Christina's abhorrence of the idea of giving birth was profound and life-long, contributing heavily to her decision to abdicate. More interesting than that, though, is the scandalous tale of Fontainebleau. Monaldeschi, one of Christina's manifestly untrustworthy servants, had tried to discredit another of her hangers-on through forgery and been found out. Mixed with that was the possibility that he had betrayed Christina's plans of becoming Queen of Naples with French backing to Spain. We'll never know. What we do know is that Christina, outraged at this betrayal of trust, ordered him summarily executed. Keep in mind, she's on French soil at the time, but since part of her abdication conditions was the proviso that she kept the title of Queen, she reasoned that she had the power of life and death over her household, and so the poor fellow was stabbed to death, taking an agonizingly long time to die in one of the most gut-wrenching tales of botched execution on the books. It was the absolute low point of Christina's international reputation, and put the last nail in the coffin of her Naples ambitions.

- Count Dolby von Luckner