The Last Frontier of Fire and Sword

After the death of her husband, Hedwig Ilionora thought that she could calmly accept any destiny imposed on her by God, but when she heard that Christina wanted her son to be the king of Sweden, she still He stood up in shock.

Her movements were so fast and so unexpected that the two heads almost collided.

Christina took two steps back.

Then, a former queen and a queen looked at each other like this.

Christina's gaze was calm, and Ilionora couldn't see any jokes in it.

"Is she really serious?" Ilionora thought to himself.

But if this is true, if she doesn't want to be the queen of Sweden again, then what is the reason for her to fight her husband against her husband in the danger of being assassinated and exiled?

Let his son Carl become the king, then everything is back to the original point?

After a while, Eleonora asked suspiciously: "Why?"

Then, she added without confidence: "Is it for Carl?"

The Carl mentioned by Ilionora is of course not her own son, but her husband, the deceased King Carl X of Sweden.

Ilionora knew very well what kind of affection her husband Carl had for Christina before he married him, and Christina was obsessed with Carl. And she also knew that Christina and Karl were secretly engaged in 1642.

These are the feelings between the husband and wife grew stronger after Eleonora gave birth to Carl, and Carl opened his heart to tell her.

Therefore, Ilionora would think that Christina changed her mind because she missed her relationship with Carl X in the past.

After all, a woman is an animal that is more emotional than rational.

It seems that Illionora was struck by it, and Christina showed a glimmer of memory in her eyes.

But Eleonora guessed wrong. What Christina is remembering is not the warmth between her and Carl, but the order that Carl gave Wedenberg to kill herself during the Warsaw battle.

Since then, her relationship with Carl has been broken.

If possible, she would never support Karl and Heydrich Ilionora's son in the upper ranks.

But there is no such possibility.

There are three things that make Christina have to make Karl XI king, and these three things are progressing step by step. Eventually became a dead knot.

The first thing is the threat from Baron Karl Gustav Wrangel. This close friend of Karl X did not resign or raise the flag of rebellion as most people thought after Christina occupied Stockholm. Instead, he rushed to Stockholm alone and showed allegiance to Christina.

Allegiance is public, but in private, Baron Karl Gustav Wrangel is still the loyal Baron Karl Gustav Wrangel to Karl X. He went to Stockholm to see Christina because he had a secret weapon that could intimidate and threaten Christina.

He wants to force Christina to give up the throne.

This weapon is Christina's belief.

Few outsiders know that although Christina has followed the Lutheran Church in Sweden since childhood, she secretly converted to the Roman Catholic Church when she was young.

In Sweden, Christina, a secret Catholic, has been working secretly to protect the Catholic Church.

For example, her mentor Johannes Matia Gotu proposed a new church order in 1644, but it was considered to be too Calvinist and was opposed by the majority. At that time, Queen Christina was in power, and the Queen defended him in front of Justice Uxenchena; in 1647, the priest wanted to implement the "Concord" that strictly defined Lutheranism to fight against heresy, which would severely suppress theological freedom of thought. Mattia once again strongly opposed the promotion of this book, and again received Christina's support.

For another example, being a secret Catholic but administering a Protestant country once put Christina under pressure. She had asked the Privy Council to abdicate in August 1651, but was persuaded to continue to reign. After that, Cristina commissioned the Jesuit who was the translator of the Portuguese ambassador to secretly convey a letter to the Jesuit conference in Rome on her behalf. Later, the Jesuits sent two priests, disguised as gentlemen and under pseudonyms, to come to Sweden to preach secretly. Christina talked to them in detail to resolve the distress in her heart.

Of course, although few outsiders know about Christina’s Catholic faith, there is no impermeable wall in the world, and some of the nobles and close friends of the Queen are insiders, but the Queen’s "public opinion" has a solid foundation-because she has been in the past 10 years. 17 earls, 46 barons and 428 low-level nobles were canonized, which made the aristocratic class in the Kingdom of Sweden generally favor Christina (for this reason, when Queen Christina announced that she planned not to marry and set up a cousin When Karl was the heir to the throne, the aristocratic class opposed it, but the other three national classes—the clergy, the bourgeoisie, and the peasants, all agreed to accept it).

Baron Karl Gustaf Wrangel wants to make Christina a Catholic. What the baron said was to make it public, so that all the people in Sweden ~www.readwn.com~ including farmers should know about this.

This is an unacceptable price for Christina, because it will cause a religious war across Sweden.

In the past, the Hussite War and the Thirty Years War, which also broke out in the name of religion, caused serious damage to the Czech Republic and Germany. Christina knew very well about it. She did not want the Swedish lives to be disgraced and to attract foreign interference.

Of course, for the threat of Baron Carl Gustav Wrangel, Christina has another choice besides giving up the fruits of victory, that is to get married.

As long as Christina marries a Protestant nobleman, and her heirs believe in Protestantism, then I believe that most people in Sweden will accept this result.

This is the second thing that is unsolvable for Christina. Because after being betrayed by Karl X, Christina felt extremely disgusted with marriage. She vowed never to marry in Italy. If you do not get married, you will not be able to give birth to heirs, and there are no heirs, so there is no way for the heirs of the Kingdom of Sweden to believe in the state religion and Protestantism.

At this time, there is still another way, that is, Christina adopts the children of other Protestant family members in the Vassar family as her adopted children, so that she can become the king of Sweden. But Christina's only uncle has been dead for many years, and there are only women in his family.

At this time, Karl Jr. became Christina's only choice.

In terms of blood relationship, Karl X was the son of John of the Palatinate-Zweibrücken and Princess Catalina of Sweden. He was the grandson of Karl IX; Hedwig Ilionora was the son of Child of Christina's grandmother's house. Therefore, Karl XI can be regarded as the person closest to him by blood.

"Yes, I did it for Karl." Christina said.