Author: Carolyn Meyer
First Published: May 2003
Publisher: Scholastic
Series: The Royal Diaries
170 pages (hardcover)
Another Royal Diaries read! This one is on Queen (or “King”) Kristina/Christina of Sweden. The historical note at the back of the book states that she is the second most discussed queen amongst historians (first is Cleopatra VII), but I have not heard of her before this book, to be honest. She had a really fascinating upbringing, from what I can tell from this book.
In this juvenile novel, Kristina is the only child of the King and Queen of Sweden. When she was born, everyone thought she was a precious boy because of the caul covering her body. Of course, later everyone realized she was actually a girl. Her father thought this meant his child was very clever, already playing tricks on everyone, and announced that Kristina will be raised as a boy, as a prince, and one day become the King of Sweden, not Queen. And so, Kristina was raised learning all the things required of a royal prince, instead of the feminine arts required of a princess.
Her father dies when she is young and she is suddenly King of Sweden. While she will not rule on her own until she is 18, Kristina must deal with her emotionally unstable and overly smothering mother, her dear aunt and her councillors, all of whom want to find the best husband possible for Kristina to rule Sweden with. But Kristina doesn’t want to marry — ever!
I really liked this book. It’s written by the same author that wrote the Anastasia book, which I adore, so I expected the same level of great storytelling with Kristina as well. I feel like I learned a lot about a royal who, before this book, I knew nothing about. She seems absolutely fascinating, being crowned King instead of Queen and all; I was a little disappointed to read later that she ended up abdicating her throne after a mere four years, due to stress and converting to the Catholic faith (a religion which Sweden banned from their country).
Kristina is one of the few royals in this series that actually had an interesting childhood that suited the age range for this book series, in my opinion. Some of the other books in this series, like Eleanor or Marie Antoinette, led more interesting lives as adults than as preteens, so those books may not feel as interesting. Kristina, however, experienced a lot of important changes and events in her life quite early, so her preteen years alone feel exciting. After reading this book, I would love to learn more about Kristina!
My Rating: 4/5
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