Spanish interests supplanted those of France;

and he is said to have fixed the wavering and services to her people, she tendered her mind of the queen in favor of Roman Catholicism. At this period, all her duties seem to have become irksome to her. She who had formerly outwearied all by her devotion to business, could now scarcely be got to sign necessary State-papers. She would turn away from her secretary, and say to Prince Charles: "Will you never deliver me from these people? Ce sont pour moi le diable?"

resignation, commending her successor to their loyalty and affection. The president of the senate, in the name of the nobles, the archbishop of Upsal, in that of the clergy, and the chief burgher, in the name of the citizens, severally made speeches of remonstrance. There then followed a scene which is thus described in Whitelocke's Journal: "In the last place stepped forth the marshal of the boors, a plain During her short reign the country had country fellow, in his clouted shoon, and all gained much in taste, and many luxuries had other habits answerable, as all the rest of the been introduced and improvements effected. company were accoutred; this boor, without Several of the towns had been increased, and any congees or ceremonies at all, spake to her palaces had arisen in place of hovels; great majesty, and his address was after this phrase: additions had been made to the royal palace, O Lord God, madam, what do you mean to which was formerly of the most simple de- do? It humbles us to hear you speak of forscription, and the apartments provided with saking those who love you as well as we do; costly furniture; services of silver were not can you be better than you are? You are only used in the palace, where tin had former-queen of all these countries, and if you leave ly sufficed at the wedding-feast of Gustavus, this large kingdom, where will you get such but Oxenstiern gave a banquet to Whitelocke, another? If you should do it—as I hope you at which flourished a whole service of silver. won't for all this-both you and we shall have While advances in taste and luxury told of cause, when it is too late, to be sorry for it; outward improvement, the queen had suffered therefore, my fellows and I pray you to think abuses to creep into the administration, and better on't, and keep your crown on your all her affairs were entangled; her revenues head, then you will keep your own honor and were exhausted, and the crown-lands alienated our peace; but if you lay it down, in my conby her profusion. Remonstrance was met by science, you will endanger all. Continue in impatience; she was at once jealous of her your gears, good madam, and be the fore-horse authority, and weary of the restraints it im- as long as you live, and we will help you the posed. She would plunge into a round of best we can to bear your burden. Your father amusements, invent masques and ballets, in was an honest gentleman and a good king, and which she performed a principal part. Once very shining in the world, and we obeyed him she performed the part of Amarantha, in a and loved him as long as he lived, and you are pastoral, and then instituted the order of the his child, and have governed us very well, and Amarantha," which she bestowed on persons we love you with all our hearts; and the of both sexes in her court and on some of the prince is an honest gentleman, and when the foreign ambassadors. When not excited by time comes, we shall be ready to do our duties such pastimes, she was moody and fretful-she to him as we do to you. But as long as you sighed for the independence of a private sta- live we are unwilling to part with you; and, tion; in southern climes she might dream out therefore, I pray, madam, do not part with us." an existence such as her beloved classic poets When the boor had ended his speech, he wadknew how to invest with every charm; and dled up to the queen without any ceremony, having found that, to enact for a night, the took her by the hand and shaked it heartily, written drama only brought satiety after it, and kissed it two or three times; then, turnshe resolved to treat the world to a real dra-ing his back to her, he pulled out of his pocket ma, which would not only dazzle and confound a foul handkerchief, and wiped the tears from the present, but all future generations.

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his eyes; and, in the same posture as he came When, in 1654, Christina first declared her up, he returned back to his place again." intention of abdicating, it seemed so unlikely Christina was equally unmoved by homely as a step for a young woman of twenty-eight, by studied eloquence. On the 6th of June fond of power and glory, her people were fain following she appeared in the hall of assembly to regard it as a whim-a sort of threat to for the last time as a sovereign. Clad in the excite wonder, but which she would never put royal mantle of blue velvet and ermine, emin execution. When she persisted in her dec- broidered all over with little gold crowns, the laration, the whole senate, with Oxenstiern at sceptre in her hand, and the crown on her their head, remonstrated, but in vain. Prince head, she mounted her high silver throne, and Charles added his entreaties in a seemingly having read the act of renunciation, she reearnest and honest manner. All doubt was at leased her subjects from their oath of allegian end when, in an assemblage of the States ance, and made a sign to Count Brahé to at Upsal, on the 21st of May, in an eloquent advance and remove the crown from her head. speech, in which she vaunted her own virtues On his hesitating to do so she took it off her

self, and presented it to her successor, who favored face, and a mild countenance." This received it kneeling, never wore it in her from the sister of Charles, who, besides other presence, and caused a medal to be struck reasons, could not be expected to judge favorrepresenting this scene, with the inscription, ably of the devoted admirer of Cromwell. "I hold it from God and from Christina." Here, also, she met with her favorite hero When she threw aside the royal mantle it was Condé, of which interview Elizabeth writes: seized and torn in pieces by the multitude, "The meeting betwixt the queen of Sweden each being anxious to obtain a portion as a relic.

He

and the Prince of Condé was to neither of their content, for he desired to be received as With this strange outburst ended the popu- she received the archduke (Leopold, stadtlarity of the queen. The people at once be- holder of the Netherlands), which she refused, gan to discover in her abdication an abandon- saying she had done too much in that and ment of her duties; in her love of foreigners would do so no more; yet he came to see her and foreign countries a want of patriotism. brusquement à l'improvist, and did nothing but Seeing the immense property she was carrying railler her in his talk, which put her so out as out of the kingdom in jewels, gold and silver, she said almost not one word. This was the and other articles of value to the amount of morning: after dinner she sent to know if he some millions of crowns, their indignation was would see the play at night; he said he would so great that serious thoughts were entertained obey her, but desired to know whether he of arresting her, and forcing her either to re- should come known or as unknown; for if side in the kingdom, or to give up the pension he came as Prince of Condé, he looked to assigned to her, and the rich treasures she was have a chaise-a-bras as the archduke had. She carrying off. Rumors of this intention having said he had better come unknown; so he reached her, she changed her route in great came; and she stood all the play raillant with alarm; refused the escort of armed vessels de- Monsieur Quito, the prince's favorite. The signed by Charles to convey her from the next day the prince went to Brussels, neither shores of Sweden, and set out so secretly that of them well satisfied with the other." When her departure resembled a flight, her princi- the queen herself repaired to Brussels, she pal attendants, even, not knowing whither was received in great state by the archduke, they were going. She scarcely breathed free- although she seems to have been very distastely till she reached the frontiers, when she ful to him, for Elizabeth says: "I believe the threw off all restraint, dismissed her women, archduke wishes her at Antwerp, for she perretaining in her service only four gentlemen, secutes him very close with her company, and two of whom were Count Dohna, her cham- you know he is a very modest man." berlain, and Count Steinberg, her equerry, seems to have lodged her for a time, for the and a few inferior servants. She travelled on queen of Bohemia, in her letters to Secretary horseback, under a feigned name, and quitted Nicholas, from which we have quoted-to be her kingdom with childish delight, glorying in seen in Evelyn's Correspondence-thus cona freedom she was certain to find more irk- cludes: "As for the archduke, he may thank some than the restraints from which she had God to be rid of the queen of Sweden, who escaped; for, from the grave defects in her is lodged at the Count of Egmont's house in character and education, she was still less Brussels, where she stays all the winter." The fitted for private life than for wielding a scep- day after her formal entrance into Brussels, tre. She had shown no feeling on her depar- on Christmas-eve, 1654, she made a private ture, and no one regretted her. From Ebba recantation of the Lutheran faith, and proSparre, now the wife of Count Jacob de la fessed herself a convert to the Romish Church, Gardie, and whom she seems to have loved as in the presence of the archduke, the Spanish well as she could love, she parted without a ambassador, the Count Montecuculi, and a few tear; as also from her mother, who was, we others. She afterwards heard mass, and reare told, "sick with grief, mortification and ceived the communion. This act, though priincessant weeping." Old Chancellor Oxens-vate, was celebrated publicly by balls, mastiern feigned illness, shut himself up, and querades, and hunting-parties. Cardinal Mazwould not assist at any of the ceremonies at- arin sent a company of comedians from Paris, tending the abdication or coronation. whose performances in French and Italian Christina, on her way to the Netherlands, operas and plays greatly delighted Christina took the route of Hamburg, where she resided-rather a rare and novel way for a priest to some days in the house of her banker, a rich do honor to such a solemnity, but more than Jew. The first considerable stay she made solemn enough to match with the levity and was in Antwerp, where she met the unfortu- impiety of her who is said, after receiving abnate Elizabeth, ex-queen of Bohemia, who solution from a Dominican father, to have thus writes of her: "I saw the queen of Swe- uttered the words: "If there is a God, I shall den at the play; she is extravagant in her be well caught." In a letter to Ebba Sparre, fashion and apparel, but she has a good, well-written at this time, she describes her occu

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