| CHARLES (Sweden) | CHARLES (Würtemberg) | 307 |
princes, and other persons of note. The inquest after careful investigation decided that the fatal wound was inflicted by a musket ball fired from the besieged fortress. His tomb is in the chapel opposite to that where the remains of Gustavus Adolphus are interred, in the royal mausoleum in the Ridderholms church in Stockholm. The walls are decorated with trophies of his various battles, including a standard taken with his own hands in Poland. The hat, clothes, and sword worn by him at the time of his death are preserved in the chapel. Ulrica Eleonora and her husband Frederick of Hesse succeeded him on the throne of Sweden. Görtz, for his endeavors to preserve the integrity of the kingdom, was sentenced to the block. Sweden was as fatally dismembered, in order to secure the succession of a false heir to her crown, as she could have been by the utmost spite of her enemies. See Norberg, Konung Carls XII. historia; Adlerfeld, Histoire militaire de Charles XII.; Lundblad, Konung Carls XII. historia (Stockholm, 1830; German translation, Hamburg, 1835-'40); and Voltaire, Histoire de Charles XII.
CHARLES XIII., born Oct. 7, 1748, died Feb. 5, 1818. He was the second son of Adolphus Frederick and Louisa Ulrica, sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia. Destined from his birth to fill the high office of lord high admiral of Sweden, he received a naval education, and made several cruises in his youth. In 1765 he became president of the society of sciences at Upsal, and in 1770 commenced the tour of Europe. On the death of his father, and the accession of his brother Gustavus III. to the throne of Sweden (1771), he was recalled, and played a very important part in the revolution of 1772, by which the power of the kingdom was vested in the person of the king, with the consent of the estates. This was effected mainly by the establishment of the order of Vasa, and by the organization of clubs and committees among the young officers of the army and navy in the confidence of the king. It was agreed that the brothers of the king should superintend and commence the movement in the country, while the king himself should attend to the management of the affair in the capital. The revolution broke out by the pretended siege of Christianstad, in August, 1772, by Prince Charles, in which no one was injured; and the whole business was so admirably managed that without the spilling of a drop of blood the country was delivered from the tyranny of the nobles, and the king restored to the authority of his ancestors. Shortly after these events Prince Charles was created duke of Södermanland, and appointed governor general of Stockholm. But war soon breaking out against Russia, which persisted in fomenting dissensions in Sweden, he returned to his old profession, assumed the command of the Swedish fleets, and defeated the Russians in a naval engagement in the gulf of Finland; in reward for which he was raised to the governorship. On the murder of Gustavus III. in 1792 he was appointed regent; in which situation, at a highly critical period, he preserved the kingdom for his nephew Gustavus in its constitutional form, kept it externally and internally at peace, and united for the protection of navigation in the northern seas with the Danes. In 1796 he resigned his power to Gustavus, who ascended the throne under the title of Gustavus IV. Adolphus. After his nephew's accession Prince Charles retired into private life, passing his time in literary and scientific pursuits, and appeared no more in public affairs until, Gustavus having become a religious fanatic, a revolution broke out in 1809, by which he was deposed and his uncle placed at the head of affairs, first as administrator of the realm, and afterward (June 6, 1809) as king of Sweden. His reign was cast in stormy times, during the career of Napoleon; but he conducted the affairs of state with such consummate ability and prudence, that while almost every other European kingdom was in some degree a sufferer from the long-protracted warfare, Sweden not only suffered no loss, but received Norway at the restoration of peace as a compensation for the loss of Finland. Charles XIII. had married in 1774 Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte, princess of Holstein-Gottorp; but having no heir, he had adopted Prince Christian of Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg as his successor; and on his dying prematurely, chose Bernadotte to succeed him (1810).
CHARLES XIV. JOHN. See Bernadotte.
CHARLES XV., king of Sweden and Norway, born May 3, 1826, died at Malmo, Sept. 18, 1872. He succeeded his father Oscar I., son of Bernadotte, July 8, 1859, and was crowned in Stockholm May 3, and at Drontheim, Norway, Aug. 5, 1860. The great parliamentary and many other liberal reforms were instituted in Sweden during his reign, and he was extremely popular with all classes on account of his enlightened policy as well as his personal qualities. He was an excellent sportsman and artist, an accomplished poet and writer, and author of several works. During the Franco-German war of 1870-'71, he sympathized with France, but prudently refrained from committing his state. His death was mourned in Sweden and Norway as a great public calamity. His wife Louise, a Dutch princess, died March 30, 1871. Their only child, the princess Louise, married the crown prince of Denmark, July 28, 1869. By his will he left to the state most of his artistic collection, including the portion of the paintings relating to Scandinavia; the collection of arms to be placed in the national museum, the rest to remain in the chateau of Ulriksdal. He was succeeded by his brother Oscar II.
IX. WÜRTEMBERG.
CHARLES I. (Karl Friedrich Alexander), born March 6, 1823. He married July 13, 1846, the Russian grand duchess Olga, daughter of the emperor Nicholas, and a sister of the present czar. He succeeded to the throne
