Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

CHARLES R

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 929 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

CHARLES R . [CHARLES GUSTAVUS] (1622-1660), See also:king of See also:Sweden, son of See also:John Casimir, See also:count See also:palatine of See also:Zweibrucken, and See also:Catherine, See also:sister of Gustavus See also:Adolphus, was See also:born at See also:Nykoping See also:Castle on the 8th of See also:November 1622. He learnt the See also:art of See also:war under the See also:great Lennart See also:Torstensson, being See also:present at the second See also:battle of See also:Breitenfeld and at Jankowitz. From 1646 to 1648 he frequented the See also:Swedish See also:court. It was supposed that he would marry the See also:queen regnant, See also:Christina, but her unsurmountable objection to wedlock put an end to these anticipations, and to compensate her See also:cousin for a broken See also:half-promise she declared him (1649) her successor, despite the opposition of the See also:senate headed by the See also:venerable Axel See also:Oxenstjerna. In 1648 he was appointed generalissimo of the Swedish forces in See also:Germany. The conclusion of the See also:treaties of See also:Westphalia prevented him from winning the military laurels he so ardently desired, but as the Swedish plenipotentiary at the executive See also:congress of See also:Nuremberg, he had unrivalled opportunities of learning See also:diplomacy, in which See also:science he speedily became a past-See also:master. As the recognized See also:heir to the See also:throne, his position on his return to Sweden was not without danger, for the growing discontent with the queen turned the eyes of thousands to him as a possible deliverer. He therefore withdrew to the isle of See also:Oland till the See also:abdication of Christina (See also:June 5, 1654) called him to the throne. The beginning of his reign was devoted to the healing of domestic discords, and the rallying of all the forces of the nation See also:round his See also:standard for a new policy of See also:conquest. He contracted a See also:political See also:marriage (Oct. 24, 1654) with Hedwig Leonora, the daughter of See also:Frederick III., See also:duke of See also:Holstein-Gottorp, by way of securing a future ally against See also:Denmark.

The two great pressing See also:

national questions, war and the restitution of the alienated See also:crown lands, were duly considered at the Riksdag which assembled at See also:Stockholm in See also:March 1655. The war question was decided in three days by a See also:secret See also:committee presided over by the king, who easily persuaded the delegates that a war with See also:Poland was necessary and might prove very advantageous; but the See also:consideration of the question of the subsidies due to the crown for military purposes was postponed to the following Riksdag (see SWEDEN: See also:History). On the loth of See also:July Charles quitted Sweden to engage in his See also:Polish See also:adventure. By the See also:time war was declared he had at his disposal 50,000 men and 5o warships. Hostilities had already begun with the occupation of Di.inaburg (See also:Dvinsk) in Polish See also:Livonia by the Swedes (July 1, 1655), and the Polish See also:army encamped among the marshes of the See also:Netze concluded a See also:convention (July 25) whereby the palatinates of See also:Posen and See also:Kalisz placed themselves under the See also:protection of the Swedish king. Thereupon the Swedes entered See also:Warsaw without opposition and occupied the whole of Great Poland. The Polish king, John Casimir, fled to See also:Silesia. Meanwhile Charles pressed on towards See also:Cracow, which was captured after a two months' See also:siege. The fall of Cracow extinguished the last See also:hope of the boldest See also:Pole; but before the end of the See also:year an extraordinary reaction began in Poland itself. On the 18th of See also:October the Swedes invested the fortress-monastery of See also:Czenstochowa, but the See also:place was heroically defended; and after a seventy days' siege the besiegers were compelled to retire with great loss. This astounding success elicited an outburst of popular See also:enthusiasm which gave the war a national and religious See also:character. The tactlessness of Charles, the rapacity of his generals, the barbarity of his mercenaries, his refusal to legalize his position by summoning the Polish See also:diet, his negotiations for the See also:partition of the very See also:state he affected to befriend, awoke the See also:long slumbering public spirit of the See also:country.

In the beginning of 1656 John Casimir returned from See also:

exile and the Polish army was reorganized and increased. By this time Charles had discovered that it was easier to defeat the Poles than to conquer Poland. His See also:chief See also:object, the conquest of See also:Prussia, was still unaecomplished, and a new foe arose in the elector of See also:Brandenburg, alarmed by the ambition of the Swedish king. Charles forced the elector, indeed, at the point of the See also:sword to become his ally and See also:vassal (treaty of See also:Konigsberg, See also:Jan. 17, r656); but the Polish national rising now imperatively demanded his presence in the See also:south. For See also:weeks he scoured the interminable See also:snow-covered plains of Poland in pursuit of the Polish guerillas, penetrating as far south as Jaroslau in See also:Galicia, by which time he had lost two-thirds of his 15,000 men with no apparent result. His See also:retreat from Jaroslau to Warsaw, with the fragments of his See also:host, amidst three converging armies, in a marshy See also:forest region, intersected in every direction by well-guarded See also:rivers, was one of his most brilliant achievements. But his necessities were overwhelming. On the 21st of June Warsaw was retaken by the Poles, and four days later Charles was obliged to See also:purchase the assistance of Frederick See also:William by the treaty of See also:Marienburg. On July 18-2o the combined Swedes and Brandenburgers, 18,000 strong, after a three days' battle, defeated John Casimir's army of roo,000 at Warsaw and reoccupied the Polish See also:capital; but this brilliant feat of arms was altogether useless, and when the suspicious attitude of Frederick William compelled the Swedish king at last to open negotiations with the Poles, they refused the terms offered, the war was resumed, and Charles• concluded an offensive and defensive See also:alliance with the elector of Brandenburg (treaty of Labiau, Nov. 20) whereby it was agreed that Frederick William and his heirs should henceforth possess the full See also:sovereignty of See also:East Prussia. This was an essential modification of Charles's Baltic policy; but the alliance of the elector had now become indispensable on almost any terms.

So serious, indeed, were the difficulties of Charles X. in Poland that it was with extreme See also:

satisfaction that he received the tidings of the Danish See also:declaration of war (June 1, 1657). The hostile See also:action of Denmark enabled him honourably to emerge from the inglorious Polish imbroglio, and he was certain of the zealous support of his own See also:people. He had learnt from Torstensson that Denmark was most vulnerable if attacked from the south, and, imitating the See also:strategy of his master, he See also:fell upon her with a velocity which paralysed resistance. At the end of June 1657, at the See also:head of 8000 seasoned veterans, he See also:broke up from See also:Bromberg in Prussia and reached the See also:borders of Holstein on the 18th of July. The Danish army at once dispersed and the duchy of See also:Bremen was recovered by the Swedes, who in the See also:early autumn swarmed over See also:Jutland and firmly established themselves in the duchies. But the fortress of Fredriksodde (See also:Fredericia) held Charles's little army at See also:bay from See also:mid-See also:August to mid-October, while the See also:fleet of Denmark, after a stubborn two days' battle, compelled the Swedish fleet to abandon its projected attack on the Danish islands. The position of the Swedish king had now become See also:critical. In July an offensive and defensive alliance was concluded between Den-See also:mark and Poland. Still more ominously, the elector of Brandenburg, perceiving Sweden to be in difficulties, joined the See also:league against her and compelled Charles to accept the proffered See also:mediation of See also:Cromwell and See also:Mazarin. The negotiations foundered, however, upon the refusal of Sweden to refer the points in dispute to a See also:general See also:peace-congress, and Charles was still further encouraged by the See also:capture of Fredriksodde (Oct. 23-24), whereupon he began to make preparations for conveying his troops over to Funen in transport vessels. But soon another and cheaper expedient presented itself.

In the See also:

middle of See also:December 1657 began the great See also:frost which was to be so fatal to Denmark. In a few weeks the See also:cold had grown so intense that r ~n the freezing of an See also:arm of the See also:sea with so rapid a current as the Little See also:Belt became a conceivable possibility; and hence-forth meteorological observations formed an essential See also:part of the strategy of the Swedes. On the 28th of See also:January 1658, Charles X. arrived at Haderslev (See also:Hadersleben) in South Jutland, when it was estimated that in a couple of days the See also:ice of the Little Belt would be See also:firm enough to See also:bear even the passage of amail-clad host. The cold during the See also:night of the 29th of January was most severe; and early in the See also:morning of the 3oth the Swedish king gave the See also:order to start, the horsemen dismounting where the ice was weakest, and cautiously leading their horses as far apart as possible, when they swung into their saddles again, closed their ranks and made a dash for the See also:shore. The Danish troops lining the opposite See also:coast were quickly over-powered, and the whole of Fiinen was won with the loss of only two companies of See also:cavalry, which disappeared under the ice while fighting with the Danish See also:left wing. Pursuing his irresistible march, Charles X., with his eyes fixed steadily on See also:Copenhagen, resolved to See also:cross the frozen Great Belt also. After some hesitation, he accepted the See also:advice of his chief engineer officer See also:Eric See also:Dahlberg, who acted as See also:pioneer throughout and See also:chose the more circuitous route from See also:Svendborg, by the islands of Langeland, Laaland and Falster, in preference to the See also:direct route from .Vyborg to See also:Korsor, which would have been across a broad, almost uninterrupted expanse of ice. Yet this second adventure was not embarked upon without much anxious consideration. A See also:council of war, which met at two o'See also:clock in the morning to consider the practicability of Dahlberg's proposal, at once dismissed it as criminally hazardous. Even the king wavered for an instant; but, Dahlberg persisting in his See also:opinion, Charles overruled the objections of the commanders. On the night of the 5th of See also:February the transit began, the cavalry leading the way through the snow-covered ice, which quickly thawed beneath the horses' hoofs so that the See also:infantry which followed after had to See also:wade through half an ell of sludge, fearing every moment lest the rotting ice should break beneath their feet. At three o'clock in the afternoon, Dahlberg leading the way, the army reached Grimsted in Laaland without losing a See also:mar On the 8th of February Charles reached Falster.

On the 11th he stood safely on the See also:

soil of Sjaelland (See also:Zealand). Not without See also:reason did the See also:medal struck to commemorate " the glorious transit of the Baltic Sea " bear the haughty inscription: Natura hoc debuit uni. An exploit unique in history had been achieved. The crushing effect of this unheard-of achievement on the Danish See also:government found expression in the treaties of Taastrup (Feb. 18) and See also:Roskilde (Feb. 26, 1658), whereby Denmark sacrificed nearly half her territory to See also:save the See also:rest (see DENMARK: History). But even this was not enough for the conqueror. Military ambition and greed of conquest moved Charles X. to what, divested of all its pomp and circumstance, was an outrageous See also:act of political See also:brigandage. At a council held at Gottorp (July 7), Charles X. resolved to wipe from the See also:map of See also:Europe an inconvenient See also:rival, and without any warning, in See also:defiance of all See also:international See also:equity, let loose his veterans upon Denmark a second time. For the details of this second struggle, with the concomitant See also:diplomatic intervention' of the western See also:powers, see DENMARK: History, and SWEDEN: History. Only after great hesitation would Charles X. consent to reopen negotiations with Denmark direct, at the same time proposing to exercise pressure upon the enemy by a simultaneous See also:winter See also:campaign in See also:Norway. Such an enterprise necessitated fresh subsidies from his already impoverished people, and obliged him in December 1659 to cross over to Sweden to meet the estates, whom he had summoned to See also:Gothenburg.

The See also:

lower estates murmured at the See also:imposition of fresh burdens; and Charles had need of all his adroitness to persuade them that his demands were reasonable and necessary. At the very beginning of the Riksdag, in January 1660, it was noticed that the king was See also:ill; but he spared himself as little in the council-chamber as in the battle-See also:field, till See also:death suddenly overtook him on the night of the 13th of February 1660, in his See also:thirty-eighth year. The abrupt cessation of such an inexhaustible fount of enterprise and See also:energy was a distinct loss to Sweden; and signs are not wanting that, in his latter years, Charles had begun to feel the need and value of repose. Had he lived long enough to overcome his See also:martial ardour, and develop and organize the See also:empire he helped to create, Sweden might perhaps have remained a great See also:power to this See also:day. Even so she owes her natural frontiers in the Scandinavian See also:peninsula to Charles X. See See also:Martin Veibull, Sveriges Storhedstid (Stockholm, 1881) ; Frederick See also:Ferdinand Carlson, Sveriges Historia under Konungarne of Pfalziska Huset (Stockholm, 1883–1885) ; E. Haumant, La Guerre du See also:nord et la paix d'See also:Oliva (See also:Paris, 1893) ; See also:Robert Nisbet See also:Bain, Scandinavia (See also:Cambridge, 19o5); G. See also:Jones, The Diplomatic Relations between Cromwell and Charles X. (See also:Lincoln, See also:Nebraska, 1897).

End of Article: CHARLES R

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
CHARLES MONTAGU 		[next]
CHARLES RENE

Site © 2006 - Net Industries