ar lasted, she used every effort to bring it to an end;
and her impulsive interference seriously hampered the diplomacy of the
chancellor, and materially reduced the ultimate gains of Sweden. The
general peace congress was not opened till April 1645. The Swedish
plenipotentiaries were Johan Oxenstjerna, the chancellor's son, and
Adler Salvius. From the first the relations between them were strained.
Young Oxenstjerna, haughty and violent, claimed, by right of birth and
rank, to be _caput legationis_. The chancellor, at home, took his son's
part, while Salvius was warmly supported by Christina, who privately
assured him of her exclusive favour and encouraged him to hold his own.
So acute did the quarrel become that there was a violent scene in full
senate between the queen and the chancellor; and she urged Salvius to
accelerate the negotiations, against the better judgment of the
chancellor, who hoped to get more by holding out longer.

The longer Christina ruled, the more anxious for the future fate of her
empire grew the men who had helped to build it up. Yet she gave fresh
privileges to the towns; she encouraged trade and manufactures,
especially the mining industries of the Dales; in 1649 she issued the
first school ordinance for the whole kingdom; she encouraged foreign
scholars to settle in Sweden; and native science and literature, under
her liberal encouragement, flourished as they had never flourished
before. In one respect, too, she showed herself wiser than her wisest
counsellors. The senate and the estates, naturally anxious about the
succession to the throne, had repeatedly urged her majesty to marry, and
had indicated her cousin, Charles Gustavus, as her most befitting
consort. Wearied of their importunities, yet revolting at the idea of
submission to any member of the opposite sex, Christina settled the
difficulty by appointing Charles her successor, and at the _Riksdag_ of
1650 the Swedish crown was declared hereditary in Charles and his heirs
male. In the summer of 1651 Christina was, with difficulty, persuaded to
reconsider her resolution to abdicate, but three years later the nation
had become convinced that her abdication was highly desirable, and the
solemn act took place on the 6th of July 1654 at the castle of Upsala,
in the presence of the estates and the great dignitaries of the realm.
Many were the causes which predisposed her to what was, after all,
anything but an act of self-renunciation. Firs