page_title: Christina, Queen of Sweden
section_title: Gender ambiguity and sexuality
hierarchical_section_title: Christina, Queen of Sweden / Appearance / Gender ambiguity and sexuality
caption_attribution_description: In the painting Countess Ebba Sparre "La belle comtesse" (1626 - 1662), who was a lady-in-waiting to, and intimate companion of, Sweden's Queen Christina Genealogy Baroness Ebba "La belle comtesse", born 1626, died 19 March 1662, buried 19 October 1662 at Stockholm [1] Married 11 January 1653 at Stockholm castle to count Jakob Casimir de la Gardie (born 3 February 1629, shot during the siege of Copenhagen 7 October 1658, buried 24 July 1658 at Riddarholm church, Stockholm) [2] The Descendants of Gustaf I Eriksson, King of Sweden
context_page_description: Christina became Queen of Sweden at the age of almost six. As a member of the House of Vasa, she succeeded her father Gustavus Adolphus upon his death at the Battle of Lützen, but began ruling the Swedish Empire when she reached the age of 18.
  Christina argued for peace in the Thirty Years' War, which was achieved in 1648. She is remembered as one of the most learned women of the 17th century. She was fond of books, manuscripts, paintings, and sculptures. With her interest in religion, philosophy, mathematics and alchemy, she attracted many scientists to Stockholm, wanting the city to become the "Athens of the North". She caused a scandal when she decided not to marry, and in 1654 when she abdicated her throne and converted to Catholicism.
  Christina's financial extravagance brought the state to the verge of bankruptcy, and the financial difficulties caused public unrest after ten years of ruling. At the age of 28, the "Minerva of the North" relinquished the throne to her cousin and moved to Rome. Pope Alexander VII described Christina as "a queen without a realm, a Christian without faith, and a woman without shame."
context_section_description: In her Autobiography (1681) Christina is flirting with her androgynous personality. The question of her sexuality has been debated, even as a number of modern biographers generally consider her to have been a lesbian, and her relationships with women were noted during her lifetime; Christina seems to have written passionate letters to Ebba Sparre, and Guilliet suggested a relationship between Christina and Gabrielle de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Rachel, a niece of Diego Teixeira, and the singer Angelina Giorgino. Some historians assert she maintained heterosexual, non-sexual, lesbian, or bisexual relationships during the course of her life  depending on which source is consulted. According to Veronica Buckley, Christina was a "dabbler" who was "...painted a lesbian, a prostitute, a hermaphrodite, and an atheist" by her contemporaries, though "in that tumultuous age, it is hard to determine which was the most damning label". Christina wrote near the end of her life that she was "neither Male nor Hermaphrodite, as some People in the World have pass'd me for".
  Bargrave recounted that Christina's relationship with Azzolino was both "familiar" (intimate) and "amorous" and that Azzolino had been sent (by the Pope) to Romania as punishment for maintaining it. Buckley, on the other hand, believed there was "in Christina a curious squeamishness with regard to sex" and that "a sexual relationship between herself and Azzolino, or any other man, seems unlikely". Based on historical accounts of Christina's physicality, some scholars believe that she may have been an intersex individual.
  In 1965 these conflicting accounts led to an investigation of Christina's remains. Physical anthropologist Carl-Herman Hjortsjö, who undertook the investigation, explained: "Our imperfect knowledge concerning the effect of intersex on the skeletal formation [...] makes it impossible to decide which positive skeletal findings should be demanded upon which to base the diagnosis" of an intersex condition. Nevertheless, Hjortsjö speculated that Christina had reasonably typical female genitalia because it is recorded by her physicians Bourdelot and Macchiati that she menstruated. Hjortsjö's osteological analysis of Christina's skeleton led him to state that they were of a "typically female" structure.
  Some of the symptoms could be due to polycystic ovary syndrome, a complex multi-endocrine disorder including hirsutism (male pattern/type hair growth) due to increased androgen hormone levels, and abdominal obesity due to the hormone insulin receptor defects. Buckley suggested that her low comprehension of the need for most social norms,  little desire to act, dress, or do other social norms and her preference to wear, act, and do only that which she deemed logically practical, point to her having a pervasive developmental disorder, such as Asperger syndrome.
caption: Ebba Sparre married in 1652 a brother of Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie. Painting by Sébastien Bourdon
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