The Enigma Christina of Sweden (1626 – 1689): Sexuality, Power and some medicalpsychological hypotheses

Abstract

The controversial figure of Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689) has been the subject of a wide historical literature, particularly in relation to her strong choices, such as the abdication from the throne of Sweden and the conversion to Roman Catholicism. Certain historians wanted to identify the reasons for these choices in her sexual ambiguity - a presumed homosexuality - and congenital sexual anomalies, such as hermaphroditism and hyperandrogenism. The article analyses psychological and medical theories on the Queen’s sexuality in the essays, published from the nineteenth century up to now, integrating research with unpublished archival documentation - letters by court doctors, private correspondence and the Queen’s autobiography. The aim of the article is to restore the truth about the Queen’s sexual orientation. The anthropological examination, carried out on the Queen’s skeleton, confirms typical female features, just as the analysis of the recently discovered archival documentation shows a heterosexual orientation. Christina had a masculine attitude more because of the male education she received, the virile role she assumed as a sovereign, her proud nature as a lover of freedom, her adherence to libertine thought and, above all, the male language of power during the modern age rather than for presumed sexual anomalies.