Sweden

Note: Charles is a Latinized version of the Swedish Carl.

The Swedes, despite the time period, did not make an absolutist government.[1] The nobles, after fighting with the king for many years, become the dominant rulers. During Charles XI’s (1660-1697) reign he made the nobles return the land they had received for their loyalty and, because he avoided Europe’s wars, he managed to keep his resources and thus not need to rely on the nobility for strength.

However his successor, Charles XII (1697-1718), reawakened the countries tradition of military conquest. He won land from Peter the Great, but then tried to invade Russia and was defeated at the battle of Poltava in 1709. Sweden slowly began to lose power and after this defeat the empire was dismembered. His neighbors and enemies had begun to overrun his lands by the time he died in 1718. From treaties signed in 1719 and 1721 it was reduced to the land it had been a century earlier.

During Charles XII’s reign the nobles retook power because of his absences during the Great Northern War and the nobles managed to rule effectively. They made his successor, Queen Ulrika, agree to a constitution which gave the Riksdag control. This new system was similar to many in Europe. The nobility were like English gentry, a court arose, and Stockholm became even more elegant and cultured, like other governmental centers in Europe.

Works Referenced
Chambers, Mortimer; Grew, Raymond; Herlihy, David; Rabb, Theodore K.; Woloch, Isser. The Western Experience: Sixth Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991

1 All information from the above named source, pages 554-5