by Lyndon Orr
QUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN AND THE MARQUIS MONALDESCHI
Sweden to-day is one of the peaceful kingdoms of the world, whosepeople are prosperous, well governed, and somewhat apart from the clashand turmoil of other states and nations. Even the secession of Norway,a few years ago, was accomplished without bloodshed, and now the twokingdoms exist side by side as free from strife as they are withDenmark, which once domineered and tyrannized over both.
It is difficult to believe that long ago, in the Middle Ages, thecities of southern Sweden were among the great commercial centers ofthe world. Stockholm and Lund ranked with London and Paris. Theyabsorbed the commerce of the northern seas, and were the admiration ofthousands of travelers and merchants who passed through them andtrafficked with them.
Much nearer to our own time, Sweden was the great military power ofnorthern Europe. The ambassadors of the Swedish kings were receivedwith the utmost deference in every court. Her soldiers won greatbattles and ended mighty wars. The England of Cromwell and Charles II.was unimportant and isolated in comparison with this northern kingdom,which could pour forth armies of gigantic blond warriors, headed bygenerals astute as well as brave.
It was no small matter, then, in 1626, that the loyal Swedes werehoping that their queen would give birth to a male heir to succeed hissplendid father, Gustavus Adolphus, ranked by military historians asone of the six great generals whom the world had so far produced. Thequeen, a German princess of Brandenburg, had already borne twodaughters, who died in infancy. The expectation was wide-spread andintense that she should now become the mother of a son and the kinghimself was no less anxious.
When the event occurred, the child was seen to be completely coveredwith hair, and for this reason the attendants at first believed that itwas the desired boy. When their mistake was discovered they were afraidto tell the king, who was waiting in his study for the announcement tobe made. At last, when no one else would go to him, his sister, thePrincess Caroline, volunteered to break the news.
Gustavus was in truth a chivalrous, high-bred monarch. Though he musthave been disappointed at the advent of a daughter, he showed no signof dissatisfaction or even of surprise; but, rising, he embraced hissister, saying:
"Let us thank God. I hope this girl will be as good as a boy to me. MayGod preserve her now that He has sent her!"
It is customary at almost all courts to pay less attention to the birthof a princess than to that of a prince; but Gustavus displayed hischivalry toward this little daughter, whom he named Christina. Heordered that the full royal salute should be fired in every fortress ofhis kingdom and that displays of fireworks, balls of honor, and courtfunctions should take place; "for," as he said, "this is the heir to mythrone." And so from the first he took his child under his own keepingand treated her as if she were a much-loved son as well as a successor.
He joked about her looks when she was born, when she was mistaken for aboy.
"She will be clever," he said, "for she has taken us all in!"
The Swedish people were as delighted with their little princess as werethe people of Holland when the present Queen Wilhelmina was born, tocarry on the succession of the House of Orange. On one occasion theking and the small Christina, who were inseparable companions, happenedto approach a fortress where they expected to spend the night. Thecommander of the castle was bound to fire a royal salute of fiftycannon in honor of his sovereign; yet he dreaded the effect upon theprincess of such a roaring and bellowing of artillery. He thereforesent a swift horseman to meet the royal party at a distance and explainhis perplexity. Should he fire these guns or not? Would the king givean order?
Gustavus thought for a moment, and then replied:
"My daughter is the daughter of a soldier, and she must learn to lead asoldier's life. Let the guns be fired!"
The procession moved on. Presently fire spurted from the embrasures ofthe fort, and its batteries thundered in one great roar. The kinglooked down at Christina. Her face was aglow with pleasure andexcitement; she clapped her hands and laughed, and cried out:
"More bang! More! More! More!"
This is only one of a score of stories that were circulated about theprincess, and the Swedes were more and more delighted with the girl whowas to be their queen.
Somewhat curiously, Christina's mother, Queen Maria, cared little forthe child, and, in fact, came at last to detest her almost as much asthe king loved her. It is hard to explain this dislike. Perhaps she hada morbid desire for a son and begrudged the honors given to a daughter.Perhaps she was a little jealous of her own child, who took so much ofthe king's attention. Afterward, in writing of her mother, Christinaexcuses her, and says quite frankly:
She could not bear to see me, because I was a girl, and an ugly girl atthat. And she was right enough, for I was as tawny as a little Turk.
This candid description of herself is hardly just. Christina was neverbeautiful, and she had a harsh voice. She was apt to be overbearingeven as a little girl. Yet she was a most interesting child, with anexpressive face, large eyes, an aquiline nose, and the blond hair ofher people. There was nothing in this to account for her mother'sintense dislike for her.
It was currently reported at the time that attempts were made to maimor seriously injure the little princess. By what was made to seem anaccident, she would be dropped upon the floor, and heavy articles offurniture would somehow manage to strike her. More than once a greatbeam fell mysteriously close to her, either in the palace or while shewas passing through the streets. None of these things did her seriousharm, however. Most of them she luckily escaped; but when she had grownto be a woman one of her shoulders was permanently higher than theother.
"I suppose," said Christina, "that I could be straightened if I wouldlet the surgeons attend to it; but it isn't worth while to take thetrouble."
When Christina was four, Sweden became involved in the great war thathad been raging for a dozen years between the Protestant and theCatholic states of Germany. Gradually the neighboring powers had beendrawn into the struggle, either to serve their own ends or to supportthe faith to which they adhered. Gustavus Adolphus took up the swordwith mixed motives, for he was full of enthusiasm for the imperiledcause of the Reformation, and at the same time he deemed it a favorableopportunity to assert his control over the shores of the Baltic.
The warrior king summoned his army and prepared to invade Germany.Before departing he took his little daughter by the hand and led heramong the assembled nobles and councilors of state. To them heintrusted the princess, making them kneel and vow that they wouldregard her as his heir, and, if aught should happen to him, as hissuccessor. Amid the clashing of swords and the clang of armor this vowwas taken, and the king went forth to war.
He met the ablest generals of his enemies, and the fortunes of battleswayed hither and thither; but the climax came when his soldiersencountered those of Wallenstein--that strange, overbearing, arrogant,mysterious creature whom many regarded with a sort of awe. The clashcame at Lutzen, in Saxony. The Swedish king fought long and hard, andso did his mighty opponent; but at last, in the very midst of atremendous onset that swept all before him, Gustavus received a mortalwound and died, even while Wallenstein was fleeing from the field ofbattle.
The battle of Lutzen made Christina Queen of Sweden at the age of six.Of course, she could not yet be crowned, but a council of ableministers continued the policy of the late king and taught the youngqueen her first lessons in statecraft. Her intellect soon showed itselfas more than that of a child. She understood all that was taking place,and all that was planned and arranged. Her tact was unusual. Herdiscretion was admired by every one; and after a while she had theadvice and training of the great Swedish chancellor, Oxenstierna, whosewisdom she shared to a remarkable degree.
Before she was sixteen she had so approved herself to her counselors,and especially to the people at large, that there was a wide-spreadclamor that she should take the throne and govern in her own person. Tothis she gave no heed, but said:
"I am not yet ready."
All this time she bore herself like a king. There was nothingdistinctly feminine about her. She took but slight interest in herappearance. She wore sword and armor in the presence of her troops, andoften she dressed entirely in men's clothes. She would take long,lonely gallops through the forests, brooding over problems of state andfeeling no fatigue or fear. And indeed why should she fear, who wasbeloved by all her subjects?
When her eighteenth year arrived, the demand for her coronation wasimpossible to resist. All Sweden wished to see a ruling queen, whomight marry and have children to succeed her through the royal line ofher great father. Christina consented to be crowned, but she absolutelyrefused all thought of marriage. She had more suitors from all parts ofEurope than even Elizabeth of England; but, unlike Elizabeth, she didnot dally with them, give them false hopes, or use them for thepolitical advantage of her kingdom.
At that time Sweden was stronger than England, and was so situated asto be independent of alliances. So Christina said, in her harsh,peremptory voice:
"I shall never marry; and why should you speak of my having children! Iam just as likely to give birth to a Nero as to an Augustus."
Having assumed the throne, she ruled with a strictness of governmentsuch as Sweden had not known before. She took the reins of state intoher own hands and carried out a foreign policy of her own, over theheads of her ministers, and even against the wishes of her people. Thefighting upon the Continent had dragged out to a weary length, but theSwedes, on the whole, had scored a marked advantage. For this reasonthe war was popular, and every one wished it to go on but Christina,of her own will, decided that it must stop, that mere glory was not tobe considered against material advantages. Sweden had had enough ofglory; she must now look to her enrichment and prosperity through thechannels of peace.
Therefore, in 1648, against Oxenstierna, against her generals, andagainst her people, she exercised her royal power and brought theThirty Years' War to an end by the so-called Peace of Westphalia. Atthis time she was twenty-two, and by her personal influence she hadended one of the greatest struggles of history. Nor had she done it toher country's loss. Denmark yielded up rich provinces, while Germanywas compelled to grant Sweden membership in the German diet.
Then came a period of immense prosperity through commerce, througheconomies in government, through the improvement of agriculture and theopening of mines. This girl queen, without intrigue, without descendingfrom her native nobility to peep and whisper with shady diplomats,showed herself in reality a great monarch, a true Semiramis of thenorth, more worthy of respect and reverence than Elizabeth of England.She was highly trained in many arts. She was fond of study, spoke Latinfluently, and could argue with Salmasius, Descartes, and otheraccomplished scholars without showing any inferiority to them.
She gathered at her court distinguished persons from all countries. Sherepelled those who sought her hand, and she was pure and truthful andworthy of all men's admiration. Had she died at this time history wouldrank her with the greatest of women sovereigns. Naude, the librarian ofCardinal Mazarin, wrote of her to the scientist Gassendi in these words:
To say truth, I am sometimes afraid lest the common saying should beverified in her, that short is the life and rare the old age of thosewho surpass the common limits. Do not imagine that she is learned onlyin books, for she is equally so in painting, architecture, sculpture,medals, antiquities, and all curiosities. There is not a cunningworkman in these arts but she has him fetched. There are as goodworkers in wax and in enamel, engravers, singers, players, dancers hereas will be found anywhere.
She has a gallery of statues, bronze and marble, medals of gold,silver, and bronze, pieces of ivory, amber, coral, worked crystal,steel mirrors, clocks and tables, bas-reliefs and other things of thekind; richer I have never seen even in Italy; finally, a great quantityof pictures. In short, her mind is open to all impressions.
But after she began to make her court a sort of home for art andletters it ceased to be the sort of court that Sweden was prepared for.Christina's subjects were still rude and lacking in accomplishments;therefore she had to summon men of genius from other countries,especially from France and Italy. Many of these were illustriousartists or scholars, but among them were also some who used theirmental gifts for harm.
Among these latter was a French physician named Bourdelot--a man ofkeen intellect, of winning manners, and of a profound cynicism, whichwas not apparent on the surface, but the effect of which last lasting.To Bourdelot we must chiefly ascribe the mysterious change whichgradually came over Queen Christina. With his associates he taught hera distaste for the simple and healthy life that she had been accustomedto lead. She ceased to think of the welfare of the state and began tolook down with scorn upon her unsophisticated Swedes. Foreign luxurydisplayed itself at Stockholm, and her palaces overflowed withbeautiful things.
By subtle means Bourdelot undermined her principles. Having been aStoic, she now became an Epicurean. She was by nature devoid ofsentiment. She would not spend her time in the niceties of love-making,as did Elizabeth; but beneath the surface she had a sort of tigerish,passionate nature, which would break forth at intervals, and whichdemanded satisfaction from a series of favorites. It is probable thatBourdelot was her first lover, but there were many others whose namesare recorded in the annals of the time.
When she threw aside her virtue Christina ceased to care aboutappearances. She squandered her revenues upon her favorites. What sheretained of her former self was a carelessness that braved the opinionof her subjects. She dressed almost without thought, and it is saidthat she combed her hair not more than twice a month. She caroused withmale companions to the scandal of her people, and she swore like atrooper when displeased.
Christina's philosophy of life appears to have been compounded of analmost brutal licentiousness, a strong love of power, and a strange,freakish longing for something new. Her political ambitions werechecked by the rising discontent of her people, who began to look downupon her and to feel ashamed of her shame. Knowing herself as she did,she did not care to marry.
Yet Sweden must have an heir. Therefore she chose out her cousinCharles, declared that he was to be her successor, and finally causedhim to be proclaimed as such before the assembled estates of the realm.She even had him crowned; and finally, in her twenty-eighth year, sheabdicated altogether and prepared to leave Sweden. When asked whithershe would go, she replied in a Latin quotation:
"The Fates will show the way."
In her act of abdication she reserved to herself the revenues of someof the richest provinces in Sweden and absolute power over such of hersubjects as should accompany her. They were to be her subjects untilthe end.
The Swedes remembered that Christina was the daughter of their greatestking, and that, apart from personal scandals, she had ruled them well;and so they let her go regretfully and accepted her cousin as theirking. Christina, on her side, went joyfully and in the spirit of agrand adventuress. With a numerous suite she entered Germany, and thenstayed for a year at Brussels, where she renounced Lutheranism. Afterthis she traveled slowly into Italy, where she entered Borne onhorseback, and was received by the Pope, Alexander VII., who lodged herin a magnificent palace, accepted her conversion, and baptized her,giving her a new name, Alexandra.
In Rome she was a brilliant but erratic personage, living sumptuously,even though her revenues from Sweden came in slowly, partly because theSwedes disliked her change of religion. She was surrounded by men ofletters, with whom she amused herself, and she took to herself a lover,the Marquis Monaldeschi. She thought that at last she had really foundher true affinity, while Monaldeschi believed that he could count onthe queen's fidelity.
He was in attendance upon her daily, and they were almost inseparable.He swore allegiance to her and thereby made himself one of the subjectsover whom she had absolute power. For a time he was the master of thoseintense emotions which, in her, alternated with moods of coldness andeven cr
uelty.
Monaldeschi was a handsome Italian, who bore himself with a fine air ofbreeding. He understood the art of charming, but he did not know thatbeyond a certain time no one could hold the affections of Christina.
However, after she had quarreled with various cardinals and decided toleave Rome for a while, Monaldeschi accompanied her to France, whereshe had an immense vogue at the court of Louis XIV. She attracted wideattention because of her eccentricity and utter lack of manners. Itgave her the greatest delight to criticize the ladies of the Frenchcourt--their looks, their gowns, and their jewels. They, in return,would speak of Christina's deformed shoulder and skinny frame; but theking was very gracious to her and invited her to his hunting-palace atFontainebleau.
While she had been winning triumphs of sarcasm the infatuatedMonaldeschi had gradually come to suspect, and then to know, that hisroyal mistress was no longer true to him. He had been supplanted in herfavor by another Italian, one Sentanelli, who was the captain of herguard.
Monaldeschi took a tortuous and roundabout revenge. He did not let thequeen know of his discovery; nor did he, like a man, send a challengeto Sentanelli. Instead he began by betraying her secrets to OliverCromwell, with whom she had tried to establish a correspondence. Again,imitating the hand and seal of Sentanelli, he set in circulation aseries of the most scandalous and insulting letters about Christina. Bythis treacherous trick he hoped to end the relations between his rivaland the queen; but when the letters were carried to Christina sheinstantly recognized their true source. She saw that she was betrayedby her former favorite and that he had taken a revenge which mightseriously compromise her.
This led to a tragedy, of which the facts were long obscure. They werecarefully recorded, however, by the queen's household chaplain, FatherLe Bel; and there is also a narrative written by one Marco AntonioConti, which confirms the story. Both were published privately in 1865,with notes by Louis Lacour.
The narration of the priest is dreadful in its simplicity andminuteness of detail. It may be summed up briefly here, because it isthe testimony of an eye-witness who knew Christina.
Christina, with the marquis and a large retinue, was at Fontainebleauin November, 1657. A little after midnight, when all was still, thepriest, Father Le Bel, was aroused and ordered to go at once to theGalerie des Cerfs, or Hall of Stags, in another part of the palace.When he asked why, he was told:
"It is by the order of her majesty the Swedish queen."
The priest, wondering, hurried on his garments. On reaching the gloomyhall he saw the Marquis Monaldeschi, evidently in great agitation, andat the end of the corridor the queen in somber robes. Beside the queen,as if awaiting orders, stood three figures, who could with somedifficulty be made out as three soldiers of her guard.
The queen motioned to Father Le Bel and asked him for a packet whichshe had given him for safe-keeping some little time before. He gave itto her, and she opened it. In it were letters and other documents,which, with a steely glance, she displayed to Monaldeschi. He wasconfused by the sight of them and by the incisive words in whichChristina showed how he had both insulted her and had tried to shiftthe blame upon Sentanelli.
Monaldeschi broke down completely. He fell at the queen's feet and weptpiteously, begging for pardon, only to be met by the cold answer:
"You are my subject and a traitor to me. Marquis, you must prepare todie!"
Then she turned away and left the hall, in spite of the cries ofMonaldeschi, to whom she merely added the advice that he should makehis peace with God by confessing to Father Le Bel.
After she had gone the marquis fell into a torrent of self-exculpationand cried for mercy. The three armed men drew near and urged him toconfess for the good of his soul. They seemed to have no malice againsthim, but to feel that they must obey the orders given them. At thefrantic urging of the marquis their leader even went to the queen toask whether she would relent; but he returned shaking his head, andsaid:
"Marquis, you must die."
Father Le Bel undertook a like mission, but returned with the messagethat there was no hope. So the marquis made his confession in Frenchand Latin, but even then he hoped; for he did not wait to receiveabsolution, but begged still further for delay or pardon.
Then the three armed men approached, having drawn their swords. Theabsolution was pronounced; and, following it, one of the guards slashedthe marquis across the forehead. He stumbled and fell forward, makingsigns as if to ask that he might have his throat cut. But his throatwas partly protected by a coat of mail, so that three or four strokesdelivered there had slight effect. Finally, however, a long, narrowsword was thrust into his side, after which the marquis made no sound.
Father Le Bel at once left the Galerie des Cerfs and went into thequeen's apartment, with the smell of blood in his nostrils. He foundher calm and ready to justify herself. Was she not still queen over allwho had voluntarily become members of her suite? This had been agreedto in her act of abdication. Wherever she set her foot, there, over herown, she was still a monarch, with full power to punish traitors at herwill. This power she had exercised, and with justice. What mattered itthat she was in France? She was queen as truly as Louis XIV. was king.
The story was not long in getting out, but the truth was not whollyknown until a much later day. It was said that Sentanelli had slappedthe marquis in a fit of jealousy, though some added that it was donewith the connivance of the queen. King Louis, the incarnation ofabsolutism, knew the truth, but he was slow to act. He sympathized withthe theory of Christina's sovereignty. It was only after a time thatword was sent to Christina that she must leave Fontainebleau. She tookno notice of the order until it suited her convenience, and then shewent forth with all the honors of a reigning monarch.
This was the most striking episode in all the strange story of herprivate life. When her cousin Charles, whom she had made king, diedwithout an heir she sought to recover her crown; but the estates of therealm refused her claim, reduced her income, and imposed restraintsupon her power. She then sought the vacant throne of Poland; but thePolish nobles, who desired a weak ruler for their own purposes, madeanother choice. So at last she returned to Rome, where the Popereceived her with a splendid procession and granted her twelve thousandcrowns a year to make up for her lessened Swedish revenue.
From this time she lived a life which she made interesting by herpatronage of learning and exciting by her rather unseemly quarrels withcardinals and even with the Pope. Her armed retinue marched through thestreets with drawn swords and gave open protection to criminals who hadtaken refuge with her. She dared to criticize the pontiff, who merelysmiled and said:
"She is a woman!"
On the whole, the end of her life was pleasant. She was much admiredfor her sagacity in politics. Her words were listened to at every courtin Europe. She annotated the classics, she made beautiful collections,and she was regarded as a privileged person whose acts no one tookamiss. She died at fifty-three, and was buried in St. Peter's.
She was bred a man, she was almost a son to her great father; and yet,instead of the sonorous epitaph that is inscribed beside her tomb,perhaps a truer one would be the words of the vexed Pope:
"E DONNA!"