Posted on 11/10/2020 7:46:31 AM PST by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 1657, the Italian marchese Gian Rinaldo Monaldeschi was put to summary death by the command of Queen Christina of Sweden, at her court in Fontainebleau.
Make that ex-Queen, for the singular sovereign had abdicated in 1654 so that she could convert to Catholicism and go gallivanting about Europe.
After a spell in Rome, 1656 finds her turning up in Paris to astonish high society by her forward, masculine presentation; the king’s cousin took Christina to the ballet where the visiting dignitary “surprised me very much — applauding the parts which pleased her, taking God to witness, throwing herself back in her chair, crossing her legs, resting them on the arms of her chair, and assuming other postures, such as I had never seen taken but by Travelin and Jodelet, two famous buffoons … She was in all respects a most extraordinary creature.”
She kept her own court here, which was both a tribute to her stature and a court in waiting for her intended installation by French arms upon the Neapolitan throne. This rethronement never came to pass, and one reason among several was that the event marked in this post destroyed her stature in Italy.
Our man the Marquis Monaldeschi was Christina’s master of horse but to the eyes of the queen better resembled a snake. Why? That part, we don’t quite know....
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
Thanks; what a great story!
I didn’t know she acted so butch. I had always thought of Christina as Greta Garbo portrayed her.
In any event, w/o her I wouldn’t be here. In 1638 she decided that since European countries had colonies in America, Sweden should too. So she swung a deal w/ Peter Minuit to “buy” Delaware and sent the Kalmar Nyckel there to plant the flag. My 9th-removed grandfather was that ship’s doctor (bloodletter, if you will). His name was Timen Stiddem.
For your interest.
Fascinating you can trace your ancestors back that far.
Queen Christiana was only 6yo when her father, Gustavus Aldophus (Gustav II Adolph) of the Swedish Royal Family of Vasa, died at the Battle of Lützen (30 Years War) located east of Leipzig Germany. He was a fierce Lutheran and mainstay of the Protestant opposition to the Hapsburgs & the Catholic League (Roman Catholic [RC]) in Europe’s bloodiest war prior to WW1. Total casualties were 8 million dead, with some regions of (modern) Germany losing half of their pre-war population.
It is valid to speculate that her abdication from Sweden and her RC conversion would have changed had her father lived longer. Her mother was a real fruitcake who kept her husband’s (embalmed) body in an open casket in their residence for nearly 18 months before the body was buried. The new Queen, as Christiana was the sole heir, had a regency of 12 years until 18 and then ruled as monarch for 10 years.
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