en unduly eclipsed by the brilliant and colossal
shapes of his heroic father and his meteoric son; yet in reality Charles
XI. is far worthier of admiration than either Charles X. or Charles XII.
He was in an eminent degree a great master-builder. He found Sweden in
ruins, and devoted his whole life to laying the solid foundations of a
new order of things which, in its essential features, has endured to the
present day.

See Martin Veibull, _Sveriges Storhedstid_ (Stockholm, 1881);
Frederick Ferdinand Carlson, _Sveriges Historia under Konungarne af
Pfalziska Huset_ (Stockholm, 1883-1885); Robert Nisbet Bain,
_Scandinavia_ (Cambridge, 1905); O. Sjogren, _Karl den Elfte och
Svenska Folket_ (Stockholm, 1897); S. Jacobsen, _Den nordiske Kriegs
Kronicke, 1675-1679_ (Copenhagen, 1897); J.A. de Mesmes d'Avaux,
_Negociations du comte d'Avaux, 1693, 1697, 1698_ (Utrecht, 1882,
&c.). (R. N. B.)

CHARLES XII. (1682-1718), king of Sweden, the only surviving son of
Charles XI. and Ulrica Leonora, daughter of Frederick III. of Denmark,
was born on the 17th of June 1682. He was carefully educated by
excellent tutors under the watchful eyes of his parents. His natural
parts were excellent; and a strong bias in the direction of abstract
thought, and mathematics in particular, was noticeable at an early date.
His memory was astonishing. He could translate Latin into Swedish or
German, or Swedish or German into Latin at sight. Charles XI. personally
supervised his son's physical training. He was taught to ride before he
was four, at eight was quite at home in his saddle, and when only
eleven, brought down his first bear at a single shot. As he grew older
his father took him on all his rounds, reviewing troops, inspecting
studs, foundries, dockyards and granaries. Thus the lad was gradually
initiated into all the _minutiae_ of administration. The influence of
Charles XI. over his son was, indeed, far greater than is commonly
supposed, and it accounts for much in Charles XII.'s character which is
otherwise inexplicable, for instance his precocious reserve and
taciturnity, his dislike of everything French, and his inordinate
contempt for purely diplomatic methods. On the whole, his early training
was admirable; but the young prince was not allowed the opportunity of
gradually gaining experience under his guardians. At the _Riksdag_
assembled at Stockholm in 1697, the estates, jealous of the influence of
the regents