t of all she could not
fail to remark the increasing discontent with her arbitrary and wasteful
ways. Within ten years she had created 17 counts, 46 barons and 428
lesser nobles; and, to provide these new peers with adequate appanages,
she had sold or mortgaged crown property representing an annual income
of 1,200,000 rix-dollars. Signs are also not wanting that Christina was
growing weary of the cares of government; while the importunity of the
senate and _Riksdag_ on the question of her marriage was a constant
source of irritation. In retirement she could devote herself wholly to
art and science, and the opportunity of astonishing the world by the
unique spectacle of a great queen, in the prime of life, voluntarily
resigning her crown, strongly appealed to her vivid imagination. Anyhow,
it is certain that, towards the end of her reign, she behaved as if she
were determined to do everything in her power to make herself as little
missed as possible. From 1651 there was a notable change in her
behaviour. She cast away every regard for the feelings and prejudices of
her people. She ostentatiously exhibited her contempt for the Protestant
religion. Her foreign policy was flighty to the verge of foolishness.
She contemplated an alliance with Spain, a state quite outside the orbit
of Sweden's influence, the firstfruits of which were to have been an
invasion of Portugal. She utterly neglected affairs in order to plunge
into a whirl of dissipation with her foreign favourites. The situation
became impossible, and it was with an intense feeling of relief that the
Swedes saw her depart, in masculine attire, under the name of Count
Dohna. At Innsbruck she openly joined the Catholic Church, and was
rechristened Alexandra. In 1656, and again in 1657, she visited France,
on the second occasion ordering the assassination of her major-domo
Monaldischi, a crime still unexplained. Twice she returned to Sweden
(1660 and 1667) in the vain hope of recovering the succession, finally
settling in Rome, where she died on the 19th of April 1689, poor,
neglected and forgotten.

See Francis William Bain, _Queen Christina of Sweden_ (London, 1890);
Robert Nisbet Bain, _Scandinavia_ (Cambridge, 1905); _Christina de
Suede et le Cardinal Azzolino_ (Paris, 1899); Claretta Gaudenzio, _La
Regina Christina de Suezia in Italia_ (Turin, 1892); Hans Emil Friis,
_Dronning Christina_ (Copenhagen, 1896); C.N.D. Bildt, _Christina de
Suede et le concl