The days following Henrietta's funeral were difficult yet blurry for Gustav. He felt like merely going through the motions every single day, only finding a flicker of life left in himself when taking care of his children. After all, he knew very well that Henrietta would want nothing more than their children growing up happily - and he was determined to make that the reality. He spent hours with the children every single day, far more than any royal fathers of the time, while

The little Swedish prince born in 1661 proved to be a rather energetic boy by royal standards, despite his fragile beginnings. By a few months old, he was already mumbling sentences, while looking at his parents all curious while seeing anything new. His two older siblings also brought much joy to the royal household. Crown Prince Gustav Rudolf, seven years old, was a quiet but inquisitive boy, close to his mother the Queen. The Queen would often read books with her eldest bo

Rallying behind Prince Christian, the Norwegians enjoyed a period of high morale following the restoration of the Storting. Many Norwegian patriots chanted for Prince Christian everywhere, some almost viewing him as their actual monarch instead of the King in Copenhagen. Yet, Christian's government faced a grave problem. The outrageously high taxes imposed on Norway to pay off the reparations he owed Sweden had drained the Norwegian treasury, leaving the Norwegians without an

The peace with Sweden in 1657, and the subsequent election of the pro-Polish Ivan Vyhovsky as the new Hetman provided the Commonwealth with much momentum. King Jan II Kazimierz, returning to his ruined capital of Warsaw, began planning counter-offensives to push the Russians back in Lithuania and Ukraine. After his election, Vyhovsky began negotiating with the King's representative, seeking to achieve Cossack autonomy under Polish rule, which he deemed a better alternative th

The banknotes issued by Stockholm Banco in early 1661 immediately proved to be a great success for the Swedish economy, with transactions more convenient than ever before. Many other European nations soon issued banknotes of their own, transforming the continent's economy forever. Princess Kristina's passion to transform Stockholm into the cultural capital of the North had also yielded some success after years of effort. Intellectuals from all over Europe were invited by Kris