Charles XII's brother-in-law, Frederick IV the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, was Peter III's paternal grandfather. Not to be confused with his contemporary, Frederik IV the King of Denmark, who waged war on Charles XII and Frederick IV! (I am spelling the Danish guy "Frederik" in a futile attempt to reduce confusion.)
Refresher:
Not too long after Charles became king, when he was still living in Sweden and not waging war everywhere but Sweden, Duke Frederick came to visit.
Frat parties ensued.
Apparently of the rowdy, hard-drinking, breaking shit, "I'm trying to get myself killed, someday everyone will realize the Kalabalik was totally in character" rather than the "have sex with anything that moves" kind...with the caveat that there may well have been sex that contemporary sources and/or modern historians have left out.
The Swedes were all "blame the advisor!" already and spreading rumors that the Duke, nicknamed the Gottorp fury, was trying to get Charles killed to give his family a shot at the throne, but if you ask me, you have two young men, one in his teens and one in his twenties, with no constraints on their behavior, and I don't think you have to add a conspiracy in there to make sense of why they would run wild.
The stories that were told about their antics even Massie, Mr. "I never met an anecdote I didn't like," says are 100% exaggerated--there was not actually blood flowing down the palace steps--but there clearly were a lot of antics. My favorite is the time they had a drinking party, and got a bear so drunk it fell out the window and died.
Dowager Queen Grandma, who was a tough woman known for being strong-willed and politically active, stormed into the room and glared at her grandson, who was disheveled and slurring and totally embarrassed.
He then swore off alcohol, or strong alcohol, or getting drunk, something along those lines, forever, and stuck to it. He became known throughout Europe for his Spartan lifestyle, not just in terms of alcohol (watery beer at best, mostly just water), and sex (none that my sources report), but also clothing (plain uniform, no wig), money-spending (no), workaholism (all the time), sleeping conditions (outside on a plank of wood with no blanket, just like his soldiers). In fact, when he was planning the incognito ride back to Swedish territory in 1714:
As his ascetic personal habits were known across Europe, one member of his party joked that the King could establish an impenetrable disguise if he wore a curled court wig, stayed in the most luxurious inns, drank heavily, flirted with every girl, wore slippers most of the day and slept until noon.
Imagine the opposite of that, and you've got Charles XII.
For comparison, keep in mind August the Strong and FW will be founding their anti-drinking society in just a couple decades (drunken bear episode is 1699), and this is contemporary Peter the Great's idea of a society, the "Most Drunken Council of Fools and Jesters":
In October 1691 Peter produced its "rules of order." On 1 January 1692 he placed at its head his former tutor, Nikita Zotov, awarding him the titles "Most holy lord Ianikita, archbishop of Press-burg and patriarch of all the Iauza region and Kukui" and "prince-pope" (Pressburg was the fortress on the Iauza River that Peter’s army had stormed, and Kukui a stream that ran through the German Quarter, which was thus also called "Kukui"); the "Council" likewise had a conclave of twelve cardinals. Peter himself performed a deacon’s duties. The first commandment for members of the "Council" was daily drunkenness. Upon initiation, new members were asked, not "do you believe?" but "do you drink?" Some of its rituals cannot be described, because of their indecency.
If that last sentence makes you wonder when the book was written, the answer is 1996 (!), but by a Russian (and helpfully translated into English for the Mildreds of the world). Robert Massie, 16 years earlier, had no trouble describing the rituals for his audience. Oh, Russia.
So Charles XII goes overnight from drunken bear falling out window to...I'm genuinely trying to think of a comparison here. FW founded the anti-sobriety society, the Spartans had gay sex, uptight Victorian gentlemen were in prostitutes up to their ears (or such is my impression of the "not my period" century)...anyway, some extreme of abstemiousness.
The thing that makes me hesitate is that there are dozens of biographies that describe Fritz exactly like this. Including the total lack of sex, or interest in women. And the whole glorified military hero thing is going to have very similar influences on the historiography of C12 and Fritz.
Anyway, like literally everything else I say about C12, take that with a grain of salt, but this is what all my sources are telling me so far.
Incidentally, I've mentioned that C12's dad was like a sane FW. One of the historians I read, I forget which one, says that C11 was such a workaholic he even made monarchs like Fritz and Joseph II look like slouches. I instinctively bristled :P, but then I remembered that Fritz had actual hobbies and a life, so while he was constantly busy and productive, if you're only counting state business, then yeah, the music, poetry, art collecting, Classics and French literature studying, round table conversations, talking to Voltaire, talking about Voltaire, reading Voltaire, writing to Voltaire, reading Voltaire's letters aloud, and petting his dogs, would count against him. So fine. :P
Anyway, sane C11 might have played a role in how C12 turned out. He was chill! Not, I hasten to add, when it came to fighting wars or performing feats. But when it came to interacting with people one-on-one. C12 was the anti-scapegoater. In fact, he bent over backwards so much to find out the good about everyone that contemporary Swedes joked that the best way to have your merits brought to the King's attention was to have someone accuse you of wrongdoing. When his generals lost a battle, he would make excuses about how the oral orders he'd given them probably weren't totally clear, and anyway shit happens.
AW: !!!
Also in Opposite Fritz Land:
1. No interest in the fine arts, although he did enjoy attending French plays. 2. Loved math, was apparently very good at math, would visit universities to chat about it with the professors, felt up to a whole new system of arithmetic notation. :P 3. Big on personal hygiene. 4. Preferred German to all other languages, inc. Swedish. Understood French but refused to speak it. 5. Did get to learn Latin and became fluent enough to have conversations with university professors in it.
When he was told that he should learn French so that he could show French ambassadors appropriate honor by being able to speak to them without an interpreter, he said that an ambassador coming to Sweden should honor the country they were in by speaking Swedish. Point for Charles!
ETA: Deep and apparently sincere personal piety, obviously, a big one in Opposite Fritz Land. The interesting thing is that he apparently replaced "Providence" with "Fate/Chance" in his writing in his later years (after Poltava, maybe? I'm going from memory) and historians debate whether that was just a linguistic habit or whether he actually stopped being quite so committed to his religion. To all appearances, though, he did remain a believer until the end. He used to tell his men that God decided when you died, and no bullet would hit you until God had decreed it. But when that moment came, it didn't matter whether you were on a battlefield or in your bed, you were doomed. The point here being that you should charge fearlessly into battle, trusting God, and never hesitate or think that you would be safer off the battlefield. And like Fritz, he put himself in an amount of danger that freaked his immediate circle out but made his soldiers willing to keep fighting to the bitter end.
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The Gottorp fury; Charles XII
Date: 2021-11-16 11:18 pm (UTC)Refresher:
Not too long after Charles became king, when he was still living in Sweden and not waging war everywhere but Sweden, Duke Frederick came to visit.
Frat parties ensued.
Apparently of the rowdy, hard-drinking, breaking shit, "I'm trying to get myself killed, someday everyone will realize the Kalabalik was totally in character" rather than the "have sex with anything that moves" kind...with the caveat that there may well have been sex that contemporary sources and/or modern historians have left out.
The Swedes were all "blame the advisor!" already and spreading rumors that the Duke, nicknamed the Gottorp fury, was trying to get Charles killed to give his family a shot at the throne, but if you ask me, you have two young men, one in his teens and one in his twenties, with no constraints on their behavior, and I don't think you have to add a conspiracy in there to make sense of why they would run wild.
The stories that were told about their antics even Massie, Mr. "I never met an anecdote I didn't like," says are 100% exaggerated--there was not actually blood flowing down the palace steps--but there clearly were a lot of antics. My favorite is the time they had a drinking party, and got a bear so drunk it fell out the window and died.
Dowager Queen Grandma, who was a tough woman known for being strong-willed and politically active, stormed into the room and glared at her grandson, who was disheveled and slurring and totally embarrassed.
He then swore off alcohol, or strong alcohol, or getting drunk, something along those lines, forever, and stuck to it. He became known throughout Europe for his Spartan lifestyle, not just in terms of alcohol (watery beer at best, mostly just water), and sex (none that my sources report), but also clothing (plain uniform, no wig), money-spending (no), workaholism (all the time), sleeping conditions (outside on a plank of wood with no blanket, just like his soldiers). In fact, when he was planning the incognito ride back to Swedish territory in 1714:
As his ascetic personal habits were known across Europe, one member of his party joked that the King could establish an impenetrable disguise if he wore a curled court wig, stayed in the most luxurious inns, drank heavily, flirted with every girl, wore slippers most of the day and slept until noon.
Imagine the opposite of that, and you've got Charles XII.
For comparison, keep in mind August the Strong and FW will be founding their anti-drinking society in just a couple decades (drunken bear episode is 1699), and this is contemporary Peter the Great's idea of a society, the "Most Drunken Council of Fools and Jesters":
In October 1691 Peter produced its "rules of order." On 1 January 1692 he placed at its head his former tutor, Nikita Zotov, awarding him the titles "Most holy lord Ianikita, archbishop of Press-burg and patriarch of all the Iauza region and Kukui" and "prince-pope" (Pressburg was the fortress on the Iauza River that Peter’s army had stormed, and Kukui a stream that ran through the German Quarter, which was thus also called "Kukui"); the "Council" likewise had a conclave of twelve cardinals. Peter himself performed a deacon’s duties. The first commandment for members of the "Council" was daily drunkenness. Upon initiation, new members were asked, not "do you believe?" but "do you drink?" Some of its rituals cannot be described, because of their indecency.
If that last sentence makes you wonder when the book was written, the answer is 1996 (!), but by a Russian (and helpfully translated into English for the Mildreds of the world). Robert Massie, 16 years earlier, had no trouble describing the rituals for his audience. Oh, Russia.
So Charles XII goes overnight from drunken bear falling out window to...I'm genuinely trying to think of a comparison here. FW founded the anti-sobriety society, the Spartans had gay sex, uptight Victorian gentlemen were in prostitutes up to their ears (or such is my impression of the "not my period" century)...anyway, some extreme of abstemiousness.
The thing that makes me hesitate is that there are dozens of biographies that describe Fritz exactly like this. Including the total lack of sex, or interest in women. And the whole glorified military hero thing is going to have very similar influences on the historiography of C12 and Fritz.
Anyway, like literally everything else I say about C12, take that with a grain of salt, but this is what all my sources are telling me so far.
Incidentally, I've mentioned that C12's dad was like a sane FW. One of the historians I read, I forget which one, says that C11 was such a workaholic he even made monarchs like Fritz and Joseph II look like slouches. I instinctively bristled :P, but then I remembered that Fritz had actual hobbies and a life, so while he was constantly busy and productive, if you're only counting state business, then yeah, the music, poetry, art collecting, Classics and French literature studying, round table conversations, talking to Voltaire, talking about Voltaire, reading Voltaire, writing to Voltaire, reading Voltaire's letters aloud, and petting his dogs, would count against him. So fine. :P
Anyway, sane C11 might have played a role in how C12 turned out. He was chill! Not, I hasten to add, when it came to fighting wars or performing feats. But when it came to interacting with people one-on-one. C12 was the anti-scapegoater. In fact, he bent over backwards so much to find out the good about everyone that contemporary Swedes joked that the best way to have your merits brought to the King's attention was to have someone accuse you of wrongdoing. When his generals lost a battle, he would make excuses about how the oral orders he'd given them probably weren't totally clear, and anyway shit happens.
AW: !!!
Also in Opposite Fritz Land:
1. No interest in the fine arts, although he did enjoy attending French plays.
2. Loved math, was apparently very good at math, would visit universities to chat about it with the professors, felt up to a whole new system of arithmetic notation. :P
3. Big on personal hygiene.
4. Preferred German to all other languages, inc. Swedish. Understood French but refused to speak it.
5. Did get to learn Latin and became fluent enough to have conversations with university professors in it.
When he was told that he should learn French so that he could show French ambassadors appropriate honor by being able to speak to them without an interpreter, he said that an ambassador coming to Sweden should honor the country they were in by speaking Swedish. Point for Charles!
ETA: Deep and apparently sincere personal piety, obviously, a big one in Opposite Fritz Land. The interesting thing is that he apparently replaced "Providence" with "Fate/Chance" in his writing in his later years (after Poltava, maybe? I'm going from memory) and historians debate whether that was just a linguistic habit or whether he actually stopped being quite so committed to his religion. To all appearances, though, he did remain a believer until the end. He used to tell his men that God decided when you died, and no bullet would hit you until God had decreed it. But when that moment came, it didn't matter whether you were on a battlefield or in your bed, you were doomed. The point here being that you should charge fearlessly into battle, trusting God, and never hesitate or think that you would be safer off the battlefield. And like Fritz, he put himself in an amount of danger that freaked his immediate circle out but made his soldiers willing to keep fighting to the bitter end.