Editing Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg (section)

==Queen of Sweden==
{{Main articles|Wedding of Gustav II Adolf and Maria Eleonora}}
[[File:Maria Eleanor coin 1620s.jpg|thumb|Queen Maria Eleonora on a gold portrait medal c. 1620]]
[[File:Mary Eleanor of Sweden c 1630.jpg|thumb|A contemporary portrait of Maria Eleonora, showing the resemblance to her daughter Christina, {{Circa|1630}} (by an unknown artist)]]
The Elector John Sigismund, Maria Eleonora's father, died on 23 December 1619, and the prospect of a Swedish marriage seemed gone with him. In the spring of 1620, however, stubborn Gustavus Adolphus arrived in Berlin. The Electress Dowager Anna maintained an attitude of reserve and even refused to grant the Swedish king a personal meeting with Maria Eleonora. All those who were present, however, noticed the princess's interest in the young king. Afterwards, Gustavus Adolphus made a round of other Protestant German courts with the professed intention of inspecting a few matrimonial alternatives.

On his return to Berlin, the Electress Dowager seems to have become completely captivated by the charming Swedish king. After plighting his troth to Maria Eleonora, Gustavus Adolphus hurried back to Sweden to make arrangements for the reception of his bride.

The new Elector, George William, who resided in Prussia, was appalled when he heard of his mother's independent action. He wrote to Gustavus Adolphus to refuse his consent to the marriage until Sweden and Poland had settled their differences. It was the Electress Dowager, however, who, in accordance with [[Hohenzollern]] family custom, had the last word in bestowing her daughter's hand in marriage. She sent Maria Eleonora to territory outside of George William's reach and concluded the marriage negotiations herself.{{CN|date=May 2024}}

On 7 October 1620, Maria Eleonora, her mother and her sister [[Catherine of Brandenburg|Catherine]] left Brandenburg.{{CN|date=May 2024}} [[Anna of prussia|Anna of Prussia]] provided herself with a selection of objects of value from the exchequer before she joined Maria Eleonora in [[Braunschweig (region)|Brunswick]]. A detachment of the Swedish fleet took the women over to [[Kalmar]], where Gustavus Adolphus was impatiently awaiting them. The [[Wedding of Gustav II Adolf and Maria Eleonora|wedding]] took place in Stockholm on 25 November 1620. A comedy was performed based on the history of [[Olof Skötkonung]]. Gustavus Adolphus - in his own words - finally "had a Brandenburg lady in his marriage bed". Anna of Prussia actually stayed with her daughter in Sweden for several years after the marriage.<ref>{{cite book |last=Matthis |first=Moa |title=Maria Eleonora: drottningen som sa nej |trans-title=Maria Eleonora: the Queen who said no |year=2010 |publisher=Bonnier |location=Stockholm |language=sv |isbn=978-91-0-011354-4 |id={{LIBRIS|11653883}} }}</ref>{{Page needed|date=November 2017}}

Gustavus Adolphus shared Maria Eleonora's interest in architecture and her love of music, while she was sentimentally devoted to her husband. Often, she lamented that she never had her hero for herself. Foreign ambassadors found her gracious and beautiful and she had good taste, although her character showed some extravagant traits. Maria Eleonora had a definite liking for entertainment and sweetmeats, and she soon succumbed to the current fashionable craze for buffoons and dwarfs. She spoke French, the court language of the age, but never bothered to learn to write German or Swedish correctly.{{CN|date=May 2024}}

Within six months of their marriage, Gustavus Adolphus left to command the siege of [[Riga]], leaving Maria Eleonora in the early stages of her first pregnancy. She lived exclusively in the company of her German [[Ladies in waiting|ladies-in-waiting]] and had difficulty in adapting herself to the Swedish people, countryside and climate. She disliked the bad roads, sombre forests and wooded houses, roofed with turf. She also pined for her husband.{{CN|date=May 2024}}

A year after their wedding she had a miscarriage and became seriously ill. She was tempestuous, excessive, neurotic and jealous. She was often given to harsh language, and she did not spare her husband, even when strangers were present.{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}} Her emotional life lacked balance, and everything Maria Eleonora undertook on her own initiative needed careful watching.{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}} Soon Gustavus Adolphus' intimates knew that his married life was a source of grief and anxiety.

In the autumn of 1623 Maria Eleonora gave birth to a daughter, Christina, but the baby died the next year. At that time, the only surviving male heirs were the hated king of Poland and his sons. With Gustavus Adolphus risking his life in battles, an heir to the throne was anxiously awaited. In the autumn Maria Eleonora was pregnant for a third time. In May 1625 she was in good spirits and insisted on accompanying her husband on the royal yacht to review the fleet. There seemed to be no danger, as the warships were moored just opposite the castle, but a sudden storm nearly capsized the yacht. The queen was hurried back to the castle, but when she got there she was heard to exclaim: "Jesus, I cannot feel my child!". Shortly afterwards the longed-for son was stillborn.{{CN|date=May 2024}}

===Birth of Christina===
{{Unreferenced section|date=May 2024}}
[[File:Maria Eleonora av Sverige, tidigt 1600-tal - Sörmlands museum - SLM14027.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Queen Maria Eleonora by unknown artist, early 17th century]]
With the renewal of the war with Poland, Gustavus Adolphus had to leave his wife again. It is likely that she gave way to depression and grief, as we know she did in 1627, and it is probably for this reason that the king let his queen join him in Livonia after the Poles had been defeated in January 1626. By April, Maria Eleonora found she was again pregnant. No risks were taken this time and the astrologers predicted the birth of a son and heir.{{CN|date=May 2024}}

During a lull in the warfare, Gustavus Adolphus hurried back to Stockholm to await the arrival of the baby. The birth was a difficult one. On 7 December, a baby was born with a fleece ([[lanugo]]), which enveloped it from its head to its knees, leaving only its face, arms and lower part of its legs free. Moreover, it had a large nose and was covered with hair. Thus, it was assumed the baby was a boy, and so the King was told. Closer inspection, however, determined that the baby was a girl. Gustavus Adolphus' half-sister [[Catherine of Sweden (1584-1638)|Catherine]] informed him that the child was a girl. She "carried the baby in her arms to the king in a condition for him to see and to know and realise for himself what she dared not tell him". Gustavus Adolphus remarked: "She is going to be clever, for she has taken us all in." His disappointment did not last long, and he decided that she would be called Christina after his mother. He gave orders for the birth to be announced with all the solemnity usually accorded to the arrival of a male heir. This seems to indicate that Gustavus Adolphus, at the age of 33, had little hope of having other children. Maria Eleonora's state of health seems to be the most likely explanation for this. Her later portraits and actions, however, do not indicate that she was physically fragile.

Shortly after the birth, Maria Eleonora was in no condition to be told the truth about the baby's sex, and the king and court waited several days before breaking the news to her. She screamed: "Instead of a son, I am given a daughter, dark and ugly, with a great nose and black eyes. Take her from me, I will not have such a monster!" She may have suffered from a [[post-natal depression]].  In her agitated state, the queen tried to injure the child.
[[File:Gustav II Adolph of Sweden & Mary Eleanor of Sweden c 1632.jpg|thumb|Gustavus Adolphus and Maria Eleonora]]
In Christina's early childhood, she had frequent accidents. Once a beam fell mysteriously upon the cradle. Another time, she fell from a flight of stairs, apparently by accident. On another occasion the nursemaid was blamed for dropping the baby onto a stone floor, injuring a shoulder that ever afterwards remained a little crooked.

In the year after Christina's birth, Maria Eleonora was described as being in a state of hysteria owing to her husband's absences. In 1632 Gustavus Adolphus described his wife as being "a very sick woman". There was some excuse for her; she had lost three babies and still felt herself an isolated foreigner in a hostile land, even more so after 1627 when her brother joined Sweden's enemies. Meanwhile, her husband's life was constantly in danger when he was on campaign. In 1627 Gustavus Adolphus was both ill and wounded. Two years later he had a narrow escape at [[Stuhm]].

Gustavus Adolphus was devoted to his daughter and tried to raise Christina like a boy. At the age of two, she clapped her hands and laughed with joy when the great cannons of [[Kalmar Castle]] boomed out the royal salute. Afterwards, Gustavus Adolphus often took his daughter with him to military reviews. Maria Eleonora showed little affection for her daughter and was not allowed any influence in Christina's upbringing. The princess was placed in the care of Gustavus Adolphus' half-sister Catherine and the Chancellor [[Axel Oxenstierna]].

In 1630 Gustavus Adolphus concluded that [[Habsburg]] designs for Baltic supremacy threatened Sweden's very existence and also its religious freedom. Before he left to join the [[Thirty Years' War]], he discussed a possible regency with members of the government and admitted to them that his wife was "a miserable woman". Even so, Gustavus Adolphus could not bring himself to nominate a regency council in which her name did not appear. To Axel Oxenstierna, he confessed: "If anything happens to me, my family will merit your pity [..], the mother lacking in common sense, the daughter a minor - hopeless, if they rule, and dangerous, if others come to rule over them."