CHRISTINA

CHRISTINA (1628-1689), queen of Sweden, daughter and only child of Gustavus Adolphus; received a masculine education, and was trained in manly exercises; governed the country well, and filled her court with learned men, but by-and-by her royal duties becoming irksome to her, she declared her cousin as her successor, resigned the throne, and turned Catholic; her cousin dying, she claimed back her crown, but her subjects would not now have her; she stayed for a time in France, but was obliged to leave; retired to Rome, where she spent 20 years of her life engaged in scientific and artistic studies, and died.