francesco algarotti on charles xii of sweden

8/8/2019 Francesco Algarotti on Charles XII of Sweden

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Francesco Algarotti

Sopra Carlo XIIDiscorso IX dei XX Discorsi Militari

inOpere del Conte Algarotti, Cavaliere dellOrdine del Merito e Ciamberlano di S. M. il Re diPrussia, Tomo IIII, Livorno, MDCCLXIV, presso Marco Coltellini = Vol. V dell'Edizione 1779

David von Krafft (1706)


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Charles XII of SwedenDuke of Bremen and Prince of Verden

Duke of Palatinate-ZweibrckenFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Reign 5 April 1697 30 November 1718 (21 years, 239 days)

Coronation 14 December 1697 (aged 15)

Predecessor Charles XI

Successor Ulrika Eleonora

House House of Pfalz-Zweibrcken

Father Charles XI of Sweden

Mother Ulrike Eleonora of Denmark

Born 17 June 1682 Tre Kronor (castle), Sweden

Died 30 November 1718 (aged 36) Fredrikshald,NorwayBurial 26 February 1719 Riddarholmen Church, Stockholm

Signature

Charles XII also Carl of Sweden, Swedish:Karl XII, Latinized to Carolus Rex, Turkish:Demirba arl, also known as Charles theHabitu[citation needed] (17 June 1682 30 November 1718) was the King of Sweden from 1697 to 1718. Charles was the only survivingson of King Charles XI of Sweden and Ulrika Eleonora the Elder, and he assumed the crown at the age of fifteen, at the death of his

father. He left the country three years later to embark on a series of battles overseas. These battles were part of the Great Northern

War, fought against Russia, Saxony and Denmark-Norway, countries that had joined in a coalition to attackSweden. Charles XII wasa skilled military leader and tactician. However, although he was also skilled as a politician, [citation needed] he was reluctant in makingpeace. Charles is quoted by Voltaire as saying upon the outbreak of the Great Northern War, "I have resolved never to start an unjustwar but never to end a legitimate one except by defeating my enemies." Although Sweden achieved several large scale military

successes early on, and won the most battles, the Great Northern War eventually ended in Sweden's defeat and the end of the

Swedish Empire.Royal title Charles, like all kings, was styled by a royal title, which combined all his titles into one single phrase. This was:We Charles, by the Grace of God King ofSweden, the Goths and the Vends, Grand Prince of Finland,Duke ofEstonia andKarelia,

LordofIngria, Duke ofBremen, Verden andPommerania, Prince ofRgen and Lord ofWismar , and also Count Palatine by theRhine, Duke ofBavaria, CountofZweibrcken-Kleeburg, as well as Duke ofJlich, Cleve andBerg, Count ofVeldenz, SpanheimandRavensbergand Lord ofRavenstein.

The fact that Charles was crowned as Charles XII does not mean that he was the 12th king of Sweden by that name. Swedish kings

Erik XIV (15601568) and Charles IX (16041611) gave themselves numerals after studying a mythological history of Sweden. Hewas actually the 6th King Charles.[1] The non-mathematic numbering tradition continues with the current King of Sweden, Carl XVIGustaf, being counted as the equivalent ofCharles XVI.Early campaigns In 1700, Denmark-Norway, Saxony, and Russia united in an alliance against Sweden, using the perceived

opportunity as Sweden was ruled by the young and inexperienced King. Early that year, all three countries declared war against

Sweden. Charles had to deal with these threats one by one. Charles's first campaign was against Denmark-Norway, ruled by hiscousin Frederick IV of Denmark, which threatened a Swedish ally, Charles' brother-in-law Frederick IV of Holstein-Gottorp. For this

campaign Charles secured the support of England and theNetherlands, both maritime powers concerned about Denmark's threats toclose the Sound. Leading a force of 8,000 and 43 ships in an invasion ofZealand, Charles rapidly compelled the Danes to submit tothe Peace of Travendal in August 1700, which indemnified Holstein. Having defeated Denmark-Norway, King Charles turned hisattention upon the two other powerful neighbors, King August II of Poland (cousin to both Charles XII and Frederick IV of

Denmark-Norway) and Peter the Great ofRussia, who also had entered the war against him, ironically on the same day that Denmarkcame to terms. Russia had opened their part of the war by invading the Swedish-held territories of Livonia and Estonia. Charles

countered this by attacking the Russian besiegers at the Battle of Narva. The Swedish army of ten thousand men was outnumberedfour to one by the Russians. Charles attacked under cover of a blizzard, effectively split the Russian army in two and won the battle.Many of Peter's troops that fled the battlefield drowned in theNarva River, and the total number of Russian fatalities reached about17,000 at the end of the battle, while the Swedish troop lost 667 men. Charles did not pursue the Russian army. Instead, he turned

against Poland-Lithuania, which was formally neutral at this point, thereby disregarding Polish negotiation proposals supported bythe Swedish parliament. Charles defeated the Polish king Augustus II and his Saxon allies at the Battle of Kliszow in 1702 andcaptured many cities of the Commonwealth. After the deposition of the king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Charles XIIput Stanisaw Leszczyski on the throne.

Russian resurgence While Charles won several battles in the Commonwealth, the Russian Tsar Peter the Great embarked on amilitary reform plan that improved the Russian army. Russian forces managed to retake Ingria and established a new city, Saint

Petersburg, there. This prompted Charles to attack the Russian heartland with an assault on Moscow, allying himself with IvanMazepa, Hetman of the Ukrainian Cossacks. The size of the invading Swedish army altogether was 77,400 men. Charles left the


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homeland with a defense of approximately 28,800 men. Peter the Great defeated Swedish forces near the Baltic coast before Charles

could combine his forces, and Charles' Polish ally, Stanisaw Leszczyski, was facing internal problems of his own. Charles expectedthe support of a massive Cossack rebellion led by Mazepa in Ukraine but the Russians destroyed the rebel army before they could aidthe Swedish troops. The harsh climate took its toll as well, as Charles marched his troops through Ukraine. By the time of thedecisive Battle of Poltava, Charles had been wounded, one-third of his infantry was dead, and his supply train was destroyed. The

king was incapacitated by a coma resulting from his injuries and was unable to lead the Swedish forces. Charles had 14,000 menwhile Peter had 45,000. The battle was a disaster, and the king fled with a small entourage south to the Ottoman Empire, where he set

up camp at Bender with about 1,000 men who were called Caroleans ("Karoliner" in Swedish). The Swedish defeat at Poltava isconsidered by some historians to be the point where the downfall of the Swedish Empire started and the Russian Empire started to

rise.Exile in the Ottoman Empire The Turks initially welcomed the Swedish king, who managed to incite a warbetween the Ottomansand the Russians. His expenses during his long stay in the Ottoman Empire were covered from the Ottoman state budget, as part ofthe fixed assets (Demirba in Turkish), hence his nickname Demirba arl(Fixed Asset Charles) in Turkey. Demirba, the Turkish

word for fixed asset, is literally ironhead(demir= iron, ba = head), which is the reason why this nickname has often been translatedas Ironhead Charles. Eventually a small village named Karlstad had to be built near Bender to accommodate the ever growingSwedish population there. Sultan Ahmet III, as gesture to the King, had bought some of the Swedish women and children put up forsale by the Russians and turned them over to the Swedes, thus further strengthening the growing community ofCaroleans. However,

the sultan Ahmed III's subjects in the empire eventually got tired of Charles' scheming. His entourage also ended up piling hugeamounts of debt to Bender merchants. Eventually "crowds" of townpeople attacked the Swedish colony at Bender and Charles had to

defend himself against the mobs and the Ottoman Janissaries involved. This uprising was called "kalabalik" (crowd) which after thisevent found a place in Swedish lexicon as "kalabalik" referring to uprising. The Janissaries did not shoot Charles during the skirmish

at Bender, but captured him and put him under house-arrest at Dimetoka and Constantinople. During his semi-imprisonment the Kingplayed chess and studied the Turkish navy and the naval architecture of the Ottoman galleons. His sketches and designs eventuallyled to the famous Swedish war ships Jarramas (Yaramaz) and Jilderim (Yldrm). Meanwhile, Russia and Poland regained andexpanded their territories. Great Britain, an ally of Sweden, defected from its alliance obligations while Prussia attacked Swedish

holdings in Germany. Russia seized Finland and Augustus II regained the Polish throne.Death Charles succeeded in leaving his imprisonment in Constantinople and returned to Swedish Pomerania on horseback, ridingacross Europe in just fifteen days. A medal with Charles on horseback, his long hair flaring in the wind, was struck in 1714 tocommemorate the speedy ride. Rhyming in German, It reads Was sorget Ihr doch? Gott und Ich leben noch. (Why then are you sad?God and I are still alive.). His efforts to reestablish the Swedish empire failed. He had two Turkish-style warships built in Sweden,

the Yildirim ("The Lightning") and the YaramazorJarramas ("The Rogue"). Charles's last efforts to reinstate Sweden as an empire

were to invade Norway. He first invaded Norway in 1716 with a combined force of 7,000 men, occupied the capital Christiania,today Oslo, and laid siege to the Akershus fortress. However, the Norwegian forces were intact, and forced a retreat from the capitalat 29 April after inflicting significant losses of men and material. Mid-May following the retreat from Christiania, Charles invaded

the border town Fredrikshald, now Halden, in an attempt to take the fortress of Fredriksten. The Swedes came under heavybombardment from the fortress and were forced to flee from Fredrikshald when the town was set on fire by the Norwegians. Swedish

casualties in Fredrikshald were estimated to 500. During the siege in Fredrikshald the Swedish supply fleet was defeated byTordenskjold at the Battle of Dynekilen[2]. In 1718 Charles once more invaded Norway. The main force consisting of 40,000 men

laid siege to the strong fortress ofFredriksten, overlooking the border town ofFredrikshald. While inspecting trenches close to theperimeter of the fortress on 11 December (30 NovemberOld Style), 1718, Charles was killed by aprojectile. The shot penetrated theleft side of his skull and exited out of the right, destroying most of his brain in the process. The invasion was abandoned, and Charles'body was brought across the border. Another army corps underCarl Gustaf Armfeldt marched against Trondheim with 10,000 men,

but had to make a retreat, during which many of the 5,800 remaining menperished in a severe winter storm. The exact circumstances

around Charles' death are unclear. The most likely theory is that he was hit by a bullet from a Norwegian musket, but he may alsohave been killed by a grapeshot bullet from a cannon. Another theory is that he was killed by a uniform button re-made into a bullet.This theory is coupled with speculation that he was shot from the Swedish side (due to the great force of entry by the bullet), making

his death an assassination, because allegedly he was unpopular in Sweden at the time. A theory is that the murder was an act ofconspiracy made by his sister Ulrika Eleonora's husband, Fredrik, who was crowned Fredrik I. It is believed that the murder wascommitted by an officer who confessed before he died in a fever. There are today two major theories about who and what killed the

king. A study was presented in 2005 by Peter From, where he argued that the mortal bullet was fired by a Norwegian musket at close

range.[citation needed]

The theory has gained support by historian Dick Harrison. Another theory by Svante Sthl proposes that Charleswas shot by a grapeshot bullet made of forged iron from a Norwegian cannon. Such ammunition of the correct calibre has beenproven to have been used by the Norwegians at the time of the siege.[citation needed] This would explain the absence oflead in Charles'mortal head wound. This study is embraced among others by historian and the Chairman of the Swedish Academy, Peter Englund.

Charles was succeeded to the Swedish throne by his sister, Ulrika Eleonora. As Palatinate-Zweibrcken required a male heir, Charles

was succeeded as ruler there by his cousin Gustav Leopold. Georg Heinrich von Grtz, Charles' minister, was beheaded in 1719.Legacy Exceptional for abstaining from alcohol and women, he felt most comfortable during warfare. Contemporaries report of hisseemingly inhuman tolerance for pain and his utter lack of emotion. The king brought Sweden to its pinnacle of prestige and powerthrough his brilliant campaigning and victories, although the Great Northern War eventually ended in Sweden's defeat and end of the

Swedish Empire.Scientific contributions Apart from being a monarch, the King's interests included mathematics, and anything that would be

beneficial to his warlike purposes. He is attributed as having invented an octalnumeral system, which he considered more suitablefor war purposes because all the boxes used for materials such as gunpowderwere cubic. According to a report by contemporary

scientist Emanuel Swedenborg, the King had sketched down a model of his thought on a piece of paper and handed it to him at their

meeting in Lund in 1716. The paper was reportedly still in existence a hundred years later, but has since been lost. Several historiansof science suspect that either the multi-talented Emanuel Swedenborg or the brilliant inventor Christopher Polhem also present atthe meeting in Lund may have been the true inventor behind this feat, or at least a main contributor.

Literature Charles fascinated many in his time; Voltaire, who could be very sardonic, stopped in front of Charles and took off his

hat.[citation needed]Samuel Johnson, a devoted anti-militarian,[citation needed] wrote in his poem "The Vanity of Human Wishes":


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On what Foundation stands the warrior's pride, How just his hopes let Swedish Charles decide; A frame of adamant, a soul of fire,

No dangers fright him, and no labours tire;O'er love, o'er fear, extends his wide domain,

Unconquered lord of pleasure and of pain;

No joys to him pacific sceptres yield;War sounds the trump, he rushes to the field; Behold surrounding kings their power to combine, And one capitulate, and one resign;Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain;

"Think nothing gained," he cries, "till nought remain,

On Moscow's walls till Gothic standards fly, And all be mine beneath the polar sky."The march begins in military state,

And nations on his eye suspended wait;Stern Famine guards the solitary coast,

And Winter barricades the realms of Frost; He comes, not want and cold his course delay; -

Hide, blushing Glory, hide Pultowa's day:The vanquished hero leaves his broken bands, And shows his miseries in distant lands;Condemned a needy supplicant to wait,

While ladies interpose, and slaves debate.

But did not Chance at length her error mend? Did no subverted empire mark his end? Did rival monarchs give the fatal wound?Or hostile millions press him to the ground?

His fall was destined to a barren strand, A petty fortress, and a dubious hand;

He left the name, at which the world grew pale,To point a moral or adorn a tale.

Swedish author Frans G. Bengtsson and Professor Ragnhild Hatton have written noted biographies of Charles XII of Sweden.In popular culture A character based on Charles XII plays a major role in The Age of Unreason, a series of fouralternate history

novels written by American science fiction and fantasy authorGregory Keyes.References

1. ^ Article Karl inNordisk familjebok2. ^Charles XII's march on Norway - national library3. ^ Associated Press (16 September 1917). "A ROYAL AUTOPSY DELAYED 200 YEARS". The New York Times.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E02E2DC103AE433A25755C1A96F9C946696D6CF. Retrieved 20November 2008.

Ragnhild Hatton, Charles XII. London, 1968.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Charles XII of Sweden

Charles XII and his aftermath

The Great Northern War and Charles XII Charles XII and his Life and Death(Swedish) BBC News item: Who killed Sweden's Warrior King? Timeline of 1700-1720 in Sweden

Karl XII

House of Palatinate-ZweibrckenCadet branch of the House of WittelsbachBorn: 17 June 1682 Died: 30 November 1718

Regnal titles

Preceded by

Karl XI

King of Sweden16971718

Succeeded by

Ulrika Eleonoraas Queen regnant of Sweden

Preceded by

Karl IIasDuke of Bremen and Prince of

Verden

Duke of Bremen and Prince of Verden

16971718(dispossessed by Danish occupation since 1712)

Succeeded by

Ulrika EleonoraasDuchess regnant of Bremen and

Princess regnant of Verden

Preceded by Duke of Palatinate-Zweibrcken Succeeded by


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Karl IasDuke of Zweibrcken

16971718 Gustav Samuel LeopoldasDuke of Zweibrcken

Part of the Monument to Charles XII in Stockholm, with Charles pointing towards Russia


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Charles XII and Mazepa at the Dnieper RiverafterPoltava by Gustaf Cederstrm


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Karl_XIIs_likfrd_(1884),_mlning_av_Gustaf_Cederstrm_(1845-1933) The funeral transport of CharlesXII. A romanticized painting by Gustaf Cederstrm, 1884

From the autopsy of Charles XII in 1916[3]

Carolus - the autograph of the king.


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Carl XII's sarcophagus in Stockholm

Bermda svenska slag, 1700-tal (1)

http://www.algonet.se/~hogman/slb_slag_2.htm

francesco algarotti on charles xii of sweden

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