Christina

     At the moment TMC is playing Queen Christina, a biopic of the historical Queen Christina of Sweden.  All Hollywood bios are essentially fiction entire, but in this case it is particularly egregious.  Casting Greta Garbo as Christina was about as appropriate as casting Jerry Lewis as Othello.  Naturally in almost all cases the actress chosen to play a historical figure is much better looking than the actual person being portrayed.  No one expects anything different but, perversely, Jerry Lewis would have been a better choice to portray the real Christina's looks.

     Christina was, by all accounts, a seriously ugly woman.  On the far side of bonkers as well, which was unfortunate, but all too common among European royalty.  She may have been a lesbian, she was certainly mannish enough, but she also might have been entirely asexual.  Vasty speculations have explored the issue, inconclusively, but she was most definitely was a nut, a real royal whackjob, fruity as a nutcake.  She converted to Catholicism, moved to Rome and oversaw a boundary stretching solon.  She became rather influential, but she was still nuttier than a barrel of Skippy.

     It is fair to say that most children of major European royalty harbor bats in the belfry, if not now then historically.  Simply being an inbred child of a monarch back then was a reasonably effective method of boarding the train to crazy town.  Under different circumstances however....

     Different circumstances for Christina are explored most thoroughly in writer Eric Flint's 1632 alt-history series.  Do not laugh or sneer.  The series is one thoroughly researched, lengthy, and wonderful history lesson.  I can not recommend it highly enough.  In this complex and far ranging series, Christina's circumstances change radically, as does everyone's, and she is guided along a drastically different path than the one taken by the actual Christina.  The same can be said for the character of her father King Gustavus Adolphus.  All quite entertaining and endlessly informative.  Start with the first book, 1632, and go from there.  You will thank me.