Charles X Gustav
Charles X Gustav was a significant figure in 17th-century Swedish history, known for his military exploits and tumultuous reign as king from 1654 until his untimely death in 1660. Born into a noble family with ties to Sweden's royal lineage, he was educated at the University of Uppsala and trained as a military officer. His early military career was marked by participation in the Thirty Years' War, where he earned a reputation for his leadership.
Upon ascending to the throne, Charles faced immediate challenges, including an economic crisis in Sweden. He initiated aggressive military campaigns, primarily against Poland, leading to the First Northern War. Early successes allowed Sweden to occupy key Polish territories; however, the war turned against him due to guerrilla resistance and shifting alliances. Notably, Charles also engaged in conflict with Denmark, achieving initial victories but ultimately miscalculating the situation, leading to failed sieges and eventual peace treaties that reshaped Sweden's territorial ambitions.
Despite his military focus, Charles's reign saw little progress on domestic issues, with significant social and economic problems remaining unaddressed. His death at a young age left Sweden in the hands of a regency, and his legacy is considered mixed—while he expanded Swedish territory, his aggressive policies sparked widespread conflict in the Baltic region.
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Charles X Gustav
King of Sweden (r. 1654-1660)
- Born: November 8, 1622
- Birthplace: Nyköping Castle, Sweden
- Died: February 13, 1660
- Place of death: Göteborg, Sweden
Charles X fought expensive wars against Poland and Denmark, and although his aggressive policies united the opposition of several Baltic countries against Sweden, his ultimate successes secured for Sweden—in the months after his death—substantial territory through three treaties with four different countries in 1660.
Early Life
Charles X Gustav (GEHS-tahv) was the son of a German nobleman, John Casimir of the Palatinate, and Katarina, daughter of Charles IX and half sister of Gustavus Adolphus. Born and raised in Sweden, Charles X studied at the University of Uppsala. During his youth, he traveled widely and reportedly was something of a playboy. Trained as a military officer, he was a man of action more than reflection. Although strong-willed, physically powerful, and competent, he had a reputation for excessive consumption of food and alcoholic beverages, and he tended to dream about grand schemes.
For many years it was widely expected that Charles would marry his cousin, Queen Christina of Sweden, and they were secretly engaged for a time. About the time the queen came of age in 1644, however, she became more interested in others, most notably the courtier Count Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie (1622-1686)—the son of a soldier and statesman—and Countess Ebba Sparre (1626-1662). Charles, primarily because of his ambition for political power, was greatly disappointed.
Charles accompanied the Swedish army to Germany during the later years of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). He learned the art of warfare under Lennart Torstenson, taking part in battles at Breitenfeld and Jankowitz. In 1648, he was appointed commander of the forces in Germany, but the war’s end in the Treaty of Westphalia prevented him from pursuing the military glory he desired. Serving as the Swedish ambassador at the executive congress of Nuremberg, he defended Swedish interests skillfully.
In 1649, Christina designated Charles as her successor, despite the strong opposition of the venerable Axel Oxenstierna, who headed the Privy Council. The next year, Sweden’s representative assembly, the Riksdag, approved her choice. Charles had to sign a document pledging to follow the laws and respect the traditional privileges of citizens, including the nobility. As discontent with Christina increased, there were rumors about a possible coup d’état. Avoiding the appearance of intrigue, Charles withdrew to the island of Öland. Christina’s conversion to Catholicism, which was illegal in Sweden, made it impossible for her to continue as monarch. When she abdicated on June 6, 1654, Charles ascended to the throne.
Life’s Work
As Charles X took his coronation oath, Sweden was facing a serious economic crisis. He and many other Swedes hoped to improve conditions by expanding into territories held by one of the neighboring countries. The most inviting target was Poland, which had a notoriously weak central government and faced a Cossack uprising. Charles was also motivated by a belief that the existence of a Polish king belonging to the Vasa Dynasty was a potential threat to his rule. In October, Charles married Hedwig Leonora, daughter of the duke of Holstein-Gottorp, partly because of desire for a dependable ally. Three months later, Charles’s council agreed to support a war with Poland.
In January, 1655, Charles made definite preparations for the coming conflict. He began in earnest to hire mercenaries and to take the financial measures necessary. When the Riksdag met in Stockholm in March, 1655, he already had spent much money on war preparations. For the Riksdag to oppose his project would have meant considerable financial loss. With Oxenstierna’s enthusiastic encouragement, the delegates authorized the king to initiate a preemptive war against Poland, They refused, however, to provide all the funding he requested, making it necessary for him to borrow large sums of money.
On July 10, 1655, Charles personally led an attack on Poland with an army of fifty thousand, thus beginning the First Northern War (1655-1660). The Swedes were victorious in the early engagements and soon occupied Warsaw, Kraków, and most of Poland proper. The king of Poland, John II Casimir Vasa (r. 1648-1668), fled to Silesia. Swedish mercenaries pillaged cities and looted the countryside. The Swedish failure to take the fortress-monastery near Czestochowa triggered a general uprising. Polish guerrillas harassed the occupying army, while Russian troops occupied Polish lands in the east.
At the start of the war, Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg was a Polish ally, but after suffering a defeat, he joined the Swedish side in the Treaty of Königsberg. In early 1656, John II returned from exile, won several battles, and temporarily reclaimed Warsaw. In July, however, the Swedes and Brandenburgers rebounded in the Battle of Warsaw. Then Russia declared war on Sweden and invaded Swedish Livonia. Poland’s strategy of wearing down the invaders was increasingly successful. With aid from the Holy Roman Emperor, Polish forces took control of most of the south. By the summer of 1657, the Swedish-Brandenburg invaders were on the defensive.
On June 1, 1657, Denmark’s declaration of war against Sweden forced Charles to withdraw most of his troops from the Polish quagmire. Brandenburg switched sides. Still, Charles’s army rather quickly overwhelmed the Danes. Swedish troops led by Karl Gustav Wrangel (1613-1676) took advantage of Danish weaknesses along the southern boundary and moved into Bremen. Shortly thereafter, Charles successfully overran Jutland. In January, 1658, because of unusually cold weather, Charles took five thousand troops across the ice of the Little and Great Belts (the Sound Strait) to surprise Danish defenses on Fyn Island. The rare weather continued into February, allowing two thousand Swedes to continue an island-hoping operation over the Great Belt, eventually reaching the outskirts of Copenhagen, which had no land defenses. The Danes sued for peace.
In the resulting Treaty of Roskilde (1658), Denmark agreed to give up almost half of its territory, including the rich southern provinces of Halland and Blekinge, which, however, was not enough for Charles. When the Danish government refused to join him in an alliance against Brandenburg, he responded angrily with a siege of Copenhagen. Again, he had miscalculated. The war’s interruption of the grain trade was doing great harm to the Dutch Republic. Both the Dutch and English governments dispatched their fleets in support of Denmark. The siege of Copenhagen failed. Meanwhile, the Poles liberated almost all their lands. During the next year, Sweden suffered so many defeats that it appeared briefly as if its Baltic empire would be partitioned.
Living outside Sweden during most of his reign, Charles was unable to have much impact on the country’s domestic development. He did reorganize the University of Uppsala and stopped the large-scale alienation of royal lands. Although he encouraged the Riksdag to reduce the holdings of the nobility, the war prevented any real accomplishment toward that result. Major social and economic problems were largely ignored. The constitutional system continued almost unchanged.
In early 1660, Charles made one of his few return visits to Sweden to make plans for a new campaign against Norway. Hoping to get approval for additional funding, he opened a meeting of the Riksdag in Göteborg. Suddenly, the king became ill and died on February 13 at the age of thirty-eight. His four-year-old son succeeded him as Charles XI . Political power was turned over to a regency of nobles in the royal council.
Significance
Within a few months of Charles’s death, Sweden’s new government ended the First Northern War in the treaties of Oliva (with Poland and Brandenburg), Kardis (with Russia), and Copenhagen (with Denmark). Although Sweden had to give up Bornholm and the Trondheim region, it retained possession of the rich provinces of Halland, Scania, and Blekinge. Because of Dutch demands, Sweden was forced to give up its colony of Delaware in North America.
In the First Northern War, the aggressive policies of Charles X alarmed and united most of the powers of the Baltic region. Although his rather impetuous attack on Poland at first succeeded militarily, he aroused a popular uprising that he was unable to subdue. Then, in continuing the conflict with Denmark, again he made the mistake of not putting a limit to his ambition. Yet, Charles’s war achieved the annexation of the southern “breadbasket,” which is considered his lasting contribution to Sweden.
Bibliography
Akerman, Susanna. Queen Christina of Sweden and Her Circle: The Transformation of a Seventeenth-Century Philosophical Libertine. New York: E. J. Brill, 1991. A fascinating biography that provides considerable information about the background and life of Charles before 1654.
Conforti, Michael. Sweden: A Royal Treasury, 1550-1700. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988. The story of the monarchy told by way of the country’s art, textiles, weapons, and other technological artifacts.
Lisk, Jill. The Struggle for Supremacy in the Baltic, 1600-1725. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1968. This work examines the complex and often violent rivalry in the Baltic region, and it provides an excellent summary of the First Northern War.
Nordstrom, Byron. The History of Sweden. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002. The place to begin for the reader who wants a broad overview of the country’s story.
Roberts, Michael. From Oxenstierna to Charles XII: Four Studies. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Two of the studies in this work look at Charles X’s policies, one on his foreign policy and the other on his domestic policies.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Sweden’s Age of Greatness, 1633-1718. New York: Macmillan, 1973. Dahlgren Stellan’s essay on Sweden’s constitutional system during the reign of Charles X is especially helpful.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Swedish Imperial Experience. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979. Includes the best and most complete account in English of Charles X’s reign.
Scott, Franklin. Sweden: The Nation’s History. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1977. A good standard account of Swedish history, although somewhat dated.