Historical Sweden: The Great Northern War of the 18th Century

Charles XII was successor to Charles XI and has been deemed historically as a military genius.

Charles XII took the throne at the very youthful age of fifteen at which time he initiated and formed a coalition comprised of the countries of Denmark and Russia. This even occurred at the onset of what was known as the Great Northern War. The war took place between the dates of 1700 and 1721.

Charles XII was considered, by many, as a sheer genius in the art of war and military strategy. It was during the early years of the war, Sweden was able to invade the northwestern portion of Russia. Additionally, the Swedes also defeated the Polish people(s).

Peter the Great of Russia, during this timeframe was busy establishing himself in the Baltic coast.

The Battle of Poltava, fought in 1709 took the Swedes out of the picture as the dominant power as Russia took their place in the Baltic region.

Further, Sweden lost a good deal of its German holdings by way of the treaties of Stockholm and Nystad in the year 1721. Livonia, Ingria, Estonia; part of Karelia and several Baltic islands were given to the Russians.

By 1718, Charles the XII had died and with his death ended the male lineage connected with the house of Vasa.

Charles’s sister: Ulrika Eleanora succeeded him to the throne. (She was born 1688 and died in 1741.) Her succession was conditional and involved that she must accept a new constitution wherein the absolute monarch was destroyed; and the legislative power was vested in four areas: the nobles, the clergy, the burghers, and the peasants. The executive power came in the way of a secret committee comprised of the first three groups. This meant that the aristocracy, once again, had governmental control which it held onto for the next fifty years.

Then in 1771, Gustav III became king. Gustav noted the general dissatisfaction of the peoples regarding the strict policy-making of the aristocracy at the time. Gustav was therefore successful in taking control of the Swedish government.

He was able to create a new constitution and (once more) restored the government to an absolute monarchy.

Initially, Gustav’s policies appeared very liberal (probably because of the “stuffy” policy-making of the former government.) After 1789, though, with the beginning of the French Revolution, Gustav became a despot and in the year 1792 was assassinated.

Thus, the portion of Swedish history beginning with The Great Northern War years had ended.