The warrior king summoned his army and prepared to invade Germany.  Before departing he took his little daughter by the hand and led her among the assembled nobles and councilors of state.  To them he intrusted the princess, making them kneel and vow that they would regard her as his heir, and, if aught should happen to him, as his successor.  Amid the clashing of swords and the clang of armor this vow was taken, and the king went forth to war.

He met the ablest generals of his enemies, and the fortunes of battle swayed hither and thither; but the climax came when his soldiers encountered those of Wallenstein—­that strange, overbearing, arrogant, mysterious creature whom many regarded with a sort of awe.  The clash came at Lutzen, in Saxony.  The Swedish king fought long and hard, and so did his mighty opponent; but at last, in the very midst of a tremendous onset that swept all before him, Gustavus received a mortal wound and died, even while Wallenstein was fleeing from the field of battle.

The battle of Lutzen made Christina Queen of Sweden at the age of six.  Of course, she could not yet be crowned, but a council of able ministers continued the policy of the late king and taught the young queen her first lessons in statecraft.  Her intellect soon showed itself as more than that of a child.  She understood all that was taking place, and all that was planned and arranged.  Her tact was unusual.  Her discretion was admired by every one; and after a while she had the advice and training of the great Swedish chancellor, Oxenstierna, whose wisdom she shared to a remarkable degree.

Before she was sixteen she had so approved herself to her counselors, and especially to the people at large, that there was a wide-spread clamor that she should take the throne and govern in her own person.  To this she gave no heed, but said: 

“I am not yet ready.”

All this time she bore herself like a king.  There was nothing distinctly feminine about her.  She took but slight interest in her appearance.  She wore sword and armor in the presence of her troops, and often she dressed entirely in men’s clothes.  She would take long, lonely gallops through the forests, brooding over problems of state and feeling no fatigue or fear.  And indeed why should she fear, who was beloved by all her subjects?

When her eighteenth year arrived, the demand for her coronation was impossible to resist.  All Sweden wished to see a ruling queen, who might marry and have children to succeed her through the royal line of her great father.  Christina consented to be crowned, but she absolutely refused all thought of marriage.  She had more suitors from all parts of Europe than even Elizabeth of England; but, unlike Elizabeth, she did not dally with them, give them false hopes, or use them for the political advantage of her kingdom.

At that time Sweden was stronger than England, and was so situated as to be independent of alliances.  So Christina said, in her harsh, peremptory voice: