5 historical women who deserve a miniseries from Netflix or Hulu

Christina of Sweden

Queen Christina of Sweden’s excuse for messy hair is one that we use every day — we’re just too busy learning to bother brushing it! Mind over matter.

Crowned Queen when she was just six years old, Christina was one of the most educated women in the world in the 1600s. She was fascinated by religion, philosophy, mathematics and alchemy and wanted Stockholm to become the “Athens of the North.” 

She slept little, “forgot to comb her hair, donned her clothes in a hurry and wore men’s shoes for the sake of convenience”. She was a maverick.

Christina also (scandalously at the time) refused to marry, despite at one point being secretly engaged to her cousin Charles who was infatuated with her. She was inspired by the Catholic merits of celibacy and read about the unmarried Elizabeth I of England with interest.

She had a “noted passion” with a lady-in-waiting, Ebba Sparre, who she introduced as her bedfellow and nicknamed ‘Belle’. Christina wrote love letters to her. Classic historians and their definition of “noted passion”.

Christina abdicated the throne after converting to Catholicism and travelled across Europe. She never made it to England, though, because Oliver Cromwell was a notable bore and didn’t invite her. We will not make the same mistake.

To watch a miniseries about Christina would be our privilege. Frankly she sounds like a style icon, and our bad hair excuse needs to become mainstream. So far, “I’m like Christina of Sweden” isn’t really cutting it.