November 30, 1718: Death of King Carl XII of Sweden

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Assassination, Carl XII of Sweden, Frederik III of Denmark and Norway, Peter the Great of Russia, The Great Northern War

Carl XII (June 17, 1682 – November 30, 1718), was King of Sweden (including current Finland) from 1697 to 1718. He belonged to the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, a branch line of the House of Wittelsbach. Carl was the only surviving son of Carl XI and Ulrika Eleonora the Elder of Denmark. Ulrika Eleonora was the daughter of King Frederik III of Denmark and Norway and his spouse Queen Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg. She was given a strict upbringing under the supervision of her mother. She was taught several different languages, and was reportedly a good student in drawing and painting

Carl XII assumed power, after a seven-month caretaker government, at the age of fifteen.

The fact that Carl was crowned as Carl XII does not mean that he was the 12th king of Sweden by that name. Swedish kings Erik XIV (1560–1568) and Carl IX (1604–1611) gave themselves numerals after studying a mythological history of Sweden. Carl was actually the 6th King Carl of Sweden. The non-mathematical numbering tradition continues with the current King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf, who is actually the 11th King Carl of Sweden.

In 1700, a triple alliance of Denmark–Norway, Saxony–Poland–Lithuania and Russia launched a threefold attack on the Swedish protectorate of Holstein-Gottorp and provinces of Livonia and Ingria, aiming to draw advantage as the Swedish Empire was unaligned and ruled by a young and inexperienced king, thus initiating the Great Northern War.

Leading the Swedish army against the alliance Carl won multiple victories despite being usually significantly outnumbered. A major victory over a Russian army some three times the size in 1700 at the Battle of Narva compelled Peter the Great of Russia to sue for peace, an offer which Carl subsequently rejected.

By 1706 Carl, now 24 years old, had forced all of his foes into submission including, in that year, a decisively devastating victory by Swedish forces under general Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld over a combined army of Saxony and Russia at the Battle of Fraustadt. Russia was now the sole remaining hostile power.

Carl’s subsequent march on Moscow met with initial success as victory followed victory, the most significant of which was the Battle of Holowczyn where the smaller Swedish army routed a Russian army twice the size. The campaign ended with disaster when the Swedish army suffered heavy losses to a Russian force more than twice its size at Poltava. Carl had been incapacitated by a wound prior to the battle, rendering him unable to take command.

The defeat was followed by the Surrender at Perevolochna. Carl spent the following years in exile in the Ottoman Empire before returning to lead an assault on Norway, trying to evict the Danish king from the war once more in order to aim all his forces at the Russians. Two campaigns met with frustration and ultimate failure, concluding with his death at the Siege of Fredriksten in 1718. At the time, most of the Swedish Empire was under foreign military occupation, though Sweden itself was still free.

This situation was later formalized, albeit moderated in the subsequent Treaty of Nystad. The result was the end of the Swedish Empire, and also of its effectively organized absolute monarchy and war machine, commencing a parliamentary government unique for continental Europe, which would last for half a century until royal autocracy was restored by Gustaf III.

Carl was an exceptionally skilled military leader and tactician as well as an able politician, credited with introducing important tax and legal reforms. As for his famous reluctance towards peace efforts, he is quoted by Voltaire as saying upon the outbreak of the war; “I have resolved never to start an unjust war but never to end a legitimate one except by defeating my enemies”. With the war consuming more than half his life and nearly all his reign,

Death

While in the trenches close to the perimeter of the fortress on 11 December (30 November Old Style), 1718, Carl was struck in the head by a projectile and killed. The shot struck the left side of his skull and exited from the right. He died instantly.

The definitive circumstances around Carl’s death remain unclear. Despite multiple investigations of the battlefield, Carl’s skull and his clothes, it is not known where and when he was hit, or whether the shot came from the ranks of the enemy or from his own men.

There are several hypotheses as to how Carl died, though none have strong enough evidence to be deemed true. Although there were many people around the king at the time of his death, there were no known witnesses to the actual moment he was hit. A likely explanation has been that Carl was killed by Dano-Norwegians as he was within reach of their guns. There are two possibilities that are usually cited: that he was killed by a musket shot, or that he was killed by grapeshot from the nearby fortress.

More theories claim he was assassinated: One is that the killer was a Swedish compatriot and asserts that enemy guns were not firing at the time Carl was struck. Suspects in this claim range from a nearby soldier tired of the siege and wanting to put an end to the war, to an assassin hired by Carl’s own brother-in-law, who profited from the event by subsequently taking the throne himself as Frederik I of Sweden, that person being Frederik’s aide-de-camp, André Sicre.

Sicre confessed during what was claimed to be a state of delirium brought on by fever but later recanted. It has also been suspected that a plot to kill Carl may have been put in place by a group of wealthy Swedes who would benefit from the blocking of a 17% wealth tax that Carl intended to introduce. In the Varberg Fortress museum there is a display with a lead filled brass button – Swedish – that is claimed by some to be the projectile that killed the king.

Another odd account of Carl’s death comes from Finnish writer Carl Nordling, who states that the king’s surgeon, Melchior Neumann, dreamed the king had told him that he was not shot from the fortress but from “one who came creeping.

Carl XII never married and fathered no children. He was succeeded by his sister Ulrika Eleonora, who in turn was coerced to hand over all substantial powers to the Riksdag of the Estates and opted to surrender the throne to her husband, who became King Frederik I of Sweden.

These Dates in History, October 22nd…

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Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, Infante of Spain, John V of Portugal, Ludwig Ferdinand of Bavaria, Maria Amalia of Austria, October 22nd, Peter the Great of Russia

From the Emperor’s Desk: Today is my birthday and we’ll examine different lives and events in Royal History on this date.

1383 – The male line of the Portuguese House of Burgundy becomes extinct with the death of King Fernando, leaving only his daughter Beatrice. Rival claimants begin a period of civil war and disorder.

1721 – Russian Empire is proclaimed by Tsar Peter I after the Swedish defeat in the Great Northern War.

Emperor Peter I the Great of Russia

Soon after peace was made with Sweden, he was officially proclaimed Emperor of All Russia. Some proposed that he take the title Emperor of the East, but he refused. Gavrila Golovkin, the State Chancellor, was the first to add “the Great, Father of His Country, Emperor of All the Russias” to Peter’s traditional title Tsar following a speech by the archbishop of Pskov in 1721.

Peter’s imperial title was recognized by Augustus II of Poland, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, and Fredrik I of Sweden, but not by the other European monarchs. In the minds of many, the word emperor connoted superiority or pre-eminence over kings. Several rulers feared that Peter would claim authority over them, just as the Holy Roman Emperor had claimed suzerainty over all Christian nations.

Births

Pre-1600

955 – Qian Weijun, king of Wuyue (d. 991)

1071 – William IX, Duke of Aquitaine (d. 1126)

1197 – Juntoku, Japanese emperor (d. 1242)

king (d. 1750)

1689 — João V (October 22, 1689 – July 31, 1750), known as the Magnanimous and the Portuguese Sun King, was a monarch of the House of Braganza who ruled as King of Portugal during the first half of the 18th century. João V’s reign saw the rise of Portugal and its monarchy to new levels of prosperity, wealth, and prestige among European courts.

João V’s reign saw an enormous influx of gold into the coffers of the royal treasury, supplied largely by the royal tax on precious metals) that was received from the Portuguese colonies of Brazil and Maranhão.
Disregarding traditional Portuguese institutions of governance, João V ruled as an absolute monarch. In keeping with a traditional policy pursued by previous monarchs of the House of Braganza and which stressed the importance of relations with Europe, João V’s reign was marked by numerous interventions into the affairs of other European states, most notably as part of the War of the Spanish Succession.

Maria Amalia of Austria, Holy Roman Empress

1701 – Maria Amalia of Austria (Maria Amalie Josefa Anna; October 22, 1701 – December 11, 1756) was Holy Roman Empress, Queen of the Germans, Queen of Bohemia, Electress and Duchess of Bavaria etc. as the spouse of Emperor Charles VII. By birth, she was an Archduchess of Austria, the daughter of Emperor Joseph I and Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Maria Amalia had seven children, only four of whom lived through to adulthood, including Maximilian III, Elector of Bavaria.

1781 – Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France (d. 1789) Louis Joseph Xavier François (October 22, 1781 – June 4, 1789) was Dauphin of France as the second child and first son of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. As son of a king of France, he was a fils de France (“Child of France”). Louis Joseph died at the age of seven from tuberculosis and was succeeded as Dauphin by his four-year-old brother Louis Charles.

Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, German Empress and Queen of Prussia

1858 – Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (October 22, 1858 – April 11, 1921) was the last German Empress and Queen of Prussia by marriage to Wilhelm II, German Emperor.

Augusta Victoria was born at Dolzig Castle, the eldest daughter of Friedrich VIII, future Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, and Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, a great-niece of Queen Victoria, through Victoria’s half-sister Feodora. Augusta Victoria grew up at Dolzig until the death of her grandfather, Christian August II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, in 1869. The family then moved to Castle Primkenau and the estate her father had inherited. She was known within her family as “Dona.”

1859 – Prince Ludwig Ferdinand of Bavaria (October 22, 1859 – 23 November 23, 1949), was a member of the Bavarian Royal House of Wittelsbach and a General of Cavalry. Following his marriage to Infanta María de la Paz of Spain, the third surviving daughter of Queen Isabella II of Spain and her husband Infante Francisco of Spainhe was also created an Infante of Spain.

Prince Ludwig Ferdinand of Bavaria, Infante of Spain

Prince Ludwig Ferdinand was the eldest son of Prince Adalbert of Bavaria (1828–75) and Infanta Amalia of Spain (1834–1905). He was a paternal grandson of King Ludwig I of Bavaria and his wife Princess Therese of Saxe-Altenburg. His maternal grandparents were Infante Francisco de Paula of Spain and his wife Princess Luisa Carlotta of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.

Ludwig Ferdinand’s paternal uncles were King Maximilian II of Bavaria, King Otto I of Greece and Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria. His maternal uncle was King-Consort Francisco of Spain (1822–1902) and maternally his first cousin was King Alfonso XII of Spain (1857–85), two years his senior. Ludwig Ferdinand was born in Madrid, but his younger siblings in Bavaria, where they had returned. Ludwig II, Otto I and Ludwig III, Kings of Bavaria, were his first cousins. Alfonso XIII (reigned 1885–1931) was a first cousin’s son.

Deaths

741 – Charles Martel, Frankish king (b. 688)

842 – Abo, Japanese prince (b. 792)

1383 – Ferdinand I of Portugal (b. 1345)

1751 – Willem IV, Prince of Orange, Hereditary Stadtholder of all the United Provinces of the Netherlands. (September 1, 1711 – 22 October 22, 1751). As Prince of Orange he was ruler of the Principality of Orange-Nassau within the Holy Roman Empire.

Willem was born in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, the son of Johan Willem Friso, Prince of Orange, head of the Frisian branch of the House of Orange-Nassau, and of his wife Landgravine Marie Louise of Hesse-Cassel (or Hesse-Cassel). He was born six weeks after the death of his father.

Willem succeeded his father as Stadtholder of Friesland and also, under the regency of his mother until 1731, as Stadtholder of Groningen. In 1722 he was elected Stadtholder of Guelders. The four other provinces of the Dutch Republic:, Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht and Overijssel had in 1702 decided not to appoint a stadtholder after the death of the last stadtholder Willem III, (William III-II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland) issuing the history of the Republic into a period that is known as the Second Stadtholderless Period. In 1747 those four provinces also accepted Willem IV as their stadtholder, becoming the first Hereditary Stadtholder of all the United Provinces of the Netherlands.

On March 25, 1734 Willem IV married at St James’s Palace Anne, Princess Royal, eldest daughter of King George II of Great Britain and Caroline of Ansbach.

1761 – Louis George, Margrave of Baden-Baden (b. 1702)

2002 – Queen Geraldine of Albania (b. 1915)

September 6, 1666: Birth of Czar Ivan V of Russia.

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Czar of Russia, Ivan V of Russia, Peter the Great of Russia, Regency, Sophia Alekseyevna of Russia, Tsar of Russia

Ivan V Alekseyevich (September 6, 1666 – February 8, 1696) was a joint Tsar of Russia with his younger half-brother Peter I the Great, who co-reigned between 1682 and 1696. Ivan was the youngest son of Czar Alexei of Russia by his first wife, Maria Miloslavskaya, while Peter was the only son of Czar Alexei by his second wife, Natalya Naryshkina. Ivan’s reign was solely titular because he had serious physical and mental issues.

Ivan V was born in 1666 in Moscow, the youngest son of Czar Alexi and Maria Miloslavskaya. Only two of his older brothers survived childhood; his eldest brother, Alexei, died aged 15 in 1670, therefore his second brother, Feodor, became Czar upon the death of their father. When Feodor III died in 1682 without leaving an heir, Ivan, who was thought to be “infirm in body and mind”, was passed over in favor of his younger half-brother, Peter.

The church and the Naryshkins (family of Peter’s mother, Natalya Naryshkina) supported Peter’s ascension to the throne, however, the family of Ivan’s mother (the Miloslavski) and Ivan’s older sister, Sofia Alekseyevna, in particular, disputed the move. Rumors spread around Moscow that Feodor III had been poisoned and Ivan strangled by boyars so that the 10-year-old Peter could become Czar. These rumours fomented the Moscow Uprising of 1682, and the streltsy stormed the Kremlin. These disturbances subsided only after Ivan appeared in person in the city, and proved to everyone that he was alive and well.

The streltsy demanded that Ivan be named Czar, and a compromise was found by declaring Ivan and Peter as co-rulers, with a regency government until the boys came of age. Sofia Alekseyevna, who had been influential at court during her brother Feodor’s reign, was named regent. While Ivan was 16 years old at this time, his co-ruler Peter I was only 10. Ivan was considered the “senior Czar”, but actual power was wielded by Sophia Alekseyevna, Ivan’s sister and Peter’s half-sister, for the next seven years.

Czar and co-ruler

Sophia was always considerate of Ivan, although she is never known to have consulted him on any important matter. She was anxious that every outward sign of respect and deference be paid to Ivan, which was a subtle way of undermining the influence of Peter’s faction in court. Thus, every wish or opinion expressed by Ivan was deferred to, and his general prestige in court remained intact during the years of Sophia’s regency.

As Peter the Great grew up, he and his faction, led by his mother’s Naryshkin family, contended with Regent Sophia for influence and power. Indeed, Sophia is blamed for the murders of Peter’s uncles on his mother’s side of the family. Due to this and other situations, tension arose between the factions of the co-Czars.

In 1689, Peter was 17, and intent upon declaring his majority and demanding power. To pre-empt this, Sophia attempted to raise a riot in the city, spreading the rumour that the Naryshkins had destroyed Ivan’s crown and were poised to set his room on fire. This was untrue, and when riots began, Ivan’s tutor, Prince Prozorovsky, persuaded him to publicly declare his faith in his brother Peter and make it known that he was unharmed and in no danger for life or liberty.

Ivan did this, and also supported Peter’s contention that the time had come for terminating the regency. Peter was declared to be of age and Sophia’s regency was terminated. Ivan being both incapable and disinterested, Peter came into his own and functioned as though he were the sole Czar. The eventual result was that, over time, the outward signs of deference and power which Ivan had enjoyed during the regency slowly withered away and he became a non-entity in the Russian court. For the last decade of his life, Ivan was completely overshadowed by the more energetic Peter I. He spent his days with his wife, Praskovia Saltykova, caring about little but “fasting and praying day and night”.

In late 1683 or early 1684, Ivan married Praskovia Saltykova, daughter of Fyodor Petrovich Saltykov, a minor nobleman, by his wife, whose name is uncertain – it was either Yekaterina Fyodorovna or Anna Mikhailovna Tatishcheva. Ivan’s marriage was arranged in the traditional style of Russian rulers: he selected a bride from a parade of potential candidates. Praskovia Saltykova, who came from a rather obscure family, had been raised in a middle-class household and adhered to conventional values and moral standards.

Praskovia bonded strongly with her gentle and simple husband, and proved to be an exemplary wife to a mentally-challenged man. She became the mainstay of his life and earned the lifelong respect of her powerful brother-in-law, Peter the Great, who entrusted the care and education of his own two daughters to her. Ivan’s purported debility did not prevent him from producing robust offspring, and Praskovia bore him five daughters, three of whom lived to adulthood. Their children were:

Maria Ivanovna (1689–1692)

Feodosia Ivanovna (1690–1691)

Ekaterina Ivanovna (1691–1733)

Anna Ivanovna (1693–1740) Empress Regnant of Russia from 1730 to 1740

Praskovia Ivanovna (1694–1731)

Death and succession

At the age of 27, Ivan was described by foreign ambassadors as senile, paralytic and almost blind. He died two years later, on February 8, 1696, and was interred in the Archangel Cathedral. It was fortuitous to Peter’s faction that Ivan produced several daughters but no sons, as there was no confusion regarding the succession of the crown upon his death. His co-ruler was left to become supreme ruler of Russia; with Ivan’s death, the struggle for power within the family had finally ended.

In 1730, more than 30 years after Ivan’s death, his second surviving daughter, Anna, Duchess of Courland, was invited to the throne of Russia by the country’s privy council. She ruled for more than 10 years, and was succeeded by Ivan’s infant great-grandson Ivan VI; however, a palace coup engineered in 1741 by Ivan’s niece Elizabeth resulted in the throne passing finally to the progeny of Peter I the Great.

Final Abdication of King Stanislaus I of Poland

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August II of Poland, August III of Poland, Carl XII of Sweden, Elector of Saxony, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of Poland, Louis XV of France., Peter the Great of Russia, Stanislaus I of Poland

On this date in History: Final abdication of King Stanislaus I of Poland, January 27, 1736.

Stanislaus I (October 20,1677 – February 23, 1766) was King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Duke of Lorraine and a count of the Holy Roman Empire. Reigned as King of Poland.

Stanislaus was born, Stanislaus Leszczyński, into a powerful magnate family of Greater Poland. Because of his family’s great wealth this gave him the opportunity to travel to western Europe in his youth. In 1702 King Carl XII of Sweden invaded Poland as part of a continuing series of conflicts between the powers of northern Europe. Carl XII forced the Polish nobility to depose Poland’s king, Augustus II the Strong, and then placed Stanisław on the throne on October 4, 1704.

In 1709 Carl XII was defeated by the Russians, under Czar Peter I the Great, at the Battle of Poltava and returned to Sweden. In the absence of Swedish support, former king Augustus II returned to Poland and regained the Polish throne. Stanislaus left the country to settle in the French province of Alsace. In 1725 Stanisław’s daughter Marie Leszczyńska married King Louis XV of France.

When Augustus II died in 1733, Stanisłaus sought to regain the Polish throne with the help of French support for his candidacy. Stanislaus’ son-in-law Louis XV supported his claims to the Polish throne which led to the War of the Polish Succession.

In September 1733, Stanislaus himself arrived at Warsaw, having traveled night and day through central Europe disguised as a coachman. On the following day, despite many protests, Stanislaus was duly elected King of Poland for the second time. However, Russia was opposed to any nominee of France and Sweden. Russia protested against his election at once, in favor of the new Elector of Saxony, Friedrich-August II, (son of Augustus II of Poland) as being the legitimate candidate of her Austrian ally.

After Friedrich-August II of Saxony was proclaimed King August III of Poland at Warsaw, a Russian army of 20,000 under Peter Lacy, proceeded to besiege Stanislaus at Danzig where he was entrenched with his partisans (including the Primate and the French and Swedish ministers) to await the relief that had been promised by France.

On May 20, 1735 the long-expected French fleet appeared and disembarked 2,400 men on Westerplatte. A week later, this little army bravely tried to force the Russian entrenchments, but was finally compelled to surrender. This was the first time that France and Russia had met as foes in the field. On 30 June 1735, Danzig capitulated unconditionally, after sustaining a siege of 135 days which cost the Russians 8,000 men.

Disguised as a peasant, Stanisłaus fled Poland and reappeared at Königsberg where he briefly met the future King Friedrich II the Great of Prussia. While at Königsberg he issued a manifesto to his partisans which resulted in the formation of a confederation on his behalf. A Polish envoy was sent to Paris to urge France to invade Saxony with at least 40,000 men. In Ukraine too, Count Nicholas Potocki kept on foot to support Stanislaus a motley host of 50,000 men, which was ultimately scattered by the Russians.

On January 27, 1736, Stanisław again abdicated the throne, but received in compensation the Duchy of Lorraine and of Bar for life, which was to revert to France on his death. In 1738, he sold his estates of Rydzyna and Leszno to Count (later Prince) Alexander Joseph Sułkowski. He settled at Lunéville, founded there in 1750 both the Académie de Stanislas and Bibliothèque municipale de Nancy, and devoted himself for the rest of his life to science and philanthropy, engaging most notably in controversy with Rousseau. He also published Głos wolny wolność ubezpieczający, one of the most important political treatises of the Polish Enlightenment.

Stanisłaus was still alive when his great-great-granddaughter, Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, was born in 1762. She was the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II and his wife Princess Isabella de Bourbon-Parma (herself the daughter of Princess Louise Élisabeth of France who, in turn, was the granddaughter of King Stanislaus). In his last years, his close friend, the Hungarian-born Marshal of France Ladislas Ignace de Berchenylived on his estate to provide company.

Stanislaus Leszczyński died in 1766, aged 88 as a result of serious burns – his silk attire caught fire from a spark while the King was snoozing near the fireplace in his palace in Lunéville. He was medically treated for several days but died of wounds on 23 February. He was the longest living Polish king.

Originally buried in the Church of Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours, Nancy, following the French Revolution his remains were brought back to Polandand buried in the royal tomb of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków.