Among the many learned men who at one time surrounded Christine were Vossius, Heinsius, Salmasius, Huet, Freinshemius, Loccenius, Meibom, Bœclerus, Ravius, Schefferus, and others. The greatest of them all, the philosopher Cartesius (René Descartes), died in Stockholm, in 1650.
After the love-story of Gustavus Adolphus had come to an end, he long felt a disinclination to marry. His sister Catherine is said to have tried to rouse him to the necessity of choosing a consort. His answer was always: “Never mind, dear sister, you shall yourself bring up a son to inherit the crown and continue my work.” This son of Catherine became Queen Christine’s successor.
_Period of Political Grandeur--Charles X. and Charles XI._
Charles X. was one of the most ambitious men ever placed upon a throne, and Europe was soon to realize that a new war-lord was come. His ambition, so long unsatisfied and secreted, burst forth with uncontrollable strength, in compass only to be equalled by his rare gifts of mind and heart. Charles Gustavus had suffered a good deal of neglect, coldness and hatred, but when ascending the throne he seemed to have forgotten all this. Oxenstierna died a few months after the abdication of Queen Christine, deeply impressed by the magnanimity and genius of the new sovereign. Charles Gustavus was one of the most highly gifted of Swedish monarchs. He had a great deal of interest in and rare discernment for the requirements of a peaceful development. But reared in the most warlike of times, when a reputation could be made only by winning so and so many “victorias” for the firm establishment of a hero’s “gloire,” Charles Gustavus thought that only the monarch favored by “Fama” would have the prestige to lead firmly the fate of his people. He often expressed the wish to rest from his campaigns in order to contemplate his work and make it beneficial to his people, but such a rest he never gave himself time to enjoy during his short and remarkable reign.
Charles burned with desire to gain fame in war, taking for pretext that the king of Poland, by his repeated claims to the Swedish throne, made peace treacherous and impossible. But such was the condition of affairs that something must be done to quiet the malcontent people, restore peace between the quarrelling classes, and reimburse the empty state treasury. At a Riksdag in Stockholm, in 1655, a restitution was proposed by the king and agreed to, according to which all estates which in earlier times had been rendering dues to the direct support of the court, army, fleet, or administration, should be confiscated to the crown; also one-fourth of the estates given away since the death of Gustavus Adolphus, and all estates fraudulently obtained. A committee to enforce the restitution was appointed, to be presided over by the able Herman Fleming. The restitution, far from radical in itself, was not completely carried through, thanks to the opposing nobles. But it proved effective for the moment, the king securing the goodwill of the people, temporary quiet and means to carry on the proposed war, to commence which Charles Gustavus received the somewhat reluctant consent of the faithful people whose financial state was a most despairing one. Charles X. thought in new conquests to find means to better their condition. Shortly after his coronation he married Hedvig Eleonore of Holstein-Gottorp.