The 'Obstacle of Sex' : Christina of Sweden and Her Aspirations to the Polish-Lithuanian Throne

Abstract

An important field of research related to early modern sovereignty is the topic of female political authority. This article aims to utilise the category of gender to analyse potential obstacles that Queen Christina of Sweden had to overcome in order to obtain royal dignity in an elective monarchy, the early modern Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Could the election of a female monarch constitute an acceptable and functional alternative for the Catholic and conservative noble society of this vast composite state? Former examples of Jadwiga of Anjou (1384) and Anna Jagiellon (1576) elected and crowned Kings of Poland seemed to suggest as much. The case of Christina's aspirations is all the more interesting, as her prominent supporter during the royal election of 1669 was the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Clement IX. It is, in fact, the diplomatic correspondence created by the papal Secretariat of State that constitutes the historical basis for the research presented here.