8o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



time fulfilled all the expectations which had been formed for her 

 reign. 



The Swedish people were anxious that Christina should marry, but 

 she declined to sacrifice her independence. In 1649, however, she per- 

 suaded the Diet to accept as her successor the best of her suitors, 

 Charles Gustavus of Palatine-Deux-Ponts, the son of the only sister 

 of Gustavus Adolphus. In the following year she was crowned with 

 great pomp. 



About this time Christina's character seemed to undergo a remarkable 

 change. She became wayward and restless, neglected her tried counsellors, 

 and followed the advice of self-seeking favorites. So much discontent was- 

 aroused by her extravagance and fickleness that she at last announced her 

 determination to abdicate.* 



After abdication in 1651 she left for foreign courts, where her eccen- 

 tricities and daring disregard for conventionalities became the talk of 

 Europe. Upon the whole her character presents a strange combination 

 of faults and foibles, pushed to the most extravagant excess. She says 

 of herself, 'that she was mistrustful, ambitious, passionate, haughty,, 

 impatient, contemptuous, satirical, incredulous, undevout, of an ardent 

 and violent temper and extremely amorous.' 



The violent temper was common to a large number of her paternal 

 ancestors, but it is especially interesting to note that the change in 

 her character was very similar to that of her uncle, Eric XIV., who' 

 began his reign very well, and whose unstable temper did not display 

 itself until he was about twenty-five years old.f Magnus, his brother, 

 likewise became insane at just about the same age. The inconsistencies 

 of character which stand out so strongly in many of the members of 

 this family have not been very common among royalty. They were 

 found to be very common among the relations of Peter the Great, 

 where they were considered related to a family neurosis. Here there 

 is also a neurosis, so we have in the coincidence a very strong proof 

 that much of the moral nature here inherited in the form of inconsis- 

 tencies, as well as the mental, is subject to heredity. 



Since Christina abdicated to her cousin, Charles Gustavus, we now 

 take up the Palatine Deux-Pont dynasty of Sweden, which includes 

 the characters numbered from 19 to 27 inclusive. 



Charles Gustavus, it is to be remembered, was the best of the many 

 suitors for the hand of the eccentric Christina, and although he, like 

 all the others, failed to change her mind regarding her determination 

 to remain single, her appreciation and regard for him were such that 

 she succeeded in having the succession made in his name. The father 

 to this new heir to the throne was likewise a man of excellent charac- 



* * Ency. Brit.,' 9th ed., art. Sweden. 

 t Cont. Geijer * Hist. Sweden,' I., 148. 



