A rather ferocious person

Christina became queen of Sweden because her heroic father Gustavus Adolphus had been killed in battle, winning glory in Germany but having sired no legitimate sons. She was not quite six at the time, and they were not sure whether to call her king or queen; an ambiguity of roles, not of sex, which lasted a long time. Her armies went on fighting all comers in Germany for another 16 years, until everyone else was sick of war, and unable to prevent the Swedes from pulling off one last gigantic heist: the removal of the great imperial collection of books, art and curiosities from Prague. It was the biggest art-theft in Europe before Napoleon, and Christina got most of it.

By then (1648) she was a full sovereign with an alarming personality, an active brain and variety of poses running from rough tomboy in trousers to Pallas of the North, the philosopher-queen leading the Swedes to ‘grace and beauty, gaiety and freedom’ as Greta Garbo put it.