CHARLES XII, KING OF SWEDEN (1682-1718).
"Again a child in years sat upon Sweden's throne.
A lad of 15 became an all-commanding Sovereign King responsible for his actions to none on earth, but with power and authority as a Christian king to rule and govern his realm as it seemed best to him." So wrote one of the followers of this king who made himself his chronicler.
We cannot help feeling sorry for this muscular, gaunt, lanky boy, whose youthful pranks frequently scandalized the people of Stock holm. Without father or mother to advise him, it was a heavy task he had to face when he became king in 1697. The nobles of his land wished to regain the power taken from them by his father Charles XI, and a circle of jealous enemies—the kings of Russia, Po land, and Denmark—were plotting to take from him his land on the other side of the Baltic, which formed part of the powerful king dom built up by his great-great uncle Gustavus Adolphus.
For a time the boy king proved equal to the task.
The nobles soon found that they could gain no con cessions from him, and he even refused to take the usual coronation oath and announced that he ruled by divine right. As he had no desire to marry, the matchmakers of Europe who sought his alliance for their countries finally left his court in despair. And when in 1699 his enemies of Russia, Poland, and Denmark began the Great Northern War, he fell on them separately with a skill and fury that gained for him the title of one of the greatest generals in history.
As by the wand of a magician the boy became a man; his pranks gave way to a serious earnest work.
War had become his handicraft and trade, for Charles was a natural military leader of the highest ability.
One of his soldiers tells us that though his men " were bloody, spent, and gashed, home and friends, pain and fear, were all forgotten by them in their cam paigns. Though they were destitute and starving, too weak to stand, again and again their swords leaped from their scabbards and they sprang to new effort at the magic of his call." Turning his attention first to Denmark, Charles swooped down on that country where he was least expected, and after a short but bloody war he forced her treacherous king to make peace.
While Charles was thus engaged, Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, was attacking Sweden's provinces on the eastern shores of the Baltic. Without giving his men rest or respite, Charles immediately set out for the besieged city of Narva. To attack this seemed foolhardy, for Charles had less than 8,000 men, while the Russians numbered 48,000. In spite of this