b o o k i f we confider the interior adminiftration o f affairs, Charles
. V1I~ /XI. was one o f the wifeft monarchs who ever fat upon the
throne of this kingdom. To him Sweden ftands indebted for
many excellent regulations which ftill fubfift. In a word,
he was what Philip of Macedon was to Alexander, the pie-
curfor o f his ion’s greatnefs, and the founder of his victories:
for without the army which he had difciplined and improved,
and the treaiure which he had collefted, Charles XII. could
never have withiiood the combined forces o f all the Northern
powers ; nor could he have pufhed his conquefts with that
celerity which aftoniihed and confounded all Europe. Charles .
XI. was born on the 25th o f November, 165 5 , and died on
the 24th o f April, 1697 , aged 42 ; lamenting, it is faid, upon
his death bed, as the only reproach to his memory, the
natural violence o f his temper #, which he had not fuffici-
ently corredted.
The tomb o f Charles XII. is a raifed fepulchre o f dark
marble; it has no other infcription than his name : over
it are laid in caft bronze a club and lion’s ikin, which mark
more forcibly than any words
--------- ct his unconquerable will
i( And courage never to fubmit or yield
It would be needlefs to dwell upon a character fo well known
as that of Charles XII. whofe ambition was madnefs, and
whofe valour was ferocity. I ihall, therefore, confine
myfelf to one anecdote attefted by the moft refpedtable authority
%.
Among many converfations with his friend count Poni»-
towiki, the latter recolledted one, in which Charles, after
various refiedtions upon his brilliant fucceffes, which he mo-
* S chloe tze r’ sB rU fw e ch fe l, v o l. I . p . 147 . anecdote from th e k in g o f P oland, who ha
f M ilton . it from his fa th e r count Poniatowfki.
t I had th e licn o u r o f receiving this
J tfeftly
deftly attributed rather to his good fortune than to his good
eondudt, expreffed an intention o f marrying; and planned
for himfelf a life o f tranquillity in his own kingdom, when
he would pay greater attention to the interior adminiftration
e f affairs, and endeavour to promote the real interefts o f his
fubjedts. This anecdote, which is unknown to all his biographers,
will ihow that even his favage fpirit, which feemed
to breathe nothing but war, was not always infenflble to
more peaceful comforts, and to the pleafing profpedt o f do-
meftick liappinefs. Whether this projedt was merely an idea
of the moment, or feriouily intended to be carried into execution,
cannot now be afcertained; but he certainly had re-
moyed its accomplifhment to a diftant period; for at the
time o f his fudden death, he was expedting with impatience
the conclufion o f a treaty with Peter the Great; not to reftore
peace to his diftradfed country, but, in alliance with Ruflia
and Spain, to dethrone the king o f Poland; to feat the pretender
upon the throne o f Great-Britain, and to rekindle in
Europe a general war. Charles XII. was killed at the liege
of Fredericfhall on the 30th o f November, 1 7 18 , in the
¿6th year o f his age; and it remains to this day uncertain,
whether he was ihot by a ball from the enemy’s batteries,
or fell by the hands of an affaflin *.
The remaining fovereigns who lie interred in this church,
are Ulrica Eleonora, lifter o f Charles XII. who afcended the
throne o f Sweden only to refign it to her hulband Frederick I.
that monarch, and the late king Adolphus Frederick, mere
pageants o f royalty, who wielded a fceptre without power ;
and whofe hiftory contains little more than the sera o f their
fucceffion, and the time o f their death.
C H A P .
11.
* Soe the next Chapter.
X x a Befide