The young queen brought a large dower which greatly assisted the war fund, but the marriage precipitated another war with Poland.
The marriage was a fairly happy one, as royal marriages go, but the happiness of the family was clouded by a dead child being the first born of the union. This great affliction Gustavus seems to have borne with a truly Christian spirit. The following year a similar event occurred, so that the royal family feared for the succession. At last, in 1632, after being married twelve years, he was permitted to hold a living child in his arms.
As he lavished upon her his paternal caresses, he said, "God be praised! I hope this daughter may be as good to me as a son. May God who has given her preserve her to me."
The life of this princess, whose history will be given later, proved that what we pray too earnestly for, almost as it were forcing the hand of God, may be given in answer to persistent requests, but the gift is to our undoing. Like Hezekiah's prolonged life, the boon was given in answer to prayer. Hezekiah's continued life proved to be full of anguish, and Manasseh, one of the curses of Judah, was born to him. If only we could pray: "O Lord, withhold, if not for my permanent good and Thy ultimate glory."
No woman ever dishonored her parentage more than this daughter, known in history as Queen Christina of Sweden.
This short history is to deal so much with the history of Gustavus Adolphus, the hero general of the Reformation, that we have condensed, for the most part, the history of his loves and domestic life into this one chapter. Before leaving the subject, we would remind you that Queen Eleanor Marie always acted as regent when Gustavus was absent on his campaigns. She seems to have ruled wisely. After the death of Gustavus she generously sent a portrait of the man they both loved so much to Lady de la Gardia.
CHRISTINA,
Daughter of Gustavus Adolphus II.
CHAPTER IV.
GUSTAVUS AND HIS KINGDOM.
We have now these two young men, Gustavus Adolphus and Axel Oxenstiern, his chancellor, sitting down to play the game of war against all the powers of northern Europe. The stake was the national existence of Sweden.