Inspirational Quotes by Christina, Queen of Sweden (Swedish Monarch)

Christina (1626–89) was the Queen of Lutheran Sweden 1632–54. Considered one of the most unusual monarchs in European history, she abdicated at the height of Sweden’s power during the Thirty Years’ War, converted to Catholicism, and spent the second half of her life in Rome.

Christina became heir to the throne at the age of six after her father, King Gustavus Adolphus, died in battle. During her minority, Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna governed the kingdom. Crowned queen at the age of 18, Christina immediately oversaw the peace talks that ended the Thirty Years’ War. She was a successful ruler and gained unlimited authority within five years. Christina announced she would never marry, naming her cousin Charles X as her successor. She dedicated her life to the pursuit of knowledge and patronized artists, musicians, and scholars, including Rene Descartes.

In 1654, at the height of her power, Christina abandoned the Lutheran church of Sweden and converted to Roman Catholicism. Consequently, she had to give up the throne. She spent the rest of her life in Rome, where she maintained an influential court and continued to support the arts.

An enduring legacy of Christina’s reign is her library of 2,200 manuscripts and 4,500 printed books, one of the largest libraries in contemporaneous Europe—it was booty from the Thirty Years War. She left her collection in Sweden when she moved to Rome. The manuscripts were later bought by the Vatican and are now housed in “Biblioteca Vaticana as Codices reginenses graeci et latini” (“Greek and Latin Codices of the Queen.”) She is one of only four women buried in Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

Christina’s gender ambiguity, androgynous personality, and sexuality are subjects of extensive scholarly deliberation. She was the subject of the movie Queen Christina (1933) starring Greta Garbo—although this movie made the queen’s name well-known to 20th-century audiences, scholars disapprove of its portrayal of the historical Queen Christina.

In addition to an unfinished autobiography, Christina wrote essays on her heroes Alexander the Great, Cyrus the Great, and Julius Caesar, and many interpretations of art and music.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Christina, Queen of Sweden