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CHARLES XII

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 931 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHARLES XII . (1682-1718), See also:king of See also:Sweden, the only surviving son of Charles XI. and Ulrica Leonora, daughter of See also:Frederick III. of See also:Denmark, was See also:born on the 17th of See also:June 1682. He was care-fully educated by excellent tutors under the watchful eyes of his parents. His natural parts were excellent; and a strong See also:bias in the direction of abstract thought, and See also:mathematics in particular, was noticeable at an See also:early date. His memory was astonishing. He could translate Latin into See also:Swedish or See also:German, or Swedish or German into Latin at sight. Charles XI. personally supervised his son's See also:physical training. He was taught to ride before he was four, at eight was quite at See also:home in his See also:saddle, and when only eleven, brought down his first See also:bear at a single shot. As he See also:grew older his See also:father took him on all his rounds, reviewing troops, inspecting studs, foundries, See also:dockyards and See also:granaries. Thus the lad was gradually initiated into all the minutiae of See also:administration. The See also:influence of Charles XI. over his son was, indeed, far greater than is commonly supposed, and it accounts for much in Charles XII.'s See also:character which is otherwise inexplicable, for instance his precocious reserve and taciturnity, his dislike of everything See also:French, and his inordinate contempt for purely See also:diplomatic methods. On the whole, his early training was admirable; but the See also:young See also:prince was not allowed the opportunity of gradually gaining experience under his guardians.

At the Riksdag assembled at See also:

Stockholm in 1697, the estates, jealous of the influence of the regents, offered full See also:sovereignty to the young monarch, the See also:senate acquiesced, and, after some hesitation, Charles at last declared that he could not resist the urgent See also:appeal of his subjects and would take over the See also:government of the See also:realm " in See also:God's name." The subsequent See also:coronation was marked by portentous novelties, the most significant of which was the king's omission to take the usual coronation See also:oath, which omission was interpreted to mean that he considered himself under no See also:obligation to his subject. The See also:general See also:opinion of the young king was, however, still favourable. His conduct was evidently regulated by strict principle and not by See also:mere caprice. His refusal to countenance See also:torture as an See also:instrument of judicial increstigation, on the ground that " confessions so extorted give no sure criteria for forming a See also:judgment," showed him to be more humane as well as more enlightened than the See also:majority of his See also:council, which had defended the contrary opinion. His intense application to affairs is noted by the See also:English See also:minister, See also:John See also:Robinson (1650-1723), who informed his See also:court that there was every prospect of a happy reign in Sweden, provided his See also:majesty were well served and did not injure his See also:health by too much See also:work. The See also:coalition formed against Sweden by Johann See also:Reinhold See also:Patkul, which resulted in the outbreak of the See also:Great See also:Northern See also:War (1699), abruptly put an end to Charles XII.'s See also:political apprentice-See also:ship, and forced into his See also:hand the See also:sword he was never again to relinquish. The young king resolved to attack the nearest of his three enemies—Denmark—first. The timidity of the Danish See also:admiral Ulrik C. Gyldenlove, and the daring of Charles, who forced his See also:nervous and protesting admiral to See also:attempt the passage of the eastern channel of the See also:Sound, the dangerous flinterend, hitherto reputed to be unnavigable, enabled the Swedish king to effect a landing at Humleback in Sjaelland (See also:Zealand), a few See also:miles See also:north of See also:Copenhagen (Aug. 4, 1700). He now hoped to accomplish what his grandfather, fifty years before, had vainly attempted—the destruction of the Danish-See also:Norwegian See also:monarchy by capturing its See also:capital. But for once prudential considerations prevailed, and the See also:short and bloodless war was terminated by the See also:peace of Travendal (Aug.

18), whereby Frederick IV. conceded full sovereignty to Charles's ally and kinsman the See also:

duke of Gottorp, besides paying him an See also:indemnity of 200,000 See also:rix-dollars and solemnly engaging to commit no hostilities against Sweden in future. From Sjaelland Charles now hastened to See also:Livonia with 8000 men. On the 6th of See also:October he had reached See also:Pernau, with the intention of first relieving See also:Riga, but, See also:hearing that See also:Narva was in great straits, he decided to turn northwards against the See also:tsar. He set out for Narva on the 13th of See also:November, against the See also:advice of all his generals, who feared the effect on untried troops of a See also:week's See also:march through a wasted See also:land, along boggy roads guarded by no fewer than three formidable passes which a little See also:engineering skill could easily have made impregnable. Fortunately, the two first passes were unoccupied; and the third, Pyhajoggi, was captured by Charles, who with 400 horsemen put 6000 See also:Russian See also:cavalry to See also:flight. On the 19th of November the little See also:army reached Lagena, a See also:village about 9 M. from Narva, whence it signalled its approach to the beleaguered fortress, and early on the following See also:morning it advanced in See also:battle See also:array. The attack on the Russian fortified See also:camp began at two o'See also:clock in the afternoon, in the midst of a violent snowstorm; and by nightfall the whole position was in the hands of the Swedes: the Russian army was annihilated. The See also:triumph was as cheap as it was crushing; it cost Charles less than z000 men. After Narva, Charles XII. stood at the parting of ways. His best advisers urged him to turn all his forces against the panic-stricken Muscovites; to go into See also:winter-quarters amongst them and live at their expense; to See also:fan into a See also:flame the smouldering discontent caused by the reforms of See also:Peter the Great, and so disable See also:Russia for some See also:time to come. But Charles's determination promptly to punish the treachery of See also:Augustus prevailed over every other See also:consideration. It is easy from the vantage-point of two centuries to criticize Charles XII. for neglecting the Russians to pursue the See also:Saxons; but at the beginning of the 18th See also:century his decision was natural enough.

The real question was, which of the two foes was the more dangerous, and Charles had many reasons to think the civilized and See also:

martial Saxons far more formidable than the See also:imbecile Muscovites. Charles also rightly See also:felt that he could never See also:trust the treacherous Augustus to remain quiet, even if he made peace with him. To leave such a foe in his See also:rear, while he plunged into the See also:heart of Russia would have been hazardous indeed. From this point of view Charles's whole See also:Polish policy, which has been blamed so See also:long and so loudly—the policy of placing a nominee of his own on the Polish throne—takes quite another complexion: it was a policy not of overvaulting ambition, but of prudential self-See also:defence. First, however, Charles cleared Livonia of the invader (See also:July 1701), subsequently occupying the duchy of See also:Courland and converting it into a Swedish See also:governor-generalship. In See also:January 1702 Charles established himself at Bielowice in Lithuania, and, after issuing a See also:proclamation declaring that " the elector of See also:Saxony " had forfeited the Polish See also:crown, set out for See also:Warsaw, which he reached on the 14th of May. The See also:cardinal-See also:primate was then sent for and commanded to summon a See also:diet, for the purpose of deposing Augustus. A fortnight later Charles quitted Warsaw, to seek the elector; on the 2nd of July routed the combined Poles and Saxons at Klissow; and three See also:weeks later, captured the fortress of See also:Cracow by an See also:act of almost fabulous audacity. Thus, within four months of the opening of the See also:campaign, the Polish capital and the coronation See also:city were both in the See also:possession of the Swedes. After Klissow, Augustus made every effort to put an end to the war, but Charles would not even consider his offers. By this time, too, he had conceived a See also:passion for the perils and adventures of warfare. His character was hardening, and he deliberately adopted the most barbarous expedients for converting the Augustan Poles to his views.

Such commands as " ravage, singe, and See also:

burn all about, and reduce the whole See also:district to a See also:wilderness! " " sweat contributions well out of them!" " rather let the See also:innocent suffer than the guilty See also:escape!" became painfully frequent in the mouth of the young See also:commander, not yet 21, who was far from being naturally cruel. The campaign of 1703 was remarkable for Charles's victory at See also:Pultusk (See also:April 21) and the long See also:siege of See also:Thorn, which occupied him eight months but cost him only 50 men. On the 2nd of July 1704, with the assistance of a bribing fund, Charles's See also:ambassador at Warsaw, See also:Count Arvid See also:Bernard See also:Horn, succeeded in forcing through the See also:election of Charles's See also:candidate to the Polish See also:throne, See also:Stanislaus Leszczynski, who could not be crowned however till the 24th of See also:September 1705, by which time the Saxons had again been defeated at Punitz. From the autumn of 1705 to the See also:spring of 1706, Charles was occupied in pursuing the Russian See also:auxiliary army under See also:Ogilvie through the forests of Lithuania. On the 5th of See also:August, he recrossed the See also:Vistula and established himself in Saxony, where his presence in the heart of See also:Europe.at the very crisis of the war of the See also:Spanish See also:Succession, fluttered all the western diplomats. The See also:allies, in particular, at once suspected that See also:Louis XIV. had bought the Swedes. See also:Marlborough was forthwith sent from the See also:Hague to the See also:castle of See also:Altranstadt near See also:Leipzig, where Charles had fixed his headquarters, " to endeavour to penetrate the designs of the king of Sweden. He soon convinced himself that western Europe had nothing to fear from Charles, and that no bribes were necessary to turn the Swedish arms from See also:Germany to Russia. Five months later (See also:Sept. 1707) Augustus was forced to sign the peace of Altranstadt, whereby he resigned the Polish throne and renounced every See also:anti-Swedish See also:alliance. Charles's departure from Saxony was delayed for twelve months by a See also:quarrel with the See also:emperor.

The court of See also:

Vienna had treated the Silesian Protestants with tyrannical severity, in See also:direct contravention of the treaty of See also:Osnabruck, of which Sweden was one of the guarantors; and Charles demanded See also:summary and See also:complete restitution so dictatorially that the emperor prepared for war. But the allies interfered in Charles's favour, lest he might be tempted to aid See also:France, and induced the emperor to satisfy all the Swedish king's demands, the maritime See also:Powers at the same time agreeing to See also:guarantee the provisions of the peace of Altranstadt. Nothing now prevented Charles from turning his victorious arms against the tsar; and on the 13th of August 1707, he evacuated Saxony at the See also:head of the largest See also:host he ever commanded, consisting of 24,000 See also:horse and 20,000 See also:foot. Delayed during the autumn months in See also:Poland by the tardy arrival of reinforcements from See also:Pomerania, it was not till November 17:7 that Charles was able to take the See also:field. On New See also:Year's See also:Day 1708 he crossed the Vistula, though the See also:ice was in a dangerous See also:condition. On the 4th of July 1708 he cut in two the See also:line of the Russian army, 6 m. long, which barred his progress on the Wabis, near Holowczyn, and compelled it to See also:retreat. The victory of Holowczyn, memorable besides as the last pitched battle won by Charles XII., opened up the way to the See also:Dnieper. The Swedish army now began to suffer severely, See also:bread and See also:fodder See also:running short, and the soldiers subsisting entirely on captured bullocks. The Russians slowly retired before the invader, burning and destroying everything in his path. On the 20th of See also:December it was See also:plain to Charles himself that See also:Moscow was inaccessible. But the See also:idea of a retreat was intolerable to him, so he determined to march southwards instead of northwards as suggested by his generals, and join his forces with those of the See also:hetman of the Dnieperian See also:Cossacks, See also:Ivan Mazepa, who had 100,000 horsemen and a fresh and fruitful land at his disposal. Short of falling back upon Livonia, it was the best See also:plan adoptable in the circumstances, but it was rendered abortive by Peter's destruction of Mazepa's capital Baturin, so that when Mazepa joined Charles at Horki, on the 8th of November 1708, it was as a ruined See also:man with little more than 1300 See also:personal attendants (see MAZEPA-KOLEDINSKY).

A still more serious See also:

blow was the destruction of the See also:relief army which Levenhaupt was bringing to Charles from Livonia, and which, hampered by hundreds of loaded wagons, was overtaken and almost destroyed by Peter at Lyesna after a two days' battle against fourfold odds (October), The very elements now began to fight against the perishing but still unconquered host. The winter of 1708 was the severest that Europe had known for a century. By the 1st of November SWEDEN] firewood would not ignite in the open See also:air, and the soldiers warmed themselves over big bonfires of See also:straw. By the time the army reached the little Ukrainian fortress of Hadjacz in January 1709, See also:wine and See also:spirits froze into solid masses of ice; birds on the wing See also:fell dead; saliva congealed on its passage from the mouth to the ground. " Nevertheless," says an See also:eye-See also:witness, " though See also:earth, See also:sea and See also:sky were against us, the king's orders had to be obeyed and the daily march made." Never had Charles XII. seemed so superhuman as during these awful days. It is not too much to say that his imperturbable equanimity, his serene bonhomie kept the host together. The See also:frost See also:broke at the end of See also:February 1709, and then the spring See also:flood put an end to all active operations till May, when Charles began the siege of the fortress of See also:Poltava, which he wished to make a See also:base for subsequent operations while awaiting reinforcements from Sweden and Poland. On the 7th of June a See also:bullet See also:wound put Charles hors de combat, whereupon Peter threw the greater See also:part of his forces over the See also:river Vorskla, which separated the two armies (June 19—25). On the 26th of June Charles held a council of war, at which it was resolved to attack the Russians in their entrenchments on the following day. The Swedes joyfully accepted the chances of battle and, advancing with irresistible elan, were, at first, successful on both wings. Then one or two See also:tactical blunders were committed; and the tsar, taking courage, enveloped the little See also:band in a vast semicircle bristling with the most See also:modern guns, which fired five times to the Swedes' once, and swept away the See also:guards before they could draw their swords. The Swedish See also:infantry was well nigh annihilated, while the 14,000 cavalry, exhausted and demoralized, surrendered two days later at Perevolochna on Dnieper.

Charles himself with 1500 horsemen took See also:

refuge in See also:Turkish territory. For the first time in his See also:life Charles was now obliged to have recourse to See also:diplomacy; and his See also:pen proved almost as formidable as his sword. He procured the dismissal of four Russo-phil See also:grand-viziers in succession, and between 1710 and 1712 induced the See also:Porte to declare war against the tsar three times. But after November 1712 the Porte had no more See also:money to spare; and, the tsar making a show of submission, the See also:sultan began to regard Charles as a troublesome See also:guest. On the 1st of February 1713 he was attacked by the See also:Turks in his camp at See also:Bender, and made prisoner after a contest which reads more like an extravagant See also:episode from some heroic folk-See also:tale than an incident of sober 18th-century See also:history. Charles lingered on in See also:Turkey fifteen months longer, in the See also:hope of obtaining a cavalry escort sufficiently strong to enable him to restore his See also:credit in Poland. Disappointed of this last hope, and moved by the despairing appeals of his See also:sister Ulrica and the senate to return to Sweden while there was still a Sweden to return to, he quitted Demotika on the loth of September 1714, and attended by a single See also:squire arrived unexpectedly at midnight, on the 11th of November, at See also:Stralsund, which, excepting See also:Wismar, was now all that remained to him on German See also:soil. For the diplomatic events of these See also:critical years see SWEDEN: History. Here it need only be said that Sweden, during the course of the Great Northern War, had innumerable opportunities of obtaining an See also:honourable and even advantageous peace, but they all foundered on the dogged refusal of Charles to consent to the smallest concession to his despoilers. Even now he would listen to no offers of See also:compromise, and after defending Stralsund with desperate courage till it was a mere rubbish heap, returned to Sweden after an See also:absence of 14 years. Here he collected another army of 20,000 men, with which he so strongly entrenched himself on the Scanian See also:coast in 1716 that his combined enemies shrank from attacking him, whereupon he assumed the offensive by attacking See also:Norway in 1717, and again in 1718, in See also:order to conquer sufficient territory to enable him to extort better terms from his enemies. It was during this second See also:adventure that he met his See also:death.

On the 11th of December, when the Swedish approaches had come within 280 paces of the fortress of Fredriksten, which the Swedes were closely besieging, Charles looked over the See also:

parapet of the foremost See also:trench, and was shot through the head by a bullet from the fortress.931 See Charles XII., See also:Die eigenhandigen Briefe See also:Konig Karls XII. (See also:Berlin, 1894) ; See also:Friedrich See also:Ferdinand Carlson, Sveriges Historic under Konungarne of Pfalziska Huset (Stockholm, 1883–1885) ; See also:Robert Nisbet See also:Bain, Charles XII. and the Collapse of the Swedish See also:Empire (See also:London and See also:Oxford, 1895) ; Bidrag til den See also:Store Nordiske Krigs Historie (Copenhagen, 1899–1900); G. Syveton, Louis XIV et Charles XII (See also:Paris, 1900); See also:Daniel Krmann, Historia ablegationis D. Krmann ad See also:regent Sueciae Carolum XII. (See also:Budapest, 1894) ; Oscar II., Ndgra bidrag till Sveriges Krigshistoria dren 1711—1713 (Stockholm, 1892); See also:Martin Weibull, Sveriges Storhedstid (Stockholm, 1881). (R. N.

End of Article: CHARLES XII

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