The Girl King

December 18, 1626 –
Christina (Kristina), Queen of Sweden, later known as Maria Christina Alexandra, Minerva of the North, Protectress of the Jews at Rome and sometimes Count Dohna, was born on this date. Like most royalty and some presidents, Christina did not have to carry money, a passport or consistently spell her name the same way.

Kristina’s father, King Gustav II Adolf, wanted a boy and decreed she be given the best education possible. Christina’s mother, Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, an early proponent of Jewish guilt as a tool for childhood rearing, repeatedly told Kristina about the ‘horrors‘ of sex and childbirth. These factors may have prejudiced Christina against the prospect of having to produce an heir to the throne and convinced her to adopt the dress and manner of a man.

True story: in the winter of 1650 the magnificent Queen Kristina of Sweden summoned Rene Descartes to Stockholm to tutor her in philosophy. With his trademark optimism (“I think warm, therefore I am not cold“), he accepted the invitation and hurried up from Paris. Not long after his arrival, he died of pneumonia. But I digress …

Queen Kristina, or the Girl King as she liked to be known, (as opposed to King Ludwig of Bavaria the Boy Queen, but that’s another story) chose the rather shockingly ungodly motto (probably sarcastically) that “Wisdom is the Prop of the Realm.” She abdicated in 1654 converted to Catholicism and dashed around Europe on a white horse, wearing men’s clothing and studying philosophy and sleeping with men and women. She is one of the only few women buried within St. Peter’s Basilica.

In the 1930s, she was portrayed by Greta Garbo in the film Queen Christina. Garbo basically modeled her later life on this character except for the converting thing.

And so it goes