Economic Conditions and Trade and Commerce

Charles XI.

Charles XI. (166o-97), a boy of four, became king at a moment when Sweden was surrounded by enemies. The widowed queen and five officials became regent. The first thing to do was to secure peace with Poland, the emperor and Branden burg at Oliva in 166o, whereby Sweden's right to hold Livonia was recognized and John Casimir renounced all claim to the Swedish throne ; with Denmark the same year at Copenhagen, whereby Trondhjems Lan and Bornholm went back to Denmark, compensation being given in the case of Bornholm ; and with Russia in 1661 at Kardis, confirming the peace of Stolbova. Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie, the chancellor of State, was weak, and none took the lead in the way Axel Oxenstierna had done after the death of Gustavus. Adolphus. The nation's defences were allowed to decline although its foreign policy was adventurous. It was desired to obtain subsidies from other powers and a rash treaty was concluded with France in 1672. In this year the king came of age, having reached his 17th year. His education had been neglected and he grew up awkward in his bearing, but he was an ardent patriot and extremely industrious.

The general decadence of Sweden became manifest when her foreign policy led to war with Brandenburg (1674) and Denmark (1675). The war with Brandenburg was ill-managed, and Sweden's military prestige was lowered by a defeat at Fehrbellin in 1675; most of her German possessions were lost. The Danes invaded Skane where they continued to have many friends. The king took the leadership. On the sea the Danes were successful, but victories at Lund in 1676 and other places saved the southern provinces for Sweden. Peace treaties were signed in 1678 and 1679 with the different enemies. France accepted terms which in some respects were humiliating for Sweden. Some smaller regions in Germany were lost, but there was no question of any cessions of land to Denmark.

Great portions of the country had been laid waste, the fleet had been destroyed, trade and commerce had suffered, and finances were in disorder. A great task lay before the young king and he accomplished it, but it was by the methods of an absolute monarchy. Several Riksdags were called-168o, 1682-83, 1686, etc.—but on each occasion its attitude towards the king was more complaisant and it gradually came to leave practically all the questions of legislation and taxation in his hands. An enquiry was held into the conduct of the members of the Regency, who were sentenced to restore or pay large sums of money; and a very drastic confiscation of private estates was taken in hand whereby land and incomes were made to fall to the Treasury. Charles then put the army and navy in good trim. The officers were remunerated by small farms ; cavalry were raised by a cer tain number of assessed farms and the infantry by the landowners. In the year 1681 the Swedish national debt amounted to 44,000, 000 dalers in silver, but on Charles' death it was only 11,500,000. Charles married the Danish Princess Ulrika Eleonora, but the two northern States soon fell apart again. In 1681 Sweden entered into treaties with Holland at The Hague with a view to safeguarding the frontiers fixed by the peace treaties of Westphalia and Nijm wegen. The emperor gave his signature to the compact the follow ing year. Sweden wanted to draw Holstein into its sphere of interest so as to secure less interrupted communications between her different German possessions. For Denmark it was still more

important to hinder the Holstein plans of expansion lest she should be hemmed in on the South. The duke of Holstein-Gottorp was Charles XI.'s uncle (his mother's brother) and had his support against Denmark. He died in 1697, leaving one son, Charles, and two daughters.

Charles XII.

For the third time in the 17th century a regency was called on to act, but already Nov. 1697, the Riksdag declared the 15-year old Charles XII. (1697-1718) of age. At the coro nation he placed the crown on his own head and gave no Kunga forsiikring (lit. King's guarantee). Charles was a gifted but pre cocious youth who had been grounded in book-learning and military science. He had high morality, but was inclined to obstinacy. In his early youth he was addicted to wild pranks and perilous sports.

Poland, Denmark and Russia were united against Sweden. In March, 1700, the Poles marched on Riga and the Danes against Holstein. The young king showed unusual power and decision. Protected by the English and Dutch fleets he landed on Sjalland and enforced on Denmark the peace of Traventhal in Aug. 170o.

In November the Swedes, under the personal leadership of Charles, won a momentous victory over the Russians at Narva. In the summer of 1701 Charles marched south, drove the Rus sians and the Saxons back over the Duna and invaded Poland. Charles called upon the Poles to dethrone Augustus who had begun the war. This idea stirred up the national feeling of Poland and won Augustus help from other States. Charles' route went through Kovno in Lithuania to Warsaw and Cracow which he took (1702). After continual but fruitless victories for the Swedes a Polish parliament, not constitutionally formed, declared Augustus dethroned and elected as his successor Stanislaus Leszczynski, a weak man who lacked the strength to defend his own status as king. The Polish parliament concluded peace with Sweden in 1705. In this way Poland became a kind of subject State to Sweden, but Charles miscalculated Sweden's capacity for maintaining such a relationship. During these Polish conflicts the Tsar Peter took town after town in Livonia and Ingermanland, among them Dorpat and Narva. Charles, in the meantime, held that the most important thing was to force Augustus to conclude peace before he took up his stand against Peter, and he carried war into Saxony. The Swedish army was now one of the most famous in Europe, and Charles's power was very great. Leipzig was taken, and Augustus by the peace signed at Altranstadt in Sept. 1706, renounced the Polish thronc and allowed Charles to remain some time in Saxony with his army. Augustus was in Lithuania and sought by intrigue to overrule the peace treaties but failed. From different quarters came efforts to benefit by Swedish aid; nearly a dozen German princes sought Charles out and he was visited by some 3o envoys from various courts. The most notable of them was Marlborough, who took note that the Swedish king did not intend to place himself on the side of France in the Western European wars as rumour had declared. Quarrels with the emperor began, but with the help of English and Dutch mediation a peace was concluded in 1707 which secured for Protestants in Schleswig the Church rights promised them in the Peace of Westphalia.