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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
The sturdiest of historians show Christina of Sweden to have been one of the most gifted and accomplished women of any age. They show, too, that she has been one of the most harshly dealt with among the great women of history. She was a political genius, ruler of Sweden at its heyday, and the equal of the most influential sovereigns of Europe at the middle of the seventeenth century. Her counsel was paramount in shaping the Peace of Westphalia. She attracted to her court many of the most learned men of the century, corresponded with those who could or would not come to her, and was recognized as a savant in her own right. For her times she was exceptionally enlightened, tolerant, and generous. Yet both outrageous columnies and extravagant panegyrics have run riot to her discredit. Clio has shared in these misprisions, to be sure, but her sister Muses of the lyric, the drama, and the romance have been far guiltier in their sadistic severity.
1 This is a summary of the judgments found in the histories and biographies examined. The prime source is Johan Arckenholtz's Mimoires Concernant Christine Reine de Suede, 4 vols. (Amsterdam & Leipzig: Pierre Mortier Librarie, 1751–60). I have found the biographies by Francis W. Bain, Christina, Queen of Sweden (London: W. H. Allen & Co., 1890) and Henry Woodhead, Memoirs of Christina, Queen of Sweden (London: Hurst & Blackett, 2 vols., 1863) the most dependable among those consulted. Baron de Bildt's Christine de Suede et le Cardinal Azzolino, Lettres Inldites (Paris: E. Plon, Nourrit et Cie, 1899) contains important materials not available in the other works I have used.
2 See, for example, Dumas' The Two Dianas, in Historical Romances (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1901); his Christine, in Théatre Complet de Alexandre Dumas, Nouv. Ed., vol. i (Paris: Michel Lévy Frères, 1874); Fréderic Soulié's Christine à Fonlainebleau (Paris: Lemoine, 1829); and Strindberg's Königen Christine, in Strindbergs Werlte, Königsdramen, Verdeutscht von Emil Schering (München: Georg Müller Verlag, 1920).
3 Browning's claims in this matter may be seen in Robert Browning and Julia Wedgwood …, ed. by Richard Curie (New York: F. A. Stokes, 1937), pp. 174–175; T. R. Lounsbury's The Early Literary Career of Robert Browning (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911), p. 126 et passim; Mrs. F. T. Russell's One Word More on Browning (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1927), p. 113 et seq.
4 Mr. Lawrence wonders whether all great reputations, like his own, are built on fraud. See The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1935), p. 562.
5 In Browning's Complete Works, Cambridge Edition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1895), pp. 914–915.
6 Mrs. Sutherland Orr, A Handbook to the Works of Robert Browning (London: Bell and Sons, 1910, 1st ed., 1885), pp. 324–325.
7 These claims appear in footnote 3, page 324. When the evidence is in, both of them seem quite unconvincing. The matters involved have no importance except as they assist indirectly in the characterization of Christina and Monaldeschi.
8 Edward Berdoe, The Browning Cyclopaedia (London: George Allen & Unwin; New York: The Macmillan Co., 1916, 1st ed., 1891), pp. 121–123.
9 Two of these statements occur at the beginning of Berdoe's commentary, p. 121; the other, near the end, p. 123.
10 George Willis Cooke, A Guidebook to the Poetic and Dramatic Works of Robert Browning (Boston: Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1894, 1st ed., 1891), pp. 105–111.
11 Ibid., p. 105.
12 Ludovico Sentinelli was with Christina at Fontainebleau; his brother, Francesco, remained at Rome to arrange for her return. See Margaret Goldsmith's Christina of Sweden: A Psychological Biography (Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1935), p. 219.
13 See Bain, op. cit., Preface, p. xi. Mr. Bain characterizes this statement as an invention of Christina's enemies.
14 This is an inference from the nature of Cooke's review and Bain's citation of sources. Where Mr. Cooke's views are antagonistic to Christina they likely take color from Mme. Vincent's article in the Revue des Deux Mondes for 1888, translated by Mrs. Latimer in The Living Age, Dec. 15 and 22, 1888.
15 Cooke, op. cit., p. 110. This verdict, found in all the histories and biographies consulted, is not encountered in any of the other guidebooks.
16 Cooke, op. cit., p. 111. Christina remained at Fontainebleau only until February 24, 1658, about three and one-half months. Bain, 296; Baron de Bildt, 81.
17 William Clyde DeVane, A Browning Handbook (New York: F. S. Crofts & Co., 1935), pp. 417–418.
18 DeVane, op. cit., p. 417.
19 Mrs. Ireland's paper is included in Browning Studies, Selected Papers by Members of the Browning Society, ed. by Edward Berdoe (London: George Allen, 1895), pp. 321–331.
20 Ibid., p. 321.
21 Ireland, op. cit., pp. 322–323. These are Mrs. Ireland's words in my arrangement.
22, 23 Ibid., also p. 323.
24 Ibid., pp. 323–325.
25 This account Mrs. Ireland (see op. cit., p. 327) saw in a discoloured, vellum-bound book in the British Museum, where, she says, it was catalogued as anonymous.
26 Ireland, op. cit., p. 328. This statement occurs in the continuation of a footnote, carried over from page 327.
27 Supra.
28 Ireland, op. cit., pp. 328–329.
29 Ibid., p. 329.
30 The reference is to W. H. Grauert's Christina von Schweden und ihr Hof (Bonn: Eduard Weber Verlag, 1837), which I have not examined.
31 Ireland, op. cit., p. 331.
32 See above, pages 259 and 262. The Browning Studies version of Mrs. Ireland's paper contains a footnote (p. 324), which says that F. J. Furnival believed Diane to have been the mistress of Henri, not of Francis. Further data on Mr. Furnival's views appear in the Browning Society Papers, vol. i, 95–96. Neither Mr. Berdoe nor Mrs. Ireland seems openly to venture an opinion on the matter.
33 See the works cited in note 2 above; also Francis Hackett's Francis the First (Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1937), pp. 262–274, and Bartholemy Haureau's François Ier et sa Cour, Nouv. Ed. (Paris: Hachette et Cie, 1855), pp. 129–131.
34 For Francis's case, see the article concerning him in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th ed., vol. ix.
35 Arckenholtz, i, 27; Bain, pp. 22–23; Woodhead, i, 38–39.
36 Arckenholtz, ii, 21–22, 130; Bain, pp. 264–268, 298; Woodhead, ii, 207–208; Baron de Bildt, pp. 53–54, 71, 73, 85, 101.
37 The reliable historians and biographers all draw heavily upon Arckenholtz's Memoires, cited in note above. This is especially true in the case of the Bain and Woodhead biographies, from which my report takes most of its materials. Both quote extensively from the Relation by Christina's court and from the account by Father le Bel, contemporary documents given in full by Arckenholtz. The works by Margaret Goldsmith (see note 12) and Baron de Bildt (note 1) were found especially useful on the offside matters above mentioned. Francis Gribble's The Court of Christina of Sweden, and the Later Adventures of the Queen in Exile (London: Eveleigh Nash, 1913) was also helpful on these problems while providing enlightenment in some aspects of the Monaldeschi affair as well.
38 Arckenholtz, ii, 2–9; Bain, pp. 284 and 286.
39 See above, note 12, note 37; also Cooke, op. cit., p. 106; Baron de Bildt, p. 76; and Gribble, p. 208.
40 Bain, Preface, xi.
41 See note 3.
42 DeVane, op. cit., pp. 417–418. This is mere guesswork, admittedly so. Further, there are several editions of the Biographie universelle. The two I have examined, neither of them the first, differ widely in their versions of the Monaldeschi affair. Which edition was in the Browning library? Was its version authentic?
43 I have seen only the New York edition of Mrs. Jameson's work. This appeared in two volumes, published by the J. and J. Harper Company, in 1832. Mr. Hardinge's prize essay was published at London in 1880 by Simpkin, Marshall and Company.