The Crown of Sweden is hereditary in…
October 1650 CE
The Crown of Sweden is hereditary in the family of Vasa, and from Charles IX's time excludes those Vasa princes who had been traitors or descended from deposed monarchs.
Gustav Adolf's younger brother had died years earlier, and therefore there are only females left.
Despite the fact that there were living female lines descended from elder sons of Gustav I Vasa, Christina had been the heiress presumptive.
Although she is often called "queen", her father had brought her up as a prince and her official title is King.
As ruler, Christina had resisted demands from the other estates (clergy, burgesses and peasants) in the Riksdag of the Estates of 1650 for the reduction of tax-exempt noble landholdings.
Several princes of Europe aspire to her hand; but she has rejected them all.
Now twenty-eight, Christina knows it is expected of her to provide an heir to the Swedish throne.
Her first cousin Charles, the son of John Casimir, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg and Catharina of Sweden, had at an early age become infatuated with her, and they had become secretly engaged before he left in 1642 to do army service for three years in Germany.
However Christina reveals in her autobiography that she felt "an insurmountable distaste for marriage"; likewise "an insurmountable distaste for all the things that females talked about and did".
She sleeps for three to four hours a night and is chiefly occupied with her studies; she forgets to comb her hair, dons her clothes in a hurry and uses men's shoes for the sake of convenience.
However she is said to possess charm, and the unruly hair becomes her.
Christina on February 26, 1649, had made public that she had decided not to marry, but wanted her first cousin Charles as heir to the throne.
The nobility objects to this, but the three other estates—clergy, burghers and peasants—accept it.
The coronation takes place in October 1650.
Christina goes to the castle of Jacobsdal, today known as Ulriksdal, where she enters a coronation carriage drawn with black velvet embroidered in gold, and pulled by six white horses.
The procession to Storkyrkan in Stockholm is so long that when the first carriages arrive at Storkyrkan, the last ones have not yet left Jacobsdal.
All four estates are invited to dine at the castle.
Fountains at the market place splash out wine, roast is served, and illuminations sparkle.
The participants are dressed up in fantastic costumes, like at a carnival.