The excellent government, of which Axel Oxenstierna was the leading spirit, had its defects. In its perfect system of administration, which in the main features stands unshaken to this day, there appeared to be no room for the people themselves to be governed. On account of the great allowances made to the nobles it was necessary to increase the taxes of the peasants. Many had to leave their homes and farms for want of resources to pay their taxes; others were forced away from their property by the nobles. There was danger of the destruction of the free, self-dependent yeomanry. A hatred against the nobility grew up. The great lords returned from the wars laden with booty, erected fine castles, and continued the high living to which they had become accustomed while abroad. The power of the nobility was increased by lavish donations from Queen Christine and by the appropriation of other crown lands which the government was forced to sell or mortgage on account of the wars. The clergy were the spokesmen of the peasant class at the Riksdag, every year demanding with greater emphasis a restitution to the crown of its property, which was held by the nobles. Queen Christine herself took the reins of government, in 1644, at the age of eighteen. She had inherited from her illustrious father some of his genius, and from her mother, Marie Eleonore of Brandenburg, a peculiar nervous disposition. Her mother took no interest in her until the death of Gustavus Adolphus, when a flood of exalted tenderness suddenly was let loose over her. Count Jacob de la Gardie took the lead in opposing the undesirable and unstable character of this relation, Christine being separated from her mother and educated by the Countess-Palatine Catherine, a pious and noble woman, the older sister of Gustavus Adolphus. Greatly offended, Marie Eleonore left the country never to return. Queen Christine showed a remarkable faculty of absorbing knowledge. Well versed in a great number of languages, and well read in various sciences, particularly mathematics, she soon acquired fame as the most learned woman of her time. She was of frank countenance, slept little, cared little for dress, and was passionately fond of hunting and riding on horseback. Queen Christine possessed a sharp intellect, was daring and resolute, but headstrong, fickle, extravagant, and but little particular in her choice of favorites. Her vanity and egotism knew no bounds. At the beginning of her reign she took pains to give serious attention to the affairs of state. The great chancellor had been her instructor in economics and statecraft, but she repaid him by open coldness and secret antagonism. Her ambition to surround herself with scientists of note, particularly foreigners who flattered her vanity by blowing her fame to the four corners of the earth, killed her interest for politics. Later she was seized by the evil spirit of frivolity, abandoning herself to empty pleasures and to