She was surrounded almost entirely by men, and had learned to despise the society of her own sex.

At the age of nine years she was separated from her mother, whom the Swedes did not consider a proper person to be intrusted with the charge of her.

No little girl who sits by a New England fireside has cause to envy Christina in the royal palace at Stockholm.
Yet she made great progress in her studies.

She learned to read the classical authors of Greece and Rome, and became a great admirer of the heroes and poets of old times.

Then, as for active exercises, she could ride on horseback as well as any man in her kingdom.