Queen Christina

Queen Christina: [at age 6, after her father has died] Good lords and Swedish men. We Christina, by grace of God, Queen of the Swedes, the Goths and Vandals, promises you to be a good and just king, to protect you all, and to guard the kingdom as our father did, to wisely and with God's help, to keep the standard as we've received it from our fathers. Concerning this war which we are bitterly waging, we promise...we promise... Lord Chancellor: [whispering] ...to wage it with courage. Christina: We promise to win it! I bless you all.

Queen Christina (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Lord Chancellor: They clamor for a Swedish marriage for your majesty. They clamor for an heir of Swedish blood. Christina: In short, Chancellor, they clamor.

Queen Christina (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Archbishop: [arguing for war] It is for our faith and for our God. Christina: God is being invoked in many lands these days, Your Grace. What about the enemy's God?

Queen Christina (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Christina: But we'll go afterward, Ebba. Ebba: Oh, you always say that, but at the end of the day, you're never free to go anywhere. You're surrounded by musty old papers and musty old men and I can't get near you. Christina: Today, I'll dispose of them by sundown, I promise you, and we'll go away for two or three days in the country. Wouldn't you like that? Ebba: Oh, I'd love it.

Queen Christina (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Christina: This eternal talk about Charles. I cannot tell you how it wears me. I do not see eye-to-eye with Charles about anything...There are varieties of heroes. He's a hero with fighting and fighting bores me. His only gift is with a sword. Chancellor: The sword has made Sweden great, your Majesty. Christina: Yes, do we not exalt that gift too much, Chancellor? Chancellor: Ah, you cannot remake the world, your Majesty. Christina: Why not? Look, Chancellor, the philosophers remake it, the artists remake it, the scientists remake it now, why not we, we the power. The people follow blindly the generals who lead them to destruction. Will they not follow us? We'll lead them beyond themselves where there's grace and beauty, gaiety and freedom. Chancellor: Europe is an armed camp, your Majesty, not utopia peopled with shepherds. Christina: But Chancellor... [She looks out the window] Snow again, eternal snow. Chancellor: Your Majesty, it is for Sweden. It is your duty. Christina: Why is it

Queen Christina (film), CC BY-SA 4.0

Christina: [about Charles] He at least is no opportunist...I look at you and I look at a stranger, a stranger whom I do not altogether like. Magnus: I grant you your preferences if you love me. Christina: Love you? I wonder now, Magnus, if I have ever loved you. Magnus: I am your destiny, Christina. Christina: Are you? I long to escape my destiny. Magnus: You will long to return to it.

Queen Christina (film), CC BY-SA 4.0