CHRISTINA, in biography, a celebrated queen of Sweden, the daughter and only child of the great Gus tavus .Adolphus. When her father fell in the battle of Lutzen, in 1632, she was only five years of age. The affairs of her kingdom, however, went on prosperously un der the superintendance of the Chancellor Oxenstiern, and by the conduct and bravery of the able generals who at that time commanded in the Swedish armies. By this means, the preponderancy which Sweden had acquired in the Protestant league, under the reign of Gustavus, was preserved undiminished during the minority of Chris tina.
At a very early- age, this princess discovered an invin cible antipathy for the employments and conversation of her own scx, of which she takes notice in her memoirs ; and she had the natural awkwardness of a man, with re spect to the little occupations which are appropriate to females. On the other hand, she was passionately fond of violent exercise, and the amusements which consist in feats of strength and agility. tier studies, too, were of the masculine order ; and she made no mean profi ciency in the abstract sciences, and in the learned lan guages. At an early age, she was versant in legislation and government, and able to read the Greek historians in the original. As she advanced in years, the love of letters seems to have become her ruling passion ; and had a powerful influence on the fortune of her future life.
'Fite general peace of Westphalia, in 1648, restored tranquillity to Europe ; and was concluded on terms which were sufficiently honourable to Sweden, at that time in the zenith of its military reputation. A few years previous to this event, Christina had assumed the reins of government, at the early age of eighteen, and proved herself fully able to conduct the affairs of a powerful kingdom. It is not, therefore, to be wonder ed at, that about this period almost all the princes of Europe aspired to the honour of her hand. Among others were the kings of Spain and Poland, the king of the Romans, the prince of Denmark, the Elector Pala tine, the elector of Brandenburg, Don John of Austria, and Charles Gustavus, Count Palatine, her own first cou sid, and heir-apparent to the crown. She was deaf, how ever, to all their proposals, as well as to the anxious so licitations of her people; pleading as the motives of her refusal, diversity of political interests, of manners, or of religion. When pressed more closely by her subjects,
she made no scruple to avow an insuperable aversion to matrimony ; declaring, " that there were certain duties required by the nuptial ceremony, with which she could not persuade herself to comply." lier high spirit, pro bably, could not brook that subjection which is entailed by the matrimonial tic upon the female sex. To prove how much she was in earnest in her resolution, she so lemnly appointed Gustavus her successor ; but without admitting him to any participation in the rights of the crown during her own life. I ter vow of celibacy- in no degree diminished the attachment which, at this period, she received from her subjects ; and which was power fully evinced, by the general expression of joy at a nar row escape which she made from assassination by the hand of a madman, as she was assisting at a public act of devotion in the chapel of the castle of Stockholm, which was in a great meagurc due to her own intrepidity and presence of mind. Not long after, the life of the queen was exposed to a no less imminent danger by an accident, from which she also had the good fortune to escape unhurt. Having given orders for some ships of war to be equipped at the port of Stockholm, she went to inspect them when they were finished ; but as she was going on board, across a narrow plank, the foot of her conductor, Admiral Fleming, slipped, and in his fall he drew the queen along with him, into a part of the sca which was nearly 90 feet deep. The queen's first equerry, Anthony Steinberg, instantly threw himself in to the water, laid hold of her robe, and, with such as sistance as was at hand, fortunately dragged her on shore. During this accident, her recollection was such, that the moment her head was above water, she cried out, cc Take care of the admiral." When she got on dry land, she betrayed no emotion either by her gesture or counte nance ; and the same day she dined in public, and en tertained her company with a humorous account of her adventure.