Speaker 1: Before we start, just a little quick note. I wrote
Speaker 1: a book. It's called Anatomy, a Love Story, and it's
Speaker 1: coming out next February. It's a story about love and
Speaker 1: dead bodies in nineteenth century Edinburgh. And if you like
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Speaker 1: dot com, slash Noble Blood Tales, Welcome to Noble Blood,
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild
Speaker 1: from Aaron Minky. Listener discretion is advised. Christina of Sweden
Speaker 1: had an unusual birth. She was born on a frosty
Speaker 1: December day to the King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus and
Speaker 1: his wife Maria Eleonora. The couple had achieved four pregnancies
Speaker 1: before Christina, but they hadn't had a single child survived
Speaker 1: past infancy. One son was stillborn, a daughter died before
Speaker 1: her first birthday, and so this new pregnancy was a
Speaker 1: source of joy but also of profound anxiety for the
Speaker 1: royal family. A slew of doctors were sent to examine
Speaker 1: the queen, and one by one they all turned to
Speaker 1: the king with knowing smiles and said, it's a boy.
Speaker 1: Christina came out screaming a hoarse, strong, low pitched voice,
Speaker 1: and she came out covered in the downy fur that
Speaker 1: sometimes covers newborns. It was probably a combination of those
Speaker 1: factors and the fact that having a male heir at
Speaker 1: this point was already a foregone conclusion that Christina was
Speaker 1: initially declared to be a boy. When the mistake was identified,
Speaker 1: the attendants were humiliated. The air in the royal chambers
Speaker 1: was still and stifling with the awkwardness of the entire situation.
Speaker 1: King Gustavus broke the tension. If he was disappointed at
Speaker 1: not having a male heir. He didn't show it. She'll
Speaker 1: be clever, he said, she has made fools of us.
Speaker 1: All The King adored his daughter, and from that point
Speaker 1: on he correctly assumed that he and his wife wouldn't
Speaker 1: be having any more children, and that Christina was going
Speaker 1: to be his heir. If she was a woman, well,
Speaker 1: that was okay by him. Technically, Christina never became a
Speaker 1: queen after her father's death. People called her Queen Christina
Speaker 1: of Sweden, but her actual formal title was King. Swedish
Speaker 1: law didn't include the terminology for a non queen consort
Speaker 1: or a queen just married to the king without monarchical
Speaker 1: power in her own right. Christina's accidental mis gendering at
Speaker 1: birth turned out to be just the first in a
Speaker 1: long line of unusual happenings, and possibly one of the
Speaker 1: strangest lives of Renaissance royal history. Christina was a woman
Speaker 1: who lived with a peculiar knack for doing things exactly
Speaker 1: on her terms, fond of wearing men's clothing and not
Speaker 1: combing her hair, with absolutely no interest in getting married
Speaker 1: to a man, and a much bigger interest in pursuing
Speaker 1: romantic relationships with women Christina was not the king but
Speaker 1: Sweden really wanted, which especially became true when she decided
Speaker 1: that she wanted to convert to Catholicism, even though her
Speaker 1: kingdom was deeply Lutheran and so, citing burnout, Christina abdicated
Speaker 1: and spent the next several decades of her life bouncing
Speaker 1: between various European courts, throwing elaborate parties so expensive they
Speaker 1: could bring her hosts financial ruin, and ultimately landing at
Speaker 1: the Vatican, where she was a guest under five separate popes.
Speaker 1: Back when she was reigning in Sweden, one of her
Speaker 1: political enemies said of her quote Christina was bringing everything
Speaker 1: to ruin and that she cared for nothing but sport
Speaker 1: and pleasure. So often Disney movies and history stories this
Speaker 1: podcast often included fall into the trap of telling the
Speaker 1: tales of beautiful, gentle princesses. Christina was neither. She was
Speaker 1: strange looking and strange in her habits. Probably the best
Speaker 1: educated woman in Europe of her day. She loved music
Speaker 1: and theater and other women, and still she's one of
Speaker 1: only three women to be buried in the papal Vatican grottos.
Speaker 1: Of course, there was murder along the way. What good
Speaker 1: story doesn't have murder. Christina may have abdicated her throne,
Speaker 1: but she never gave up having the power of life
Speaker 1: and death over her courtly subjects. I'm Dana Schwartz and
Speaker 1: this is noble blood. Christina's mother, Maria Eleanora, didn't share
Speaker 1: her husband's calm, demeanor or collectiveness when it came to
Speaker 1: the fact that they didn't actually have a son. Murray
Speaker 1: Eleanora was incredibly volatile, often erratic in her behavior in
Speaker 1: ways that some historians sometimes posthumously characterized as postnatal depression
Speaker 1: or at least some unspecified mental illness. The court collectively
Speaker 1: actually decided to withhold the information from the Queen that
Speaker 1: her newborn son wasn't actually a son for a few days.
Speaker 1: When the queen was finally told that she had given
Speaker 1: birth to a daughter, she threw a tantrum quote, instead
Speaker 1: of a son, I'm given a daughter, dark and ugly,
Speaker 1: with a great nose and black eyes. Take her from me.
Speaker 1: I will not have such a monster. That quote just
Speaker 1: about to find the relationship between mother and daughter that,
Speaker 1: for the rest of their lives could charitably be described
Speaker 1: as chili. I wouldn't go so far as some other
Speaker 1: historians do to imply that, in the queen's agitated state
Speaker 1: of mind, that she attempted to hurt her own child.
Speaker 1: But I do think it's consistent with a bitter, disinterested
Speaker 1: parent that Christina had a number of dangerous accidents when
Speaker 1: she was still young. A beam fell onto her cradle.
Speaker 1: When she was an infant, a nursemaid was accused of
Speaker 1: dropping the baby onto a stone floor injuring Christina's should
Speaker 1: older as a young child, Christina accidentally fell down a
Speaker 1: flight of stairs, breaking her collar bone. Her collar bone
Speaker 1: never healed correctly, and for the rest of her life,
Speaker 1: Christina would be in a perpetual shrug, with one shoulder
Speaker 1: sitting higher than the other. In stark contrast to her
Speaker 1: mother's disinterest, Christina's father, the King, adored her. When the
Speaker 1: King noticed that the toddler clapped and giggled upon hearing
Speaker 1: the cannons booming the royal salute at Colmar Castle, he
Speaker 1: made sure to take his young daughter with him often
Speaker 1: when he went on military reviews. Christina was technically going
Speaker 1: to be the King of Sweden, and so Gustavus made
Speaker 1: sure that she was raised like one. But as in
Speaker 1: all unhappy stories of princesses, Christina's devoted parent didn't stay
Speaker 1: in her life for long. The Thirty Years War was
Speaker 1: being fought across Germany and Central Europe, and when Christina
Speaker 1: was six years old, King Gustavus left to fight on
Speaker 1: behalf of Protestantism. If the king didn't know then that
Speaker 1: he was never going to return, he at least prepared
Speaker 1: for the possibility, formerly securing Christina in the line of
Speaker 1: succession and making plans for her regency and her custody
Speaker 1: until she came of age. Her erratic mother, Maria Eleonora,
Speaker 1: was not to be included in either plan. To Axel Oxensterna,
Speaker 1: one of the kingdom's most prominent statesman, the king said quote,
Speaker 1: if anything happens to me, my family will merit your pity.
Speaker 1: The mother lacking in common sense, the daughter a minor,
Speaker 1: hopeless if they rule, and dangerous if others come to
Speaker 1: rule over them. The plan was that if Gustavus died,
Speaker 1: Christina's guardian would be the king's half sister Catherine, and
Speaker 1: the king's half brother Carl would be the head of
Speaker 1: a regent council. Lo and behold, the king was killed
Speaker 1: in battle. Maria Eleanora was so distraught at her husband's
Speaker 1: death that she refused to allow them to bury his body.
Speaker 1: For eighteen months, she kept his casket open in a
Speaker 1: room draped with black velvet, and the dowager Queen, who
Speaker 1: had once been so cold and removed from any aspect
Speaker 1: of her child rearing, now became deeply invested in being
Speaker 1: a part of little Christina's life. Maria Eleonora, in a
Speaker 1: bid to re establish her power, actually tried to ban
Speaker 1: the king's half sister Catherine from the castle. In the end,
Speaker 1: it was Maria Eleanora who would be banished by Axel
Speaker 1: Oxensterna to grip Shawn Castle, forty miles west of Stockholm.
Speaker 1: Though Uncle Carl was head of the regency Council in name,
Speaker 1: it was Axel Oxensterna who actually ran the nation while
Speaker 1: Christina was a child, and who helped shepherd her princely
Speaker 1: education the way her father had instructed. When Christina was twelve,
Speaker 1: her guardian, her aunt Catherine, died. From that point on,
Speaker 1: oxen Sterna appointed a group to be Christina's collective guardians,
Speaker 1: rather than giving her individual foster parents. The idea was
Speaker 1: that because Christina would go on to have so much power,
Speaker 1: she shouldn't be biased in favor of any nobleman and
Speaker 1: grow to pick favorites as an adult, technically the king
Speaker 1: of Sweden already at six years old, Christina received an
Speaker 1: absolutely phenomenal education. She was tutored as if she were
Speaker 1: a boy in politics, philosophy, and theology, and to the
Speaker 1: point of fluency in seven languages, not counting Swedish. Christina
Speaker 1: was very possibly the best educated woman of the entire
Speaker 1: seventeenth century. Axel oxens Jarna even hired a French ballet
Speaker 1: troop to teach Christina how to move gracefully. That lesson
Speaker 1: was the one that never quite took. Christina was never
Speaker 1: accused of being graceful. By the time she was an adult,
Speaker 1: she swore like a sailor, refused to brush her hair,
Speaker 1: neglected all sense of fashion or polite decorum. She was
Speaker 1: uncomfortably blunt and outright refused things that she saw as feminine.
Speaker 1: From a young age, she was drawn to the Catholic doctrine,
Speaker 1: particularly the idea of celibacy. As a teenager, she was
Speaker 1: briefly secretly engaged to her cousin Charles, but pretty quickly
Speaker 1: Christina made it very clear to everyone around her that
Speaker 1: she had no intention of ever getting married. Christina's most
Speaker 1: important romantic relationship was with a girl named Ebba Sparr,
Speaker 1: the daughter of a political family. Ebba arrived to Court
Speaker 1: as a teenager to serve as one of Christina's ladies
Speaker 1: in waiting. The two were inseparable, they shared a bed
Speaker 1: and wrote a fusive letters to each other. It's almost
Speaker 1: besides the point to ask if the relationship was explicitly
Speaker 1: sexual when it was so obviously romantic. Christina referred to
Speaker 1: Ebba as Belle, and when Ebba finally got married, it
Speaker 1: was to a man Christina selected who would keep Ebba
Speaker 1: close at Court. I am not a queer scholar who
Speaker 1: can determine whether or not it's academically useful to call
Speaker 1: Christina a lesbian when she wouldn't have thought of herself
Speaker 1: in those terms. But it seems unnecessarily reductive and a
Speaker 1: little silly to discount what was obviously a queer relationship.
Speaker 1: In terms of her leadership, Christina was more focused on
Speaker 1: the big picture than the details of policy. In running Sweden.
Speaker 1: She wanted Stockholm to be a cultural center, and to
Speaker 1: that end she created a theater in the palace and
Speaker 1: appointed the scholar gay Or extreme Home to be court poet.
Speaker 1: He would go on to write a number of plays
Speaker 1: that Christina would actually perform it in front of very
Speaker 1: small and very private audiences. Christina also corresponded with the
Speaker 1: famous philosopher Renee Decart of I think therefore I am fame.
Speaker 1: Decartes actually came to Swedish court, but it wasn't really
Speaker 1: a successful visit for a few reasons. First, Decarte and
Speaker 1: Christina did not get along in person, which might have
Speaker 1: had something to do with Christina's slightly uncouth manner. But second,
Speaker 1: and maybe more important, Christina invited Decarte to give her lectures.
Speaker 1: Early in the Chili Swedish mornings, decart caught a chill,
Speaker 1: which turned into pneumonia, and then he died. Christina's other
Speaker 1: big picture goal for Sweden was establishing peace and ending
Speaker 1: the Thirty Years War that had killed her father. On
Speaker 1: any terms, Axel Oxensterne had slightly different feelings when it
Speaker 1: came to war. He and the Queen began to butt
Speaker 1: heads as soon as she became of the age of majority.
Speaker 1: Axel wanted to end the war too, but on their terms.
Speaker 1: At a larger peace conference in Austin Brook, the Chancellor
Speaker 1: auction Sterne sent his son Johann to negotiate. Christina, not
Speaker 1: satisfied that Johann would push for peace hard enough, sent
Speaker 1: her own delegate. Peace was reached, but Oxensterna was a
Speaker 1: little bitter about how meager the territorial gains were for Sweden.
Speaker 1: But even political disagreements weren't the biggest problem that Queen
Speaker 1: Christina was having with her politicians. Her distaste for marriage,
Speaker 1: which had seemed like a youthful fixation, was now that
Speaker 1: she was the age of majority, a legitimate problem. Christina
Speaker 1: had reached the age of majority in sixteen forty four,
Speaker 1: but her official coronation was delayed because of war with Denmark.
Speaker 1: She was crowned officially in sixteen fifty and the clashes
Speaker 1: with her politicians reached new heights. Christina told her counsel quote,
Speaker 1: I do not intend to give you reasons. I am
Speaker 1: simply not suited to marriage. In her mind, she was
Speaker 1: a successor in the spirit of Queen Elizabeth, the first
Speaker 1: of England. Christina wouldn't want to marry a man, which
Speaker 1: would simply mean sifening her own power away and turning
Speaker 1: her husband into the kingdom's de facto ruler. Her counsel
Speaker 1: secretly thought, that's sort of the point. Christina did have
Speaker 1: one relationship with a man, a relationship that would come
Speaker 1: to define the rest of her life. It was a
Speaker 1: friendship with the Jesuit secretary and interpreter for the Portuguese
Speaker 1: ambassador to Sweden. She and the ambassador spoke of religion
Speaker 1: and philosophy of Copernicus, Tikobray, Bacon, and Coupler. When Christina
Speaker 1: expressed her fascination with Catholicism, the secretary smuggled one of
Speaker 1: her letters to Italy and invited two more Jesuit scholars
Speaker 1: to sneak into Stockholm in disguise to chat with Christina.
Speaker 1: Not only did Christina not want to get married, she
Speaker 1: wanted to convert to Catholicism. Now, that's all well and
Speaker 1: good for a person, but not a person who is
Speaker 1: the monarch of a country, especially not since one of
Speaker 1: the terms of the peace treaty at Austinbrook was that
Speaker 1: the religion of the ruler determined the religion of a kingdom. Christina,
Speaker 1: almost twenty seven years old, had reigned for nearly two decades.
Speaker 1: Her days were filled with ten hours of lessons and
Speaker 1: policy meetings on financial minutia. It was, in short, hell
Speaker 1: of a lot of work for someone who didn't want
Speaker 1: the job. On June six, six fifty four, Christina abdicated
Speaker 1: the Swedish throne on behalf of her cousin Charles. For
Speaker 1: the ceremony, she wore all of her royal regalia a
Speaker 1: top of a simple white taffeta gown. Her counsel one
Speaker 1: by one came up and removed the royal items, but
Speaker 1: the final counselor, who was supposed to remove Christina's crown,
Speaker 1: wasn't able to do it, and so Christina stood in
Speaker 1: silence for a moment and then just took off her
Speaker 1: crown herself. She gestured for the new king, Charles to
Speaker 1: come up and sit in the throne she vacated, but
Speaker 1: he politely refused, and the two of them left the
Speaker 1: ceremony together. Three days later, Christina left Sweden. Christina's journey
Speaker 1: from Sweden was forcing her to travel through Denmark, still
Speaker 1: one of the country's enemies, and so she cut her
Speaker 1: hair short more men's clothing and posed under the fake
Speaker 1: name Count Donna to sneak across the border. While traveling
Speaker 1: through sympathetic Catholic kingdoms, Christina privately converted to Catholicism, although
Speaker 1: she kept it a secret temporarily because she still needed
Speaker 1: alimony from the Swedish government and she didn't want to
Speaker 1: compromise that. When she did eventually announced our conversion, it
Speaker 1: was at the palace of Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand Charles in Austria.
Speaker 1: He threw her a multiday party so extravagant it nearly
Speaker 1: led to his financial ruin. That event is a good
Speaker 1: keystone for what Christina's life would look like as she
Speaker 1: continued around Europe, attending parties, plays, and concerts at the
Speaker 1: behest of various Catholic noblemen. Finally, her travels took her
Speaker 1: to Rome, where Pope Alexander the seventh, an early adopter
Speaker 1: of having a mustache and a square little goatee unconnected
Speaker 1: to the mustache, welcomed her as a triumph. He threw
Speaker 1: her an opulent reception that began with a procession with
Speaker 1: six thousand onlookers crowding the streets to catch a glimpse
Speaker 1: of her. The rest of the parade included camels and elephants.
Speaker 1: It was the Roman equivalent of the Prince Ali song
Speaker 1: from Aladdin. The pope was thrilled to have a monarch,
Speaker 1: even a former monarch, who publicly converted to Catholicism. Maybe
Speaker 1: it was the first step in Sweden coming back to
Speaker 1: the Church, or maybe Christina could influence other royals to
Speaker 1: follow her lead. Christina entered the Vatican through gates specially
Speaker 1: designed by the sculptor Bernini. Bernini also designed the coach
Speaker 1: that she wrote in. Christina would remain in Rome for
Speaker 1: a good portion of her adult life, only occasionally popping
Speaker 1: into other countries when there seemed like there might be
Speaker 1: an open position for a monarch, and the hopes that
Speaker 1: maybe she wouldn't have to financially rely on the pope
Speaker 1: any longer. For a period, the most promising vacant position
Speaker 1: for Christina was the throne of Naples. It wasn't actually vacant,
Speaker 1: it was currently occupied by Spain, but it had gone
Speaker 1: back and forth between Spain and France, and Christina that
Speaker 1: she might be able to persuade France to sponsor her
Speaker 1: becoming queen and Naples if only to weaken their enemy.
Speaker 1: So Christina traveled to France to meet with the teenage
Speaker 1: King Louis the fourteenth and his mother, the regent, Queen Anne,
Speaker 1: but their reaction was a little lukewarm. But Christina's time
Speaker 1: in France would lead to what became one of the
Speaker 1: defining incidents of her adult life. She caught a trader
Speaker 1: in her midst and the woman who had been raised
Speaker 1: to be king knew exactly what to do with him.
Speaker 1: Christina's court was staying in the Grand Apartments at the
Speaker 1: Palace Fontainebleue outside of Paris. She had already met with
Speaker 1: Queen Anne about the whole Naples thing, and she was
Speaker 1: set to return back to Rome, but there were rumors
Speaker 1: of plague in Italy, and Christina figured that if she
Speaker 1: stuck around France a little bit longer, she might persuade
Speaker 1: the French to hurry up with that military support. While
Speaker 1: she was there, Christina discovered that her master of the house,
Speaker 1: a man named Rinaldo Monaldeshi, had been copying her letters
Speaker 1: and sending them to the Pope. In short, it was
Speaker 1: a full betrayal behind her back. Around one p m.
Speaker 1: One afternoon, she summoned Monaldeshi to her chambers and publicly
Speaker 1: accused him with evidence of the letters. He denied wrongdoing,
Speaker 1: but Christina just rolled her eyes. She allowed him to
Speaker 1: receive confession, and though he and the priest both begged
Speaker 1: Christina for mercy, Christina didn't grant it. Monaldeshi was disloyal,
Speaker 1: and so that very afternoon she sentenced him to death.
Speaker 1: While Monaldashi stood before Christina in her chambers, he was
Speaker 1: stabbed in the stomach and the neck by Christina's servants.
Speaker 1: The problem was Monaldeshi was wearing chain mail and the
Speaker 1: weapons didn't kill him, and so he was chased around
Speaker 1: the adjoining room for several minutes until one of Christina's
Speaker 1: servants finally managed to stab him in the throat. Christina
Speaker 1: didn't regret it at all. The only thing she said
Speaker 1: she was sorry for was that she had been forced
Speaker 1: to undertake the execution at all. She didn't ask God's forgiveness.
Speaker 1: She asked God to forgive Monaldeshi. Though her let's say,
Speaker 1: informal trial and execution was fully legal because he was
Speaker 1: a member of her court. The action made Christina massively
Speaker 1: unpopular both in France and back in Rome, where Monaldeschi's
Speaker 1: family was politically important. The pope, who had once thrown
Speaker 1: her a massive parade, now described Christina as quote a
Speaker 1: woman born of a barbarian, barbarously brought up and living
Speaker 1: with barbarous thoughts, with a ferocious and almost intolerable pride.
Speaker 1: In July nine, Christina moved to the Palazzo Riario in
Speaker 1: trust of her where she would live for the remainder
Speaker 1: of her life. She would return briefly to Sweden after
Speaker 1: cousin Charles died, thinking maybe there was a chance she
Speaker 1: might retake the throne again, but her Catholic conversion being
Speaker 1: non negotiable, that was no go. While she was there,
Speaker 1: Christina tried to see her former love of a Spar,
Speaker 1: but the Spar family prevented it. It was on her
Speaker 1: way back from another ill fated trip to Sweden when
Speaker 1: Christina heard the news that Pope Alexander the seventh died
Speaker 1: and that his replacement would be Pope Clement the ninth.
Speaker 1: Christina was delayed. Did she knew Clement the ninth. He
Speaker 1: had been her guest a number of times. She was
Speaker 1: so thrilled for her friend that she threw a massive
Speaker 1: party in her rented house forgetting. It seems that she
Speaker 1: was staying on the road temporarily in very Lutheran Hamburg,
Speaker 1: where they were not at all. A fan of all
Speaker 1: the banners, Christina hung in the street to celebrate a
Speaker 1: new pope. Christina's party had wine of flowing from fountains.
Speaker 1: The night ended with a riot and eight deaths, and
Speaker 1: Christina needing to flee out the back in disguise. She
Speaker 1: remained a troublemaker for the rest of her life, Though
Speaker 1: the next two popes would be against theater, with Pope
Speaker 1: Innocent the Eleventh forbidding women from acting, singing, or wearing
Speaker 1: low cut gowns. Christina just flat out ignored him and
Speaker 1: continued to higher female actors for her private theater. She
Speaker 1: also declared herself protectress of the Jews in Rome, and
Speaker 1: she was the one who pressured the pope into banning
Speaker 1: the chasing of Jews through the streets during carnivals. Yep,
Speaker 1: that wasn't just a thing in boor at movies. That
Speaker 1: was Christina through her middle age, enjoying art and culture,
Speaker 1: creating a hub for herself as the Catholic queen of
Speaker 1: the counterculture. One French writer visiting Rome wrote a fairly
Speaker 1: harsh description of Christina, but one that I will read
Speaker 1: because I think it paints such a compelling picture of
Speaker 1: the figure. She cut as an adult quote. She is
Speaker 1: over sixty years of age, very small of stature, exceedingly
Speaker 1: fat and corpulent. Her complexion and voice and face are
Speaker 1: those of a man. She has a big nose, large
Speaker 1: blue eyes, blonde eyebrows, and a double chin, from which
Speaker 1: brought several tufts of beard. Her upper lip protrudes a little.
Speaker 1: Her hair is a light chestnut color and only a
Speaker 1: palm's breadth in length. She wears it powdered and standing
Speaker 1: on end uncombed. She is very smiling and obliging. You
Speaker 1: will hardly believe her clothes. A man's jacket in black satin,
Speaker 1: reaching to her knees and buttoned all the way down,
Speaker 1: a very short black skirt and men's shoes, a very
Speaker 1: large bow of black ribbons instead of a cravat, and
Speaker 1: a belt tightly drawn under her stomach, revealing its rotundity
Speaker 1: all too well. Christina died at age sixty two, and
Speaker 1: though she requested a simple burial at the Pantheon, for
Speaker 1: all the trouble she caused, the Pope still wanted to
Speaker 1: use her as a pr opportunity from beyond the grave.
Speaker 1: Christina was one of three women buried in the Vatican Grotto,
Speaker 1: and she was buried with the honors of a hope
Speaker 1: in three coffins of cyprus, lead and oak, with her
Speaker 1: intestines in a high urn. Her body, wearing a silver mask,
Speaker 1: draped with fur and jewels, was on display for four days.
Speaker 1: It was a strange burial for a strange women, a
Speaker 1: woman who replaced social cues and restrictions with her own
Speaker 1: impulses and turned whatever palace she was at into a party.
Speaker 1: That's the story of Queen or should I say King
Speaker 1: Christina of Sweden. But keep listening after a brief sponsor
Speaker 1: break to hear a little bit more about how her
Speaker 1: story has been told in popular culture. Several movies and
Speaker 1: operas and books have been written about Christina of Sweden,
Speaker 1: but one of the most interesting is the critically acclaimed
Speaker 1: N three MGM film Queen Christina, featuring the Swedish actress
Speaker 1: Greta Garbo. That movie made the incredibly Hollywood choice to
Speaker 1: turn Christina into a classic romantic heroine by inventing a
Speaker 1: male love interest, a Spanish ambassador whom she's unable to
Speaker 1: marry because he's Catholic. Of course, that has the added
Speaker 1: benefit of turning Christina's conversion to Catholicism into a move
Speaker 1: of love and not philosophy. I doubt the real Christina
Speaker 1: would have loved that twisting of her narrative, but I
Speaker 1: do think she would have liked Greta Garbo. You see,
Speaker 1: just like Christina herself. There are rumors that Garbo was
Speaker 1: also queer, that she might have been bisexual or even gay.
Speaker 1: There's a scene in the film where Christina kisses her
Speaker 1: lady in waiting Ebba, and although it's played completely platon nickally,
Speaker 1: maybe secretly Garbo knew how the scene was supposed to
Speaker 1: be played. Noble Blood is a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Monkey. The show
Speaker 1: was written and hosted by Dana Schwartz and produced by
Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Trevor Young. Noble
Speaker 1: Blood is on social media at Noble Blood Tales, and
Speaker 1: you can learn more about the show over at Noble
Speaker 1: Blood Tales dot com. For more podcasts from i heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.