Charles II

Portrait of Charles II

**Charles II** was the tenth overall and fourth York monarch of Sweden. Ruling from 27 January 1577 to 13 February 1596, Charles II had bold plans to revitalize the nation and even colonize the new world, but these plans were stifled from conflicts he did not start. He is remembered as one of Sweden's better rulers.

## Early life

Charles II was born on 27 January 1562 to Gustav III and Mary I. He was raised to be an administrator. He was named after Gustav III's father Charles I of England.

## Rule

### Early Years

On 13 February 1573, Gustav III died during the siege of Vilnius in the Vengeance War, and Charles was supposed to be crowned as king. However, he was only 11 at the time, and thus his mother Mary took over as Regent. Her regency ended on 27 January 1577, and Charles was thus crowned Charles III of Sweden. Nearly two years later, on 6 December 1578, Charles II signed the Treaty of Reval with Lithuania, which ceded large amounts of land to Sweden. He then granted these territories, plus Liefland and Dorpat, to the new vassal state of Livonia.

On 3 May 1579, it was revealed that Ulrika Eleanora of the Tre Rosor family was pregnant with Charles II's son. Shortly after, the two got married, and the son was named Christian.

On 2 July 1579, he established the Separation of Powers through Royal Decree which made defined the executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of government while still retaining the many powers of the monarch.

On 3 May 1580, he established a tactical royal marriage with Bohemia to attempt to get their throne, though this ended up not working.

### Colonial Era

*Main article: Swedish Canada*
On 1 July 1583, Charles II announced that the Bureau of Colonial Affairs had been created through his decree, and that Canada and Greenland are planned to be colonized in the near future. On 1 October, he announced that the Bureau would take a "native coexistence" stance which would mean all colonists would be legally prevented from attacking any natives.

#### Internal Development

Some time later, on 8 September 1584, a new district of Stockholm called "Karlsborg" was developed under Charles II's authority, making the city surpass Constantinople. On 28 August 1585, Pomeranian was considered an official culture of Sweden, alongside Swedish and Finnish. On 22 September, he replaced the Kniaz of Novgorod with Karl VII York; his relation to the King of Sweden is unknown.

On 11 June 1586, he passed his third Royal Decree, the Conventicle Act, which forbid any religious assembly with more than five people unless approved by the church. On 25 May 1587, the nation officially embraced the Renaissance, partly because of his reforms.

#### Outward Expansion

On 8 November 1587, Charles II declared the Zealand War on Denmark to secure a land connection to the Norwegian territories in Jutland. It was successful, but Charles II learned that the Swedish army was in fact inferior to the Danish - and much of the world - and wished to avert any further conflict. However, just a month after the war ended, the Transatlantic War broke out between England and France. During this war he forcefully seized Akureyri from Norway, in order to have a colonial port. The nation later inconveniently got involved in the Polish-Ottoman War. The former was won and the latter lost, but Sweden did not gain nor lose anything.

### Death

Charles II passed away on 13 February 1596. He was succeeded by his son Christian I.

## Family

On 14 February 1591, Charles II and Ulrika had another son.

## Personality

Charles II was known for being careless in diplomatic meetings, often divulging secrets without thinking. He knew about this some time in his reign and delegated diplomatic tasks to his subordinates. However, he is more fondly remembered for being a very industrious ruler. He was known to stay up late at night or even not sleep at night to deal with the many problems across the realm. He was also remembered as a shrewd man, seizing opportunities as they come.