#298 - Kristina - Drottningen som lämnade tronen

Yes, but hello hello and welcome to Simple Swedish Podcast and today we are going to have a little historical episode. We are going to talk about Drottning Kristina, a very fascinating personality from Sweden's history. So, a short introduction, just so, Drottning Kristina. She was a Swedish drottning who voluntarily chose to abdicate. Abdicating means that you say "I don't want to be a monarch anymore, I don't want to be a drottning anymore, I don't want to be a king anymore than I say my crown and leave the throne." It is abdicating and of course not as many people have done that through history, but she is one of those who have abdicated voluntarily. She also often dressed in quite male clothes, which was unusual and above all she did not want to marry. She refused to marry and she converted to Catholicism, which was not so good in Sweden at that time, because Sweden was Protestant and Sweden was in a war against the Catholics. So we have a drottning that converts to the religion of the fiends. The fiends are the ones you fight against. It is a fascinating personality in Swedish history. First we will thank some Patrons before we start to go through her life. It is Fadhil, Mari Edward, Johannes, Mara, Diana, Danela, Spiros, Silvia, Majid, Barbara and David. Thank you so much for supporting this pod. So, a little historical background then, because we are talking about the 16th century here and on the 16th century it was then that Sweden was a so-called great power. A great power is a country that has a lot of power, a lot of influence, has a lot to say about. Today we can say that the US has a great power and China, for example. But on the 16th century Sweden actually became very powerful as a country and it was a lot because of the Thirty Years War. So the Thirty Years War was a very big conflict in Europe on the 16th century, one of the biggest military conflicts in Europe through history. And it was Catholic against Protestants and Sweden was on the side of the Protestants and the winning side, because the Protestants won the Thirty Years War. And you can listen to episode 227 if you want to hear more about this period, very interesting. And Kristina's father, Kristina's father, it was Gustav II Adolf, one of Sweden's most important kings, and as I said, the Protestantism was Sweden's religion at this time. So that was a bit of a historical background, so we will go to Kristina's growth and her life. Kristina was born in Stockholm in 1626, it was about 400 years ago, and we have her father, Gustav II Adolf, he died very early. So he died only six years after Kristina was born, so when Kristina was six years old, then her father lost and became a traitor after she was the only child. She had no siblings, and she became a traitor when she was only six years old. But of course, a child cannot rule a country, cannot rule a country, so under her growing up, that is, while she grew up, then Sweden had a so-called rich chancellor. And a rich chancellor is, then, a person who can rule a country, despite the fact that she is younger, that is, younger, not quite old enough to be able to rule a country, that is, she is not mature. So we had a rich chancellor named Axel Oaksensjärna, and Axel Oaksensjärna, he is actually one of the most important people in Swedish history, and also a very interesting character, so we may have a separate episode about him. But he led the country very effectively, while Kristina was younger. And Kristina grew up together with her cousin Carl Gustav, so these two grew up together, Kristina and Carl Gustav, and they had a very good relationship with each other. And Axel Oaksensjärna, you can say, he overlooked their growth, so he saw that they got a good education and that they should learn everything, or perhaps most Kristina, that she should learn everything. She needed to be able to lead the country, to be a monarch, simply. And yes, when Kristina was 18 years old, she turned 18 in 19... 1644, she became a monk. A monk means that you are an adult, that is, legal, and still, today you become a monk when you are 18 years old in Sweden. So she became a monk when she was 18, and now she became a monk, really, you can say. So Axel Oaksensjärna didn't have power for a long time, he certainly wanted to continue to have power, but Kristina was actually a very determined and very competent regent. A regent is a person who is a king or a ruler, you can say. So she was a competent regent, competent monarch. She led Sweden under the last years of the Thirty Years War, because the Thirty Years War was still going on. Her entire growth had the Thirty Years War going on. She then managed to lead Sweden under the last years, and it went well. Sweden was on the winning side. Sweden got new territories and began to become more and more a great power, simply. And Kristina was a little different regent, a little different ruler. She, as I said, she dared to marry. To dare to do something means that you say absolutely no to someone. You say absolutely not I dare. So Kristina dared to marry, and it is of course a great pressure to marry when you are a regent or a king, because you have to have a desire to give the crown to when you die, so that the next person can rule. So it is very important for kings and regents to get the crown. A regent is the person who bears the throne. You say that the throne or the crown goes into the ark. So the king gets a son, and the son is the king's heir, the heir to the crown. But she did not want to marry. She also dressed in a little more masculine style, apparently. It has been speculated about her sexuality. Maybe mostly after him, but I don't know, maybe then too. It has been speculated that she had a very close relationship with women. So hard to know, she maybe just was rebel, or she was homosexual, no one knows. But she didn't want to marry, in any case. And she was very educated. Also educated means that you have read a lot, you know a lot, you have studied a lot, then you are educated. And she was very interested in philosophy, art, science and things like that. And she was a little bit of an intellectual. And she liked to interact with other intellectuals. She liked to be socialized with other intellectuals, to interact so that you spend time with other people. And there is a rather bizarre story that is related to the philosopher René Descartes. So René Descartes was one of the most famous philosophers of science. It was he who came up with this phrase "Kogito ergo sum", i.e. Japan's Don't Just We. I think everyone knows this quote, and that was René Descartes who said it. And Christina, she loved philosophy, and she allowed Descartes to come to the castle in Stockholm and give her lessons. Yes, that is true, you can do it if you are a drunkard, you can just say "ringa till", ok, in the 1600s you couldn't call, but send letters to your idol and say "come here and give me lessons". So that's how she did it, and Descartes came to Stockholm, but Christina wanted to have the lessons very early in the morning. And Descartes absolutely didn't like to get up early in the morning, he was a night person. But Christina wanted to have the lessons early, and it was also very cold and damp at the castle, and it wasn't comfortable for this Frenchman. And this story ends tragically for only a few months after Descartes came to Sweden, he dies in calm inflammation. So because Christina wanted to have the lessons, and because of Sweden's cold climate, this famous philosopher died, which is a little bizarre story, I think. So Christina was educated and liked philosophy and art, but she didn't really like being drunk, she felt that this was too much pressure, and not what I was interested in. She wanted to do other things in her life. So, what did she do? She actually abdicated only 10 years after she became drunk, or she became blind and became drunk for real. So when she was 28 years old, she abdicated, she said goodbye to the crown, and said, "I'm going to travel, I'm going out to travel." So she gave the crown to her cousin, Carl Gustav. It was the cousin she had grown up with. So he got the crown, he said, "Okay, thank you so much, I'll take it, no problem. I can become king if you want to travel instead." So, Christina said goodbye to the crown, abdicated, and a year later she traveled to Europe, and she went to Rome. And Rome, as you know, is the high seat of Catholicism, and the Catholics were the enemies of Sweden, because it had been a huge, bloody, long war between Catholics and Protestants. So it was thought that Sweden would be destroyed, that is, our destruction. She goes to the land of the enemy, and not only that, but she converts to Catholicism. So many think that this is country treachery, and to be a country treacher means that you are a treacher to your country. But I think that Christina did not care so much about Catholics and Protestants. She just wanted to live her life. She wanted to keep up with art, culture, philosophy, and things like that, and it might have been an interesting place to be in Rome. And in Rome, she was very warmly welcomed, and even by the crown itself, so the crown itself came and welcomed Christina. The crown is the highest leader among the Catholics, the highest leader of the Catholics, the crown. And she lived the rest of her life in Rome. She moved in to a palace in the Piazza Farnese. I do not know where it is, but I have checked this out, so apparently she lived in a palace in the Piazza Farnese. And apparently it was very close to another very famous Swedish, no less than Helga Birgitta. And Helga Birgitta is also a very interesting personality in Swedish history, maybe I make a episode about Helga Birgitta too. And then after that she moved to Palazzo Corzini. And there she lived until she died 30 years later, so she lived most of her adult life in Rome, actually. And there is even a street where Palazzo Corzini is called Largo Cristina di Svetia. So it means, I do not know Largo, I do not know what it means, but yes, Cristina of the street of Sweden or something like that. So it's a little fun that there is that in Rome, and she is actually buried in Peter's church. And Peter's church is this big known church in the Vatican. And there it is buried, so she has a very special place for her grave, that is to be buried in Peter's church. And to be buried, so to bury someone is that you put a dead person in a grave, that is where you get to rest after you have died. Then you become buried and the person's grave is there. So, and Cristina's grave is in Peter's church in the Vatican. So it's a little crazy from being a threat in Sweden on the Protestant side to live your life as some kind of society person in Rome and be buried in Peter's church. So interesting personality and I hope that you have liked this episode and yes, see you soon again or see you.