Charles XII

by Ragnhild Hatton

In this fascinating and scholarly biography Professor Hatton has tackled the basic problem which any modern study of Charles XII, King of Sweden from 1697 to 1718, poses: where does the truth lie between the vilification of one school of historians for whom an 'illiterate warrior-king' can do nothing right, and the boundless admiration of those who, in search of rational explanations for Charles' policies, tend to a belief that the king could do no wrong?

The framework of the story is the wide-ranging war which began in 1700 when Sweden was attacked by Denmark-Norway, Saxony-Poland, and Tsar Peter of Russia, a coalition later joined by Prussia and George i of Great Britain. Behind the façade of enemy and Swedish propaganda the central character is discovered: more dependent on others, more complex and with wider interests than usually assumed – a man who regarded someone without mathematics as 'lacking one sense', who cared for social justice as well as for architecture and deserved in some measure the label of 'philosopher' bestowed on him by one of Louis XIV's diplomats.

Riddles no doubt remain, but answers have been attempted to the questions which contemporaries and posterity alike have asked: did Charles' just war of defence have aggressive aspects? Why did he pay homage to Mars but not to Venus? How was the offensive of 1718 mounted and what were its objectives? Was he, as many historians still hold, murdered by someone on his own side or was the shot that ended his life that of an 'honest enemy bullet'?

Genres: History, Biography, Royalty

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Ragnhild Marie Hatton was an historian who specialized in seventeenth and eighteenth century Europe. After moving to London from Norway she taught at the London School of Economics from 1949 until her retirement.

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

Read this some time ago, interesting titbits include the Swedish plan to seize Arkhangelsk from the Russians with a column of soldiers supplied by elks - the general strategy if that is not too modern a conception of the Swedish kings was to benefit from neighbouring countries trade through the control of key ports, unfortunately for them their neighbours had a similar idea which led to the country being at war with almost everybody and bleeding the country white through tactical victories until arguably many people were saved by the king catching a bullet in the skull while besieging a Danish fort in Norway leaving open the question of whether this was a lucky shot by a marksman or an assassination. Technically the kingdom was an absolute monarchy, however this book's tight focus on Charles and his campaigns leave it unclear quite how the system of government in Sweden was able to cope with an absentee monarch and to support the eighteen odd years of continuous warfare up to Charles' death. But it is readable, entertaining, also to be enjoyed the description of the Ukrainian steppe where the grasses grew so tall that men on horseback vanished from sight.

[PiggyDuke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ragnhild Hatton is a queen and an icon of her age, producing a work, which I believe is in large parts as relevant as ever.

There are some small tidbits, which seem to not be 100% accurate, which are 1.) her confusing the brothers Otto Klinckowström and Carl Bernhard Klinckowström, idk how she managed that, but I get a stroke every time I think about it, since they are clearly very different people with CB getting shot in 1704, while Otto went on to have a decades long diplomatic career. 2.) Her saying Karl broke his right foot during the Kalabalik, and that there's no other possibility of him having injured that foot besides this possibility, which is easily refuted through the book that collect's Karl's letters, which makes mention of him having injured it in like uhh 1716 or something. So maybe she didn't read that footnote idk (I haven't read my copy of the book on Karl's 1917 autopsy yet because it's in Swedish which I can barely read, and I'm not a medical professional so I can't really interpret the x-ray pics besides the most obvious injuries). Besides these obvious inaccuracies, she has some weird psychoanalysing going on, claiming that Karl overidentified with the female members of his family, which I'm inclined to diagnose as result of the era she was teaching and publishing in.

Besides that, holy shit, I have so much respect for her. The amount of work she must've put into this is insane, her bibliography makes me cry thinking about how many works she must've trudged through, her sources are very good, and she deserves the highest praises for this foundational work on Karl XII.

Hatton has besides her scientific merits a very readable style that naturally incorporates written sources (which I would've appreciated if they could've been translated in some parts, because no, I do not speak French -_-), that aims to grasp and humanise the mind of Karl XII. in a way that does not overly romanticise, glorify or condemn him, as many before her did.

Anyways, I wish she had still been alive, because I would've loved to write her a letter thanking her for her accomplishments, and also asking wtf she was thinking when she confused the Klinckowströms lmao.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professor Ragnhild Hatton writes an fine biography of King Charles XII of Sweden (1697-1718). Hatton focuses on the political, diplomatic, and military life of the Swedish monarch in this massive study. She stresses the Great Northern War, relating Charles XII's military campaigns in Denmark, Russia, Poland-Lithuania, Saxony, and Norway. In 1700, the eighteen-year-old king had to defend his empire against the anti-Swedish coalition. Charles XII defeated his enemies in the first six years of his reign, but he made the mistake of invading Russia and losing to Peter the Great at the Battle of Poltava in 1709. After his stay in the Ottoman Empire, Charles XII returned and sought the defend the Swedish Empire against a renewed enemy coaliition. Hatton believes that Charles XII was a military "strategist and tactician of proved merit . . . with the indefinable gift of command that inspired confidence and encouragement, terror, and awe" (p.521). The warrior king died attacking a fortress in Norway at the early age of thirty-six. The biography is based on published and unpublished primary sources written in Swedish, English, and French languages. Highly recommended.