Jean-Marie Blas De Robles - Where Tigers Are at Home

On December 23, she arrived in Willebroek, where Archduke Leopold, governor of the Netherlands, had gone to meet her. After a sumptuous dinner, they embarked on a frigate that took them along the canal as far as the bridge at Laeken, on the outskirts of Brussels. During the short voyage the Archduke & Christina played chess, while the sky above was constantly lit up by fireworks. The next evening, Christmas Eve, they gathered with some nobles in Leopold’s palace, in the very place where, a hundred years earlier, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Fifth had abdicated to devote the rest of his life to the contemplation of the works of Our Lord.

That was the night when, under the direction of the Dominican, Father Guemes, she abjured Protestantism before God.

Kircher admitted to me that there had been great relief in certain quarters on hearing that news. However, the repeated reports following this memorable event were still disturbing: far from showing the humility appropriate to a new convert, Christina of Sweden was said to be leading a very hectic life in Brussels. One feast, one reception followed upon the other & Christina’s activities were on everyone’s lips. She played billiards, at which she exceled, exclusively with men, took part in wild sleigh races across the countryside or even through the city streets & went so far as to play unsuitable roles in the sung plays the Church condemned. But the most difficult part was over & there was certainly much exaggeration in the reports of her wild behavior. No one had been informed of Christina’s conversion, so all she did was give the world material to criticize the usual excesses of the reformed religion.

In June 1655 Christina of Sweden finally reached Innsbruck. It was in the cathedral of that city, on November 3, that the Queen recanted, now in full view of the whole world, at the same time taking communion & receiving absolution for her sins. On this occasion she displayed perfect reverence & a humility, which boded well for the future.

Christina of Sweden a Catholic! The event, ceaselessly trumpeted abroad by the Church, was devastating for all the Protestant states. Sweden, above all, was thrown off balance by the coup. More than the Peace of Westphalia, this victory brought the Thirty Years’ War to an end, crowning the triumph of the Apostolic Church of Rome. Alexander VII was jubilant; never had our religion been in such a healthy state as under his rule. And when, only a few days after the ceremony in Innsbruck, Christina of Sweden expressed the desire to come to Rome & settle there, the Pope lost no time in granting her permission. After having convoked the Congregation of Rites, in the presence of all the cardinals, the General of the Jesuits & Kircher, he decided on the ceremonial to be observed in celebration of the entry of the eminent convert into the Eternal City. Any animosity toward my master had long since been forgotten & he was personally charged with organizing the preparations for her welcome to give them due pomp & solemnity.

Christina of Sweden had set off for Rome on November 6, after having been advised to make as slow progress as possible in order to give the Vatican time to make proper preparation for her arrival. Nevertheless there was no time to lose. As my master had been given carte blanche, he secured the collaboration of Bernini. They worked together night & day to devise & realize all kinds of magnificent projects.

While this feverish activity was going on, Christina was making her leisurely way. The Duke of Mantua received her with the respect due to a sovereign: reclining in a palanquin, she crossed the Piave by the light of thousands of torches brandished by the soldiers of the Duke of Mantua, who had gone to meet her.

Dressed like a stage amazon & adorned with jewels, Christina made triumphal entries to Bologna, Rimini then Ancona. Like a river getting fuller & fuller as it flows down from its source, her retinue had taken on alarming proportions. Noblemen of all nations, but also foul courtesans lured by her excessive extravagance or soldiers of fortune whose only wealth was in their fine looks, came to accompany Christina on her journey to Rome. And it was at Pesaro, while dancing the Canaria , the new dance that had come from the Islands, that she met Counts Monaldeschi & Santinelli, those unsavory individuals who, a few years later, were to involve her in a scandal that everyone still remembers. For the moment, dazzled by the two adventurers, she admitted them to her entourage & continued on her way.

At Loretto, at the gates of Rome, Christina insisted on depositing, in a symbolic gesture, her crown & scepter on the altar of the Virgin Mary. It was on the night of December 19 of that same year that she finally entered the city, shielded from all eyes by the closed windows of her carriage, & immediately went to the Vatican, where the Pope had placed some apartments at her disposal.

During these two months Kircher & Bernini had made tremendous efforts. Drawing without restriction on the resources of Alexander VII, they had prepared the most majestic of receptions. Christina’s official entry was not to take place until three days later, to give her time to recover from the fatigue of the journey. And even though the preparations had been completed a week ago, the setting up of the vast mechanism still had to be supervised. The College was in the grip of panic. Cloistered in his study, Kircher was constantly on his acoustic tube: ordering, shouting, checking a thousand things, spurring on his troops like a general on the eve of a decisive battle. In obedience to his commands, all the actors in this performance kept on rehearsing their roles & I had never rushed round so many of the streets of Rome as in those days.

On the morning of Thursday, December 23, Christina secretly left the city to go to the villa of Pope Julius, from which she was to set out in the early afternoon to make her solemn entry. Alas, a north wind had started to blow, gathering heavy clouds full of rain over the Campagna Romana. Seeing this from his window in the College, Kircher was on tenterhooks, so concerned was he that the ceremony should proceed correctly & praying that no ill fortune should deprive him of the fruits of his efforts. Immediately after lunch, which Christina took with the Pope’s emissaries, the storm burst with unheard-of violence. Flashes of lightning & peals of thunder followed at ever-decreasing intervals, as if to show disapproval of the pomp put on for a mere mortal.

In the courtyard of the villa, over which canvas sheets were hastily hung, Monsignore Girolamo Farnese, the Supreme Pontiff’s majordomo, showed Christina the presents His Holiness was giving her: a six-horse carriage designed by Bernini, which was adorned with admirable unicorns covered in gold leaf; a palanquin and a sedan chair, both of delicate workmanship; and an immaculate Anglo-Arab steed whose gold & vermilion harness made it worthy of an emperor. Since the rain did not stop, the majordomo proposed that Christina should cancel the ‘Ceremonial Cavalcade’ & enter Rome in a carriage, but the former sovereign, with all the confidence of her twenty-eight years, refused point-blank. Thus it was that the long procession set off on the Flaminian Way in the driving rain.

There was nothing so beautiful as her route through the town. In every street swathes of silk were flapping at the windows, the drums beat a steady rhythm & from all sides a multitude of glittering carriages came to join the solemn procession. Inside these vehicles the noblest ladies of the city displayed unashamedly costly dresses and jewels. As for their husbands, no less decked out, they rode along beside them in a deafening tumult of hooves and neighing.

When they reached Saint Peter’s Square, the rain redoubled its assault, but Christina, who only had eyes for the cathedral, seemed unaffected by it. And the whole procession followed her example; the wind blew away hats, the downpour spoiled the precious fabrics without anyone appearing to regret or even notice it.