Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/434

422 peace on the part of Sweden. This first step being successfully accomplished, Charles burst into Norway, speedily occupied several provinces, and in the early winter of 1718 besieged Fredrikshall, a strong fortress, which was regarded as the key of Norway. On Sunday, November 30, accompanied by his staff, and by Siguier and Maigret, two French officers in his service, he visited the trenches in the afternoon. Arrived in the foremost trench he found fault with the progress of the work, sent for some more sappers, and leaning on the gabions in front of the trench, himself directed their operations. Night came on rapidly, but still he remained there exposed to the shot of the fortress, for the Danes threw up light-balls, and kept up a continual fire from their batteries. His officers in vain endeavoured to persuade him to retire from his dangerous post, he obstinately refused even to shelter himself behind the gabions, though several of those around him had been struck, and about nine o clock, when the moon had risen and shining on the snow made the night almost as bright as day, a well-aimed shot struck him on the temple, his head fell forward, his hand instinc tively grasped his sword hilt, and his officers running up found him leaning over the gabions dead. A musket ball had passed through his head, destroying his left eye and driving the right out of its orbit. The shot put an end at once to the invasion of Norway, the projects of Gortz, and the power of Sweden in the north of Europe. Before the end of the following year it began to be whispered that the shot which killed Charles came not from the ramparts of Fredrikshall, but from the Swedish trenches. The two French officers were in turn pointed out as the probable assassins, and Siguier in the ravings of fever actually charged himself with the murder. On his recovery he denied it, but his involuntary self-accusation was generally believed in preference to his denial. Others laid the alleged crime upon the Swedish generals Cronstadt and Stiernross, and it was said that they had been bribed to break up the project of Gortz by a successful pistol-shot before Fredrikshall. In 1746 the tomb of Charles XII. was opened and the remains were examined in order to see if in this way the question could be settled. The officials charged with the examination seem to have known very little about surgery. They at first suggested that the hole through the skull was made by a dagger ; then apparently misled by their ignorance of the well-known fact that the wound at the point of exit is almost invariably larger than that at the point where the bullet enters, they alleged that the ball had struck the right side of the king s head, which was turned away from the fortress. This naturally con firmed the belief that he had been assassinated, although a great mass of concurrent testimony tended to exculpate every one who had been charged with the crime. To solve the mystery of his death, the body was again ex humed by Charles XV., so recently as 1859, when a care ful examination of the skull by three eminent medical professors led to the conclusion that the fatal shot had been fired from a distance on the king s left, and from a higher level than that on which he stood. Thus it was finally proved that Charles fell, not by the hand of a traitor, but from his recklessly exposing himself to the fire of the fortress. The character of Charles was a strange mixture of good and evil. In him almost everything was vitiated by a kind of exaggeration. Thus his courage at times degenerated into rashness, his determination into mere obstinacy. While we praise his temperate and simple habits, we cannot be sure that, in despising the ostentation and luxury of his brother kings, he was not actuated by a subtle vanity that made him more proud of the blue coat with copper buttons than another would have been of a richly embroidered uniform. His victories and conquests are all the more wonderful when we consider how young he was at the time of his greatest achievements. He was only eighteen when he extorted a peace from Frederick of Denmark and defeated the Russians at Narva, and he was only twenty-one when the victory of Clissow made him master of the destinies of Poland. War had not in those days the lightning rapidity of modern times, or Charles might have more than rivalled the victories of the first N apoleon. But he was really little more than a soldier ; as a statesman he must be placed below the second rank, and the only result of his reign was the weakening and impoverishment of his kingdom. He found Sweden one of the first powers of Europe, he left her fallen to a secondary place, and she has never recovered her former position.

1em  CHARLES XIII. (1748-1818), king of Sweden, was the second son of Adolphus Frederick and of Louisa Ulrica, sister of Frederick the Great. He was educated for the office of high-admiral, and commanded with credit against the Russians. On the accession of his brother Gustavus III., in support of whom he exerted all his influence, he was appointed governor of Stockholm and created duke of Sudermauia ; and he became regent when Gustavus was assassinated in 1792. In 1796 Gustavus IV. came to his majority, and Charles retired from political life. But when Sweden was threatened by the arms of Napoleon, Gustavus directed his forces with an incapacity so remark able that the people refused any longer to bear his govern ment. In March 1809 he was obliged to abdicate; and in May the crown was offered to Charles. A year after, Prince Christian, the heir appointed by the States, having died, Charles, yielding to the wish of the nation, nomi nated Charles Bernadotte prince royal, and gave the government into his hands, though still retaining the title and some of the dignity of king. After occupying this position for eight years, Charles died in February 1818.  CHARLES XIV., of. See.  CHARLES XV. (1826-1872), king of Sweden and Norway, succeeded to the throne in 1859, on the death of his father, Oscar I., son of Charles XIV. His rule was popular and liberal. The most important event in his reign was the change which was effected in 1866 in the consti tution of the Storthing, or parliament, which, from that time has consisted not of four but of two chambers the first being elected by the provincial representatives, the second by the people. In character Charles was generous and kindly, and his disposition is shown in his refusal to sanction capital punishment. He possessed considerable taste for literature and art, and published a volume of poems, which were translated into German by A. Van Winderfeld (Berlin, 1866). In 1850 he married Louisa, daughter of the king of the Netherlands, by whom he had one daughter, Louisa, who became the wife of Prince Frederick of Denmark. His relations with Denmark were of the most intimate kind, owing to his personal friendship with the king; but during the struggle of that country against the aggressions of Prussia he was obliged to remain neutral, since neither Sweden nor Norway would take up arms. Charles died September 18, 1872.  CHARLES, count of Anjou and Provence, king of Naples and Sicily, born between the years 1220 and 1226, was the ninth son of Louis VIII. of France, 