Episode 30: A new Sweden

In the peace treaties after the death of Karl XII, Sweden lost most of it's overseas possessions. Most of it, the eastern areas, to Russia in the peace of Nystad in 1721. This was hard on both on national confidence and on economics, since the Baltic provinces were important produers of grain - on the other hand, the government as well as ordinary people were truly fed up with war and there was no alternative to peace.

On the map, the green areas are those lost in the treaties of 1719-1721.

When the overseas possessions were lost, so was royal absolutism. Succession wasn't clear - Karl XII having no heirs - and his sister Ulrika Eleonora had to accept a greatly reduced royal power to be chosen queen, as did her husband Fredrik to whom she soon relinquished the crown. Sweden was  ruled by parliament and council, and we see the emergence of political parties and parliamentarism in what has been known as "The age of freedom".

Episode 29: The home front

During the long 17th century, 1560-1718, Sweden had been at war far more than it had seen peace. War cost. The were some natural assets to Swedens advantage - iron, copper, tar, pitch, coal - and the effective administration and control of the population. Still, the goverments that ruled during this period had to be very creative in financing war, mainly working from the principle that the war should pay for itself - that is in reality that others should pay for it.

The cost of war was also human. Even though Swedish men were far from the only nationality in the Swedish army they were there in great numbers. And they died, mostly from disease in camps. The chance of surviving it sent overseas was small. Jan Lindegren has shown that of the 255 men who were conscripted from Bygdeå in North Sweden between 1620 and 1644, at least 197 died.

Surprisingly, and due to a high number of children born, the Swedish population still grew during this period. The last army, the on Karl XII led on his Norwegian campaign in 1718, could still be raised by using Swedish men of the "right" age - 15-40 years old.

In the summer of 1674, Lorenzo Magalotti, a diplomat from Tuscany, travelled through Sweden. He both wrote about and scetched what he saw. This image portais Swedish farmers.

Episode 28: Karl XII part II

In 1707 Karl moved the army against Russia. His support systems didn't really work and the Russian army burned stores as they retreated, so the Swedes soon gave up the attempt on Moscow and turned southeast to Ukraine. There, in june 1709, the Swedish army suffered a serious defeat at Poltava. Thousands of Swedish soldiers became prisoners, but the king and some others managed to flee to the Ottoman empire, where Karl then stayed until 1714. By then most of the Swedish empire had been lost to enemies - Russia held the Baltic provinces and Finland, German states had taken the Swedish possesions there.

In 1718 a new army was organised and made an attempt to conquer Norway from Denmark. In november, while inspecting trenches outside a Norwegian castle, the king was shot in the head and died immediately. His uniform from the occasion can be seen in the Royal Armoury, the coat and boots still muddy from the trench.

Episode 27: Karl XII part I

Karl XII - or Charles XII - is one of Sweden's more famous kings. He has been used as an icon for many different movements and opinions, from the temperance movement in the 19th century to late 20th century skinheads. Karl probably wouldn't have liked any of it. He liked war, his dogs and his family - twp sisters and grandmother Hedvig Eleonora.

Soon after the death of Karl XI, the royal castle in Stockholm was destroyed by fire; a dramatic event that at least in hindsight was seen as a bad omen for the reign of the new king. And things soon became rather messy for Sweden when in 1700 three enemies - Denmark, Poland and Russia - declared war.

The painting from 1866 was made by Johan Fredrik Höckert. In the center the old queen Hedvig Eleonora is helped out of the burning castle by her grandchildren.