Queen Christina of Sweden

Christina of Sweden was one of the most brilliant, non-conformist, and scandalous figures of seventeenth-century Europe. The only surviving legitimate child of King Gustavus Adolphus, the 'Lion of the North', Christina succeeded to the Swedish throne at age six upon her father's death at Lützen in 1632. Educated as a prince, she possessed a voracious intellect, mastering seven languages, horseback riding, philosophy, and statecraft, earning the title 'the Minerva of the North'.

Taking personal control of the government in 1644, Christina played an instrumental role in ending the devastating Thirty Years' War with the Peace of Westphalia (1648). She transformed Stockholm into the 'Athens of the North', inviting leading European intellectuals to her court, notably French philosopher René Descartes (who tragically died of pneumonia while tutoring her at dawn). Fiercely refusing to marry or produce an heir, Christina stunned the world in 1654 by abdicating her throne at age twenty-seven, secretly converting to Catholicism, and riding south dressed as a man. Settling in Rome with the blessing of Pope Alexander VII, she founded the Accademia dell'Arcadia and became the preeminent patron of Baroque music, theater, and Bernini sculpture, being one of only three women buried in the crypt of St. Peter's Basilica.