Veronica Buckley

Part of the “interesting women” reading list. There must have been high hopes for the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus (more correctly but more confusingly called “Gustav Adolf” in this book), but while Christina was bright and had a forceful personality, she definitely wasn’t a version of her father in skirts. In fact, it wasn’t clear if she belonged in skirts at all; it took doctors 24 hours after her birth to determine her gender, she often wore men’s clothes as an adult, and a show more good number of her romantic attachments appear to have been with other women. The less respectful of her contemporaries described her as a “hunchback lesbian dwarf whore”, and it’s quite clear that even with her acknowledged beautiful eyes, she would never be mistaken for Greta Garbo.


She reminds me of a smarter but homelier version of a modern pop star - perhaps if Paris Hilton could qualify for Mensa and had once been in a bad car wreck? Her life story is full of not-quite-successful attempts to be great, with numerous interesting and ambitious projects that she was just a little too much of an airhead to complete. She wanted to an Athena, presiding over a court full of artists and scholars and philosophers, but (apologies to 17th century Sweden just wasn’t the place to do this. Although she did manage to lure Rene Descartes to Stockholm, he promptly caught pneumonia and died. Her eventual solution to the problem was characteristically outrageous and not very well thought out: she abdicated the throne, converted to Catholicism, and moved to Rome. Although she amassed a decent sculpture collection (dispensing a small amount of patronage to Bernini) and had occasional musical evenings with Correlli and Scarlatti, she was mostly too impoverished to run the kind of salon she had always anticipated. She attempted to stay active in European politics without any success, becoming a comic and pathetic figure at the royal courts she visited, and she ruined her reputation by having one of her own “court” of hangers-on summarily executed for treason.


At least, the end of her life was not unpleasant. With all passion spent she retired to her Roman villa and her art collection. In her last illness she forgave all her enemies and requested forgiveness for herself.


This is author Veronica Buckley’s first book, and I’m impressed. The narrative is well done and the research is impeccable. Apparently it’s a graduate thesis that Buckley spent years refining. I’m hoping there’s another book in the wings somewhere. show less

I came to this book knowing the basic outline of Christina of Sweden's life but not the details - and what struck me was the role of gender in this 17th-century queen's life. Initially mistaken for a boy at birth (and possibly intersex?), Christina become Queen of Sweden in her own right while still a child. She refused to marry, however, and eventually abdicated from her throne, motivated partly by a desire to convert to Catholicism. She spent years traveling across Europe, often dressed in show more men's clothing, and was attracted to both men and women. I wish this historical figure was talked about more - she clearly deserves more attention than she typically receives and her life would provide a rich platform for discussions of gender and sexuality. show less

Angelo Soliman was an African slave who was trained as a fashion accessory for the nobility: Serving a cup of coffee in style. Via Southern Italy, he was a servant first of Count Lobkowitz and later Liechtenstein. Privileged and limited at the same time. he was quite successful and even influential, becoming a Freemason, marrying a woman of Dutch origin and acquiring a house extra muros. Not a bad life for an African slave! Alas, the Austrian Emperor had no respect of his black skin. Despite show more the protestations of his daughter, Soliman's body was skinned and a taxidermised exhibit of an African wild man complete with feathers created (which the cultured servant Soliman never was) and exhibited in the natural history collection for a few years (until the new director removed the strange item from public display. He did not, however, bury the remains. A fire during the 1848 revolution destroyed Soliman's skin and purged the museum's black stain.

Both the exhibition in the Wien Museum and its catalogue marvelously use the biography of Soliman to present larger concepts of 18th century society, e.g. the less well-known north-south African slave trade (where the majority of slaves ended up in the Ottoman Empire), the role of black servants as status symbols and fashion accessories (a human specimen among the Baroque ménagerie) to fascinating details such as one had to be a citizen of Vienna to acquire property intra muros. The catalogue is exceptionally well curated, with very little overlap, good coordination among the different authors and beautifully illustrated. Highly recommended. show less

I found this book interesting, and well-researched (the bibliography at the back of the book is extensive, to say the least) but I felt this book had something of a scattered focus. I will say that I learned a LOT about life at the royal court. (certainly not a life I would want to be part of)

I can't help but wonder how Francoise's life would have turned out if she had never married Scaron, as that was what set her on the path that would eventually cross with Louis' own. It does say show more something that out of all the women Louis took to bed, it was Francoise. Although she was never a Queen, and some would have found that insulting, it seems that that worked out better for her in the end as she did not have to deal with the official responsibilities of queendom and so had more time for her charitable work.

I really wish the cover was different. I had the book with the cover that was mostly yellow and it's a really hideous, unfortunate cover. show less