Editing Christina, Queen of Sweden (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Gustav II Adolph & Mary Eleanor portraits.jpg|left|thumb|300px|Christina's parents, King Gustav II Adolph and Queen Maria Eleonora]]
[[File:Slottet Tre Kronor 1661.jpg|thumb|350 px|[[Tre Kronor (castle)|Tre Kronor]] in Stockholm by [[Govert Dircksz Camphuysen]]. Most of Sweden's national library and royal archives were destroyed when the castle burned in 1697.]]
Christina was born in the royal castle [[Tre Kronor (castle)|Tre Kronor]]. Her parents were the Swedish king [[Gustavus Adolphus]] and his German wife, [[Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg|Maria Eleonora]]. They had already had three children: two daughters (a stillborn princess in 1621, then the first Princess Christina, who was born in 1623 and died the following year) and a stillborn son in May 1625.{{efn|The three were buried in [[Riddarholmskyrkan]] in Stockholm.}} Excited expectations surrounded Maria Eleonora's fourth pregnancy in 1626. When the baby was born, it was first thought to be a boy.  It was "hairy" and screamed "with a strong, hoarse voice."<ref>Zirpolo, Lilian H. (2005) [https://www.jstor.org/pss/3566533 ''Christina of Sweden's Patronage of Bernini: The Mirror of Truth Revealed by Time''], Vol. 26, No. 1 pp. 38-43</ref>{{Efn|"I was born covered with hair from my head to my knees, only my face, arms and legs were free. I was shiny all over and I had a rough, strong voice".}} She later wrote in her autobiography that "Deep embarrassment spread among the women when they discovered their mistake." The king, though, was very happy, saying, "She'll be clever, she has made fools of us all!"<ref>[[Elisabeth Aasen|Aasen, Elisabeth]] ''Barokke damer, dronning Christinas europeiske reise'' (2005) (edited by Pax, Oslo. 2003, {{ISBN|82-530-2817-2}})</ref> Gustavus Adolphus was closely attached to his daughter, whereas her mother remained aloof in her disappointment at the child being a girl.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} In the year after Christina's birth, Maria Eleonora was described as being in a state of hysteria owing to her husband's absences. She showed little affection for her daughter and was not allowed any influence in Christina's upbringing. The king was worried that her instability might pass on to their daughter.<ref name="TsG7BAAAQBAJ p. 17">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TsG7BAAAQBAJ&dq=She'll+be+clever,+she+has+made+fools+of+us+all!+Christina+Sweden&pg=PA17-IA78|title=The History of Loot and Stolen Art: from Antiquity until the Present Day|first=Ivan|last=Lindsay|date=2 June 2014|publisher=Andrews UK Limited|isbn=978-1-906509-57-6 |accessdate=19 February 2024|via=Google Books}}</ref>

The Crown of Sweden was hereditary in the [[House of Vasa]], but following the reign of Christina's grandfather (r. 1604–11), it excluded Vasa princes descended from a deposed brother ([[Eric XIV of Sweden]]) and a deposed nephew ([[Sigismund III of Poland]]). Gustavus Adolphus's legitimate younger brothers had died years earlier. <!--his only surviving half-brother was [[Carl Gyllenhielm]], his father's extramarital son--> The one legitimate female left, his half-sister [[Catherine of Sweden, Countess Palatine of Kleeburg|Catharine]], came to be excluded in 1615 when she married [[John Casimir, Count Palatine of Kleeburg]], a non-Lutheran. <!--or his daughter. There were no eligible living female lines descended from elder sons of King Gustav I Vasa, so--> Christina became the undisputed [[heir presumptive]]. From Christina's birth, King Gustav Adolphus recognized her eligibility even as a female heir, and although she was called "queen," the official title the Riksdag gave at her coronation in February 1633 was "king".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6354&context=etd|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418171209/http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6354&context=etd|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 18, 2016|title=Expressions of power: Queen Christina of Sweden and patronage in Baroque Europe, p. 57 by Nathan A. Popp.|access-date=10 July 2017}}</ref>