Christina, Queen of Sweden (1626-1689)

Christina of Sweden is well known throughout the ages as the "Patroness of the Arts." She opened the first public opera house in Rome and an academy of Philosophy and Literature. Do you like the works of Giovanni Bernini, the masterful genius who brought us: The Fountain of the Four Rivers, The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, and many other works of art? Well, you wouldn't have known about him if it weren't for Christina. In 1680, claims against Bernini were in the works to try and discredit him and wipe his name from the works he had designed. In retaliation to this effort, Christina hired a man by the name of Filippo Baldinucci to write a biography on Bernini, thus winning Bernini his rightful place in the art history books!

Art snobs of the world are happier now...

Something that not many people know is that Christina of Sweden was actually a queen for 22 years of her life! From 1632 to 1654 Kristina Wasa was known as Christina Alexandra or Countess Dohna, Queen of Sweden. The odd and funny thing is that she was born in 1626. Anybody doing the math yet? 

I suppose they made all her crowns with "a little growing room."

Christina was crowned Queen at age six soon after the demise of her Father, King Gustav II Adolf, in the Thirty Years War. The council of rengents were surprised and delighted by her maturity and remarkable intelligence, especially in regard to learning foreign languages. Her tutors always commented that talking to her in their academic language was like talking with someone that had been born and raised in the country the language had originated from.


During her reign as queen, Christina helped form Sweden's first newspaper AND was the driving force that brought about the end of the Thirty Years War, the longest and bloodiest of wars that Europe has ever seen. The very same one that claimed her father's life. In this blogger's opinion, she probably carried something huge against that war...

If this had been a period film we would have been spared Sarah Michelle Gellar...

Now, with all of the things this woman had done you're probably thinking something like, "Holy crap, this is one strong, kick-ass woman!"

 Kinda like Sarah Connor in Terminator

In which case, you'd be right. Hell, they thought that when she was still around. In fact, they even questioned whether she was even... a she.

 Kinda like the Sarah Connor action figure.

Because she wasn't the most feminine of ladies, she looked a bit like a man (just look at her picture) Christina was thought to be "intersexed" or a hermaphrodite. Even upon being born, all the mid-wives thought she was a boy due to a fetal membrane she was born with called a Caul that formed what looked like a small penis. Imagine everyone's surprise when she was cleaned and the "penis" came off. 

 You... TOOK it?!

To this, King Gustav exclaimed, with great amusement,  "She'll be clever, she made fools of us all!"

Her further fighting against being urged to marry and produce an heir to the throne only fueled the conspiracy around her "lady parts" and later brought around ideas that she might even be a lesbian. Later, love letters were found addressed to one of her ladies in waiting, Countess Ebbe "Belle" Sparre. In many of the letters there were references to the two "sharing a bed", though in those times it wasn't all too uncommon for such occurrences to happen in a completely platonic way. But many would argue that the passion in which the letters were written would suggest a love beyond that of mere girl-talk.

Another gay Queen... this one of the country of Latifah.

 So, to recap, the reason why Sweden has a newspaper, we have the knowledge of Bernini, and still have EUROPE is because of one woman. Whether she was a lesbian hermaphrodite is technically unknown, but she still serves as a hell of a role model for lesbians world-wide. That and she was the first woman EVER to wear pants publicly, starting the thought for it to eventually be ok for other women to wear pants.

 

Flo-Rida thanks you so much!

Thanks to her tremendous contributions to the art world and the world at large, Christina Queen of Sweden is this week's Homo of the Week.

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