Editing Christina, Queen of Sweden (section)

== Appearance ==
{{anchor|Appearance, body, and comportment}}

[[File:Persisk rock - Livrustkammaren - 85153.tif|thumb|Persian coat owned by Christina, probably woven during the reign of [[Abbas the Great]] (1586–1628).]][[File:Gravyr på kardinal Azzolino och drottning Kristina i boken "Het leven en bedryf van Christina" - Skoklosters slott - 91442.tif|thumb|Christina with Cardinal Azzolino in an engraving from "Het leven en bedryf van Christina"<ref name="Franckenstein"/>]]

Historical accounts of Christina include regular reference to her [[physical features]], [[comportment|mannerisms]] and [[style of dress]].  Christina was known to have a [[Kyphosis|bent back]], a deformed chest, and irregular shoulders. Some historians have speculated that references to her physical attributes may be over-represented in related [[historiography]], thus giving the impression that this was of greater interest to her contemporaries than was actually the case.<ref name=grin>Kandare, Camilla Eleonora (2009) [https://books.google.com/books?id=ePNCQwAACAAJ ''Figuring a queen; Queen Christina of Sweden and the embodiment of sovereignty'']</ref> However, given how influential Christina became in her own era (especially for those in Rome), it is likely her style and mannerisms were at least of general interest to those around her, and this is reflected in many accounts.<ref name=bargrave/><ref name=grin/> As a result of conflicting and unreliable accounts (some no better than gossip), the way in which Christina is described, even today, is a matter of debate.<ref name=burial/>

According to Christina's autobiography, the [[midwife|midwives]] at her birth first believed her to be a boy because she was "completely hairy and had a coarse and strong voice". Such ambiguity did not end with her birth; Christina made cryptic statements about her "[[Health|constitution]]" and body throughout her life. Christina also believed a wet nurse had carelessly dropped her to the floor when she was a baby. A shoulder bone broke, leaving one shoulder higher than the other for the rest of her life.{{efn|E. Essen-Möller and B. Guilliet suggest it had to do with her alleged [[intersex]] condition.<ref name="Quilliet" />}} A number of her contemporaries made reference to the differing height of her shoulders.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Christina-queen-of-Sweden|title=Christina – queen of Sweden|access-date=10 July 2017}}</ref>

As a child, Christina's mannerisms could probably best be described as those of a [[tomboy]]. Her father insisted she should receive "the education of a prince", and some have interpreted this as acceptance, on the part of the king, that she had masculine features or that there was some form of [[gender]] ambiguity in her upbringing.<ref name=Buckley/> She was educated as a prince and was taught (and enjoyed) [[fencing]], [[horse riding]] and bear [[hunting]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HaHdAAAAQBAJ&q=Christina+Sweden+horse+riding&pg=PA304|title=The 17th and 18th Centuries: Dictionary of World Biography|first=Frank N.|last=Magill|date=13 September 2013|publisher=Routledge|access-date=10 July 2017|via=Google Books|isbn=9781135924140}}</ref><ref name="iep.utm.edu"/> She was said to have preferred these masculine hobbies to more feminine ones.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017 |title=Queen Christina of Sweden, Lesbian Troublemaker |url=https://headstuff.org/culture/history/queen-christina-of-sweden-lesbian-troublemaker/ |website=Headstuff}}</ref>

As an adult, it was said that Christina "walked like a man, sat and rode like a man, and could eat and swear like the roughest soldiers".<ref name=Buckley/> Christina's contemporary [[John Bargrave]] described her comportment in a similar fashion but said witnesses ascribed her style more to childishness or madness than masculinity.<ref name=bargrave/> When she arrived in Rome in 1655, she had shaven her head and wore a big, dark wig.<ref name=Buckley/> By 1665, according to Edward Browne, she regularly wore a velvet [[justacorps]], [[Cravat (early)|cravat]], and [[peruke]] (man's wig).<ref name=Buckley/>

While Christina may not have been alone in her own time for choosing masculine dress ([[Leonora Christina Ulfeldt]], for example, was known for dressing the same way), she also had physical features some described as masculine.<ref name=Buckley/>{{efn|Her contemporary [[Samuel Pepys]], for example, describes [[1650–1700 in fashion#Hunting and riding dress|women riding horses]] in ''mannish'' clothing.}}<ref name=stolpe>[[Sven Stolpe|Stolpe, Sven]] (1966) [https://archive.org/details/christinaofswede00stol ''Christina of Sweden''] (Burns & Oates) p. 340</ref> According to [[Henry II, Duke of Guise]], "she wears men's shoes and her voice and nearly all her actions are masculine".<ref>[[Masson, Georgina]] (1968) [https://books.google.com/books?id=XVYQAQAAIAAJ ''Queen Christina''] (Secker & Warburg) p. 274</ref> When she arrived in Lyon, she again wore a [[toque]] and had styled her hair like that of a young man. It was noted that she also wore large amounts of powder and face cream. In one account she "was sunburnt, and she looked like a sort of Egyptian street girl, very strange, and more alarming than attractive".<ref name=Buckley/>

[[File:Christina of Sweden (1626) c 1685.jpg|thumb|Christina in her later years]]

Living in Rome, she formed a close relationship with [[Decio Azzolino|Cardinal Azzolino]], which was controversial but symbolic of her attraction to relationships that were not typical for a woman of her era and station.<ref name=bargrave/><ref>Herman, Eleanor (2009) [http://www.mistressofthevatican.com/friends_enemies.htm#christina ''Mistress of the Vatican: The True Story of Olimpia Maidalchini: The Secret Female Pope''] ([[HarperCollins]])</ref> <!--As a result, for a time, Christina's "dormant femininity was awakened".{{Citation needed|date=March 2015|how do you know?}}--> She abandoned her manly clothes and took to wearing ''[[décolleté]]'' dresses so risqué that they drew a rebuke from the Pope.<ref name=Buckley/> <!--When Azzolino was sent away from Rome and their relationship dissipated, Christina reverted to her more masculine style.{{Citation needed|date=March 2015|How do you know? It is probably the other way around; when Azzolino came she dressed in a more female way.}}-->

As an older woman, Christina's style changed a little. [[Maximilien Misson|François Maximilian Misson]] (visiting Rome in the spring of April 1688) wrote:
{{blockquote|She is over sixty years of age, very small of stature, exceedingly fat, and corpulent. Her complexion and voice and face are those of a man. She has a big nose, large blue eyes, blonde eyebrows, and a double chin from which sprout several tufts of beard. Her upper lip protrudes a little. Her hair is a light chestnut colour, and only a palms breadth in length; she wears it powdered and standing on end, uncombed.  She is very smiling and obliging. You will hardly believe her clothes: a man's jacket, in black satin, reaching to her knees, and buttoned all the way down; a very short black skirt, and men's shoes; a very large bow of black ribbons instead of a cravat; and a belt drawn tightly under her stomach, revealing its rotundity all too well.<ref name=Buckley/>}}

=== Gender ambiguity and sexuality ===
[[File:Ebba Sparre.jpg|thumb|[[Ebba Sparre]] married in 1652 a brother of [[Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie]]. Painting by Sébastien Bourdon]]

The question of Christina's sexuality has been debated, even as a number of modern biographers generally consider her to have been a [[lesbian]], and her relationships with women were noted during her lifetime;<ref name="crompton">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TfBYd9xVaXcC&pg=PA357 |first=Louis |last=Crompton |title=Homosexuality and Civilization |year=2009 |publisher=Harvard University Press |pages=357–60|isbn=9780674030060 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Saunders |first=Amy |date=2019-12-13 |title=The Afterlife of Christina of Sweden: Gender and Sexuality in Heritage and Fiction |journal=Royal Studies Journal |volume=6 |issue=2 |page=204 |doi=10.21039/rsj.199 |issn=2057-6730|doi-access=free }}</ref> Christina seems to have written passionate letters to [[Ebba Sparre]], and Guilliet suggested a relationship between Christina and [[Gabrielle de Rochechouart de Mortemart]], Rachel, a niece of Diego Teixeira,<ref name="Quilliet">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JNZ9B1JWaT4C&pg=PT52|title=Christine de Suède|first=Bernard|last=Quilliet|date=4 June 2003|publisher=Fayard|access-date=10 July 2017|via=Google Books|isbn=9782213649474}}</ref> and the singer Angelina Giorgino.<ref name="ReferenceC"/> Some historians assert she maintained [[heterosexual]],<ref name="books.google.com"/> [[Asexuality|non-sexual]],<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TO1a4F_EDBsC&pg=PT70|title=Alle Wege führen nach Rom: Die ewige Stadt und ihre Besucher|first=Roberto|last=Zapperi|date=12 February 2013|publisher=C.H.Beck|access-date=10 July 2017|via=Google Books|isbn=9783406644528}}</ref> [[lesbian]],<ref>Sarah Waters (1994) ''A Girton Girl on a Throne: Queen Christina and Versions of Lesbianism, 1906-1933''
In: Feminist Review. No. 46, Sexualities: Challenge & Change (Spring, 1994), pp. 41–60 [https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1395418?uid=3738736&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=56119066103]</ref> or [[bisexual]] relationships during the course of her life <!--or perhaps was [[Asexuality|asexual]]--> depending on which source is consulted.<ref name="Popp 2010"/><ref>Egherman, Mara (2009)[https://central-iowa.academia.edu/MaraEgherman/Talks/47638/Kristina_of_Sweden_and_the_History_of_Reading_in_Europe_Crossing_Religious_and_Other_Borders'' Kristina of Sweden and the History of Reading in Europe: Crossing Religious and Other Borders''](University of Iowa, Graduate School of Library and Information Science)</ref> According to [[Veronica Buckley]], Christina was a "dabbler" who was "painted a [[lesbian]], a [[prostitute]], a [[hermaphrodite]], and an [[atheist]]" by her contemporaries, though "in that tumultuous age, it is hard to determine which was the most damning label".<ref name=Buckley/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/apr/10/featuresreviews.guardianreview20|title=Review: Christina, Queen of Sweden by Veronica Buckley|newspaper=The Guardian|date=2004-04-10|last1=Wilson|first1=Frances}}</ref> Christina wrote near the end of her life that she was "neither Male nor Hermaphrodite, as some People in the World have pass'd me for".<ref name=Buckley/>

Bargrave recounted that Christina's relationship with Azzolino was both "familiar" ([[Intimate relationship#Intimacy|intimate]]) and "amorous" and that Azzolino had been sent (by the Pope) to Romania as punishment for maintaining it.<ref name=bargrave/> Buckley, on the other hand, believed there was "in Christina a curious squeamishness with regard to sex" and that "a sexual relationship between herself and Azzolino, or any other man, seems unlikely".<ref name=Buckley/> Based on historical accounts of Christina's physicality, some scholars believe that she may have been an [[intersex]] individual.<ref name=Buckley/><ref>{{Cite book |title=Queen Christina of Sweden: documents and studies |publisher=Nationalmuseum |year=1966 |first=Magnus von|last=Platen |page=154}}</ref><ref name="auto"/>

In 1965, these conflicting accounts led to an investigation of Christina's remains. [[Physical anthropologist]] and anatomist [[Carl-Herman Hjortsjö]], who undertook the investigation, explained: "Our imperfect knowledge concerning the effect of intersex on the skeletal formation ... makes it impossible to decide which positive skeletal findings should be demanded upon which to base the diagnosis [of an [[intersex]] condition]." Nevertheless, Hjortsjö speculated that Christina had reasonably typical female genitalia because it is recorded by her physicians Bourdelot and Macchiati that she menstruated.<ref>Hjortsjö, Carl-Herman (1966/7) [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ibs_QwAACAAJ "Queen Christina of Sweden: A Medical/Anthropological Investigation of Her Remains in Rome"]{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} pp. 15–16</ref> Hjortsjö's [[osteology|osteological]] analysis of Christina's [[skeleton]] led him to state that they were of a "typically female" structure.<ref name="González 2006 page 211">{{cite book |title=Cuba And the Tempest: Literature & Cinema in the Time of Diaspora |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A8YfMoPifnMC&pg=PP1 |page=211 |last=González |first=Eduardo |publisher=The University of North Carolina Press |year=2006 |access-date=3 August 2012|isbn = 9780807856833}}</ref>

Some of the symptoms could be due to [[polycystic ovary syndrome]], a complex multi-[[endocrine disorder]] including [[hirsutism]] (male pattern/type hair growth) due to increased androgen hormone levels, and abdominal obesity due to the hormone insulin receptor defects. Buckley suggested that her low comprehension of the need for most social norms, little desire to act, dress, or do other social norms, and her preference to wear, act, and do only that which she deemed logically practical, point to her having a [[pervasive developmental disorder]], such as [[autism]].<ref name=Buckley/>