Queen Christina of Sweden and her Circle

Download or read book Queen Christina of Sweden and her Circle written by Susanna Åkerman and published by BRILL. This book was released on 1991-07-01 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The life and works of Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689) have often been obscured behind a haze of Iurid myths and legends. This book looks again at her notorious abdication of 1654, seeing it against the background of her reputation as a "libertine", a heterodox religious thinker. Her subsequent conversion to Catholicism is therefore understood as a consequence of messianic and millenarian expectations during those turbulent years, and her bizarre attempt in 1657 to become the ruler of Naples is revealed to be the political wing of a comprehensive religious and intellectual philosophy.