The groundbreaking biography of one of the most progressive, influential and entertaining women of the seventeenth century, Christina Alexandra, Queen of Sweden.

Francis Henry Gribble (1862-1946) was a prolific biographer.

This interdisciplinary book investigates spaces for music-making in Early Modern France and Italy. Spaces specifically designed for music began to appear in private dwellings. While elite music-making became more specialised through the employment of paid musicians, music printing allowed new compositions to be diffused down the social scale.

Queen Christina of Sweden danced herself in the ballets she promoted. From the beginning of her personal rule until her abdication (1644-1654) court ballet was Christina's privileged medium of political propaganda. The Queen Danced Alone is the first monograph on court ballet during Christina's reign that offers an in-depth analysis of all extant libretti and performances. Based on unstudied and unpublished sources The Queen Danced Alone offers a survey of participants in the production and performances - authors, dancers, musicians, artists - as well as the arts involved: dance, music, poetry, set design and costumes. Christina's patronage is especially evident in the heroic motives of the ballets. Her self-fashioning through the parts of the goddesses Diana and Pallas mirrored her role as a young, unmarried and learned monarch and aimed at liberating her from the expectation of providing an heir to the throne. The praise of virtues such as self-control and chastity represented her as a superior being devoted to wisdom. Christina's ballets supported her most important aim: independence.

Carolyn Meyer, author of best-selling ROYAL DIARIES Isabel and Anastasia, now brings to the series this compelling story of Kristina, The Girl King, from 17th-century Sweden. Upon discovering that their newborn infant was, in fact, female and not male as first thought, Queen Marie Eleonore wailed inconsolably and King Gustavus Adolphus declared, nevertheless, that the child be raised as a prince. At age six, upon the death of her father, the child Kristina, was proclaimed King of Sweden, with regents assigned to council until she assumes the throne at age eighteen. And indeed, her life followed her father's plan. We meet Kristina when she's almost twelve years old and eschewing feminine practices but reveling in the study of military tactics,

The story of a modern woman born out of her time - one whom the seventeenth century simply couldn't contain.