Christina of Holstein-Gottorp

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Christina of Holstein-Gottorp (13 April 1573 – 8 December 1625) was a Queen-Consort of Sweden, consort of king Charles IX of Sweden and mother of king Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden.

She was a daughter of Adolf, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and Christine of Hesse (daughter of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse). On 8 July 1592 she became the second wife of Charles, Duke of Södermanland, who in 1599 became Sweden's regent and in 1604 its king. She was crowned together with her husband in Uppsala cathedral in 1607.

Queen Christina was a dominating and strong willed woman, who had a strong sense of economy. Her marriage was considered happy, though her husband was not faithful to her, as they were very similar in personality. She often accompanied him on his journeys, among them to Estonia and Finland in 1600-1601.

Although she did not dominate her husband, who was just as dominating as she, and did not have any political influence on him, she was highly regarded, respected and feared. She did however, act as regent during her husbands absence in 1605, and she was also known to have prevented her younger son from becoming Russian Czar in 1610-1612 by keeping him at home, and as a widow, she also acted as regent for her younger son, Carl Philip, over Södermanland, until he died, in 1611-1622. During her son's first years as a king in the 1610s, she was by some considered the real, or one of the real, rulers behind the throne during his minority, though she was not formally regent.

As a dowager queen, she is known for preventing her son from marrying his mistress, Ebba Brahe; during this, she wrote a famous poem on the window of Ebba Brahe, which goes; "This you want, that you shall - that is the way in cases as this."

[edit] Children

1. Christina (1593–1594)
2. Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (Gustav II Adolf) (1594–1632)
3. Princess Maria Elizabeth of Sweden (1596–1618), married her first cousin John, Duke of Östergötland, youngest son of John III of Sweden
4. Charles Philip, Duke of Södermanland (1601–1622)

[edit] Genetics

As a matrilineal descendant of Elisabeth of Luxembourg and thus a matrilineal relative of Nicholas II of Russia, she, her children and all her female-line descendants are members of mitochondrial haplogroup T.

[edit] Sources

• Herman Lindqvist (2006). Historien om alla Sveriges drottningar (in Swedish). Norstedts Förlag. ISBN 9113015249.

Christina of Holstein-Gottorp House of Holstein-Gottorp Born: 1573 Died: 1625
Swedish royalty
Preceded by Anna of Austria (Queen consort)	Royal Consort of Sweden (Queen consort) 1599 - 1611	Succeeded by Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg (Queen consort)