Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-10-07
SWEDEN'S NAPOLEON.
King Charles XII. and His Many
 Great Battles.
The Last of tho Military Chiefs of Sweder Recognized by tho Outer World-A Man Who Would Rather Fight
 Than Live in Ease.

One would hardly think, to observe the | order and good nature in Stockholm, that Sweden had once been a land of military glory, where the conclusions of peace had to be followed by the abdication of the Queen who dared to call truce. Yet so it is. Statues of nearly all the Swedish Kings | stand in the streets of Stockholm from Gustavus Vasa to yesterdays descendant of Bernadotte
 lhave been looking at some of these, writes 'Gath" in the Cincinnati Enquirer, and the last of the military chiefs of Sweden whom the outer world recognizes was Charles XII. Charles XII has been known | chiefly to the world through Voltaire's life | of him and Dr. Johnson's poem about him. He f1ourished in that middle perlod of his tory which almost obscures it's heroes; he died in 171S, less than two hundred years l ago, at the age of thirty-six. His father was peaceful man, who left him rich and had him well educated. The | military nature of the Vasa family, how ever, broke out ln him, and, being put upon l the throne at the early age of fifteen, he be- gan to hunt the larger wild beasts ID the l woods. . 1 His sisters realm having been invaded by the Russians, Danes, Saxons and Poles, who had been brought together by Swed- | iSh renegade, Charles went to war at the | 1 Copenhagen, which commenced the contest, he jumped into the water and waded ashore ahead of any body.
 l This taste of war now became his appe- tite. He began to live upon frugal soldiers fare and sleep upon the ground. He was the first important soldier who l cut his hair close and wore little hat; his l boots were his most striking feature, beng enormous. He cared little about odds in l hat 1o fo %1,o ;,, 1 100, and beat the Poles and Saxons also; | and though they sent him fine women to lead him off from war, he would have noth- l ing to do With them. He broke his leg at Cracow, but continued to fight.
 It is supposed that he gave too much time to Poland and Saxony, and thus allowed Russia to come forward with her vast re- serve strength, and learn tho art of war, her soldiers being licked with knout to make them fight.
 He gave the German Protestants their many churches back again, which had been taken away from them by the Austrians, and became a friend of the Duke of Marl- borough; and as the precursor of Napoleon by one hundred years, Charles invaded Russia in 1707 with 43, 900 men,
 Napoleon, who came after him, had 800, GOO men.
 Their fates were the same.
 The sWamps and barrenness of the coun- try, in spite of his victories, used Charles up. Failing to reach Moscow, the Russians l forced him to fight and at last beat him.
 He retreated into Turkey and attempted to make that country fight with Russia.
 Peter the Great at that juncture married
 his mistress. strong character, and she
 with her jewels bribed the Turkish Genera
 to let her husband and his army escape from
 the Crimea. That sacrifice of a woman's
 jewels was as cfficacious as the sacrifice o1
 the jewels of Isabella of Spain. It caused
 the rise of Russia.
 Charles galloped into the Russian camp
 and found the Czar escaped. He imploreC
 the Turks to go to war and put him in com
 mand, or Russia would overWhelm then
 all
 | The Russians now began to occupy tho | countries the Swedes had control of along
 the Baltic, while Charles still remained il
 Turkey. The Turks Aere bribed to seize
 the person of Charles, and he fought like
 tiger in 1713, and was captured with hi: | eye-lashes burned off and blood everywhert
 upon him.
 Passing through Hungary and Western
 Germany he came to his own dominions il ! 1714 at Stralsund, which was immediately
 invested by the Russians, Prussians, Dane:
 and SaXons, and he stood the siege for { l year. Finally the English joined the league l against him under George I.
 l, Charles had Minister from Germany by
 the name of Baron Gortz, a sort of Bismarck
 in his time, who had designed to invade En | gland and detach Russia. The Swedes dit | not like the prospect of the coalition tha l was coming, and Charles XII. was assassi
 hated, it is believed, by his own people. They found in his pocket when he wa l dead miniature of Gustavus Adolphus, hi
 ancestor, and prayer-book. They buried
 him in church where Gustavus Adolphu l. lies, and put upon the walls the trophies
 of his many battles.
 } Baron Gortz was beheaded for havin, l sustained Charles XII, and Sweden be ! gan to sink out of the rank of first-clas! kingdoms. Charles was a handsome man
 with no vices, except obstinacy and auster ity.
 TAKEN FOR A BEAR.