His numbering asCharles X derives from a 16th-century invention. One of his predecessors,Charles IX (1604–1611), chose his numeral after studying a fictitious history of Sweden. Charles X Gustav was the fourth actual King Charles,[3] but has never been calledCharles IV.
Charles Gustav's parents, Count Palatine John Casimir and Princess Catherine
Charles Gustav's mother and father had fled theThirty Years' War and never went back to Germany. In his early childhood, raised in the Swedish court alongside his cousinQueen Christina, he received an excellent civil education. Later Charles X learned the art of war underLennart Torstenson, being present at the secondBattle of Breitenfeld (1642) and atJankowitz (1645). From 1646 to 1648 he frequented the Swedish court, supposedly as a prospective husband of his cousin, the queen regnant,Christina of Sweden (reigned 1632–1654), but her insurmountable objection to wedlock put an end to these anticipations, and to compensate her cousin for a broken half-promise she declared him her successor in 1649, despite the opposition of thePrivy Council headed byAxel Oxenstierna. In 1648 he gained the appointment of commander of the Swedish forces in Germany. The conclusion of the treaties ofWestphalia in October 1648 prevented him from winning the military laurels he is said to have desired, but as the Swedish plenipotentiary at the executive congress ofNuremberg, he had an opportunity to learn diplomacy, a science he is described as having quickly mastered. As the recognized heir to the throne, his position on his return to Sweden was dangerous because of the growing discontent with the queen. He therefore withdrew to the isle ofÖland until the abdication of Christina on 5 June 1654 called him to the throne.[4]
Medal for King Charles X Gustav and Queen Hedwig Eleanor
Charles X Gustav was crowned on 7 June 1654, the day after his cousin Christina abdicated.[5] The beginning of Charles X's reign concentrated on the healing of domestic discords and on the rallying of all the forces of the nation round his standard for a new policy of conquest.[citation needed] On the recommendation of his predecessor, he contracted a political marriage on 24 October 1654 withHedwig Eleonora, the daughter ofFrederick III, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp.[6] He was hoping to secure a future ally against Denmark. TheRiksdag that assembled atStockholm in March 1655 duly considered the two great pressing national questions: war, and the restitution of the alienated crown lands. Over three days a secret committee presided over by the King decided the war question: Charles X easily persuaded the delegates that a war against Poland appeared necessary and might prove very advantageous; but the consideration of the question of the subsidies due to the crown for military purposes was postponed to the following Riksdag.[4] In 1659 he proclaimed severe punishment for anyone hunting in the royal game reserve inOttenby,Öland, Sweden, where he had built a longdry-stone wall separating the southern tip of the island.[citation needed]
On 10 July 1655, Charles X left Sweden to engage in a war against thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, in what became theSecond (or Little) Northern War (1655–1660). By the time war was declared he had at his disposal 50,000 men and 50 warships. Hostilities had already begun with the occupation ofDünaburg inPolish Livonia by the Swedes on 1 July 1655. Then on 21 July 1655 Swedish army underArvid Wittenberg crossed into Poland and proceeded towards the encampment of the Greater Poland Levy of the Nobility (pospolite ruszenie) encamped among the banks of theNoteć river, with some regular infantry for support. On 25 July the Polish noble levy army capitulated, and thevoivodeships ofPoznań andKalisz placed themselves under the protection of the Swedish King. Thereupon the Swedes entered Warsaw without opposition and occupied the whole ofGreater Poland. The Polish king,John II Casimir of Poland (1648–68) of theHouse of Vasa, eventually fled toSilesia after his armies had suffered defeats.[4] A great number of Polish nobles and their personal armies joined the Swedes, including the majority of the famous Winged Hussars. Many Poles saw Charles X Gustav as a strong monarch who could be a more effective leader than John II Casimir.
Charles X Gustav in skirmish withTatars near Warsaw
Meanwhile, Charles X Gustav pressed on towardsKraków, which the Swedes captured after a two-month siege. The fall of Kraków followed a capitulation of the Polish Royal armies, but before the end of the year a reaction began in Poland herself. On 18 November 1655 the Swedes invested the fortress-monastery ofCzęstochowa, but the Poles defended it and after a seventy days' siege the Swedish besiegers had to retire with great loss. This success elicited popular enthusiasm in Poland and gave rise to a nationalistic and religious rhetoric concerning the war and Charles X. He was depicted as tactless and his mercenaries barbaric. His refusal to legalize his position by summoning the Polish diet and his negotiations for the partition of the very state he affected to befriend awoke a nationalistic spirit in the country.[4]
Triumph of Charles X Gustav over the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (c. 1655),National Museum inWarsaw
In the beginning of 1656 King John II Casimir returned from exile, and the reorganised Polish army increased in numbers. By this time Charles had discovered that he could more readily defeat the Poles than conquer Poland. What is described as his chief object, the conquest ofPrussia, remained unaccomplished, and a new Swedish adversary arose in the elector ofBrandenburg,Frederick William I, alarmed by the ambition of the Swedish king. Charles forced the elector, albeit at the point of the sword, to become his ally and vassal (Treaty of Königsberg, 17 January 1656); but the Polish national rising now imperatively demanded his presence in the south. For weeks he engaged in the pursuit of Polish divisions engaged in guerrilla tactics in the snow-covered plains of Poland, penetrating as far south asJarosław inRuthenian Voivodeship (województwo ruskie), by which time he had lost two-thirds of his 15,000 men army with no apparent result.[7] In the meantime, the Russians signed a cease-fire with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (Truce of Vilna) and then pursueda campaign in Livonia andlaid siege toRiga, the second largest city in the Swedish Realm.
Charles's retreat from Jarosław toWarsaw almost ended with disaster. His forces were trapped by the three converging Polish-Lithuanian armies in a marshy forest region intersected in every direction by well-guarded rivers. Escaping this disaster is considered one of his most brilliant achievements. But on 21 June 1656 the Poles retook Warsaw, and four days later Charles was obliged to purchase the assistance ofFrederick William I, by the treaty ofMarienburg (23 June 1656). On 28–30 July the combined Swedes and Brandenburgers, 18,000 strong, after a three days'battle, defeated John Casimir's army of 40,000 at Warsaw, however the Polish-Lithuanian forces promptly withdrew with no large losses and apparent strong will to fight another day, while Swedish host reoccupied the Polish capital again, causing much destruction to the city and its inhabitants. However, this feat of arms did not have the desired result for Charles, and when Frederick William compelled the Swedish king to open negotiations with the Poles, they refused the terms offered, the war resumed, and Charles concluded an offensive and defensive alliance with the elector of Brandenburg (Treaty of Labiau, 20 November 1656) which stipulated that Frederick William and his heirs should henceforth possess the full sovereignty ofEast Prussia.[8]
Labiau involved an essential modification of Charles's Baltic policy; but the alliance with the elector of Brandenburg had now become indispensable for him on almost any terms. The difficulties of Charles X in Poland are believed to have caused him to receive the tidings of the Danish-Norwegian declaration of war on 1 June 1657 with extreme satisfaction. He had learnt from Torstensson that Denmark was most vulnerable if attacked from the south, and he attacked Denmark with a velocity which paralysed resistance. At the end of June 1657, at the head of 8,000 seasoned veterans, he broke up fromBromberg (Bydgoszcz) south ofPomerania and reached the borders ofHolstein on 18 July. The Danish army dispersed and the Swedes recovered theduchy of Bremen. In the early autumn Charles's troops swarmed overJutland and firmly established themselves in the duchies. But the fortress ofFredriksodde (Fredericia) held Charles's smaller army at bay from mid-August to mid-October, while the fleet of Denmark–Norway, after two days' battle, compelled the Swedish fleet to abandon its projected attack on the Danish islands. The position of the Swedish king had now become critical. In July Denmark–Norway and Poland-Lithuania concluded an offensive and defensive alliance. Still more ominously for the Swedes, the elector of Brandenburg, perceiving Sweden's difficulties, joined the league against Sweden and compelled Charles to accept the proffered mediation ofOliver Cromwell,Coenraad van Beuningen andCardinal Mazarin. The negotiations foundered, however, upon the refusal of Sweden to refer the points in dispute to a general peace-congress, and Charles received encouragement from the capture of Fredriksodde, 23–24 October, whereupon he began to make preparations for conveying his troops over toFunen in transport vessels. But soon another and cheaper expedient presented itself. In the middle of December 1657 began the great frost, which would prove so fatal to Denmark–Norway. In a few weeks the cold had grown so intense that the freezing of an arm of the sea with so rapid a current as theSmall Belt became a conceivable possibility; and henceforth meteorological observations formed an essential part of the strategy of the Swedes.[8]
On 28 January 1658, Charles X arrived atHaderslev in South Jutland. His meteorologists estimated that in a couple of days the ice of the Little Belt would become firm enough to bear even the passage of a mail-clad host. The cold during the night of 29 January became most severe; and early in the morning of the 30th the Swedish king gave the order to start, the horsemen dismounting on the weaker spots of ice and cautiously leading their horses as far apart as possible, until they swung into their saddles again, closed their ranks and made a dash for the shore. Swedish arms quickly overpowered the Danish troops lining the opposite coast and won the whole of Funen with the loss of only two companies of cavalry, which disappeared under the ice while fighting with the Danish left wing. Pursuing his march, Charles X, with his eyes fixed onCopenhagen, resolved to cross the frozenGreat Belt also. However, he accepted the advice of his chief engineer officerErik Dahlberg, who acted as pioneer throughout and chose the more circuitous route from Svendborg, by the islands ofLangeland,Lolland andFalster, in preference to the direct route from Nyborg to Korsør, which would have had to cross a broad, almost uninterrupted expanse of ice. A council of war, which met at two o'clock in the morning to consider the practicability of Dahlberg's proposal, dismissed it as hazardous. Even the king wavered; but when Dahlberg persisted in his opinion, Charles overruled the objections of the commanders. On the night of 5 February the transit began, the cavalry leading the way through the snow-covered ice, which quickly thawed beneath the horses' hoofs so that the infantry which followed after had to wade through half an ell (nearly 2 feet) of sludge, facing the risk that the ice would break beneath their feet. At three o'clock in the afternoon, with Dahlberg leading the way, the army reached Grimsted in Lolland without losing a man; on 8 February, Charles reached Falster. On 11 February he stood safely on the soil ofZealand. A Swedish medal struck to commemorate the transit of the Baltic Sea bear the inscription:Natura hoc debuit uni.[8] Sweden had achieved a rare war exploit, in Sweden considered to be matched only by the crusade of theLivonian Order led byWilliam of Modena to conquerSaaremaa (Osel) in January 1227 and afterwards when two Russian armies crossed the frozenGulf of Bothnia from Finland to mainland Sweden in March 1809 during theFinnish War. It is believed that the effect of this achievement on the Danish government found expression in theTreaty of Taastrup on 18 February, and in theTreaty of Roskilde (26 February 1658), whereby Denmark–Norway sacrificed a great part of her territory to save the rest. However, Charles X continued the war efforts against Denmark–Norway after acouncil held atGottorp on 7 July, even though he was in defiance of international equity. Without warning, Denmark–Norway was attacked a second time.
Charles X consented to reopen negotiations with Denmark, at the same time proposing to exercise pressure upon his rival by a simultaneous winter campaign in Norway. Such an enterprise necessitated fresh subsidies from his already impoverished people, and obliged him in December 1659 to cross over to Sweden to meet theestates, whom he had summoned toGothenburg. The lower estates protested the imposition of fresh burdens, but were persuaded by Charles.[8]
Foot end of King Charles X Gustav's elaborate coffin in Stockholm'sRiddarholmen Church.
Christina had granted numerous estates to the nobility, a move that Charles X opposed, believing the kingdom's finances should primarily rely on taxes from peasant farms rather than revenues from trade. At the 1655 Riksdag, he initiated a land reduction to restore the state's wealth and strengthen its finances. However, his actions only partially alleviated Sweden's financial situation. The result of these measures was noticeable only after his death, when his son, Charles XI, used the same decrees to justify his own reduction many years later.[9]
Soon after the estates opened on 4 January 1660, Charles X Gustav fell ill with symptoms of a cold. Ignoring his illness, he repeatedly went to inspect the Swedish forces near Gothenburg, and soon broke down with chills, headaches, anddyspnoea. On 15 January, court physicianJohann Köster arrived, and inmedical error mistook Charles X Gustav'spneumonia forscorbut anddyspepsia. Köster started a "cure" including the application of multipleenemata,laxatives,[10]bloodletting andsneezing powder. While after three weeks the fever eventually was down and the coughing was better, the pneumonia had persisted and evolved into asepsis by 8 February.[11]
On 12 February, Charles X Gustav signed histestament: His son,Charles XI of Sweden, was still a minor, and Charles X Gustav appointed a minor regency consisting of six relatives and close friends. Charles X Gustav died the next day at the age of 37.[11]
On the night between 12 and 13 February, he would die in the arms of Lord High Marshal Gabriel Oxenstierna after having urged him to bring peace to Sweden.[12]
There are credible theories suggesting that Charles X Gustav, before marrying Hedwig Eleonora (but not after), also sired several more children of whom some names are known:[14] by Baroness Ludmila Jankovska von Lažan (1615–1655) a son Charles (Carolus Wenzeslaus)Jankovský z Vlašimi (1644–1684), who became Baron of Château Rešice in Moravia;[15] by Walbor Staffansdotter son Nils Karlsson (who strongly resembled his father); by Sidonia Johansdotter son Samuel Karlsson and by an unknown woman daughter Anna Karlsdotter.
^Isacsson, Claes-Göran (2015). Karl X Gustavs krig: Fälttågen i Polen, Tyskland, Baltikum, Danmark och Sverige 1655-1660 [Wars of Charles X Gustav: The campaigns in Poland, Germany, the Baltics, Denmark and Sweden 1655-1660] (in Swedish). Historiska Media. p. 264.ISBN978-91-7545-011-7
Asmus, Ivo; Tenhaef, Peter (2006). "Die Trauerfeier an der Universität Greifswald am 11. Mai 1660 für Karl X. Gustav von Schweden. Historische und rhetorische Aspekte". In Walter Baumgartner (ed.).Ostsee-Barock. Texte und Kultur. Nordische Geschichte (in German). Vol. 4. Berlin: LIT Verlag. pp. 59–84.ISBN978-3-8258-9987-5.
Englund, Peter (2003).Den oövervinnerlige : om den svenska stormaktstiden och en man i dess mitt (in Swedish). Stockholm: Atlantis förlag.ISBN978-9174867206.
Granlund, Lis (2004). "Queen Hedwig Eleonora of Sweden: Dowager, Builder, and Collector". In Campbell Orr, Clarissa (ed.).Queenship in Europe 1660–1815: The Role of the Consort. Cambridge University Press. pp. 56–76.ISBN0-521-81422-7.
