C11 as the sane FW. They both were big into enriching the crown by acquiring lands from the nobility. I'm not entirely sure, but my impression is that FW paid for his when they became vacant, whereas C11 was more like, "The Crown giveth and the Crown taketh away."
This ended up casting a long shadow. In the short-term, he made Sweden into a financially solvent state after his predecessor's ruinous wars. In the long-term...Well, it's a bit of a long story, settle in.
Sweden conquered Livonia, modern-day Latvia, in the seventeenth century. The local nobles had been promised that they would be exempt from the taking away of their estates, called reduction. And then C11 kept reducing their estates!
One Livonian noble, Johann Patkul, protested. Vehemently. In person to the king. C11 was like, "You seem upright and honest, and I like the way you spoke frankly. But I'm not changing my mind." So Patkul went off and wrote an inflammatory pamphlet, which resulted in C11 having him placed under the death penalty.
So Patkul decides to take Livonia back from the Swedes. He goes in person and (according to the books I've been reading, single-handedly, although that might be a little too neat to be true), convinced Frederik IV of Denmark, Peter the Great, and August the Strong that making war on Sweden when C12 was just a teenager was just the thing to do! One of my sources says he convinced August that the northern Baltic territories would support the campaign to make Poland a hereditary monarchy. August was all over that!
Now Charles is in a three-front war. He's not happy with Patkul.
Energetic and active, Patkul keeps moving around the courts of the major players in the war, advising them on how to conduct the war.
Eventually, he pisses off August/the Saxons enough that they have him arrested for treason and locked up. Peter the Great keeps trying to intercede for him, pleading for mercy and to have Patkul handed over to the Russians (who are much less pissed off at him) instead. August wavers.
He waits too long. After Charles has conquered Sweden, he demands the extradition of certain prisoners, ESPECIALLY Patkul. August, knowing that of all the people pissed off at Patkul, Charles is the MOST pissed off, is like, "Wait, no, can I get out of this?"
Charles: NOW, buddy.
Patkul: *ends up in Swedish captivity*
European monarchs: Have mercy on him!
Charles: You are confusing my chill toward my generals with my total lack of chill toward my enemies. This guy single-handedly started a three-front war against my country, which was minding its own business, to take advantage of my youth!
Patkul is broken on the wheel and decapitated. To quote Wikipedia:
Differing slightly, the accounts agree that Patkul, after a prolonged process of breaking his bones with the wheel, begged for his decapitation (crying "Kopf ab!") and rolled to the block on his own; the following decapitation did however not succeed until after several strikes.
See how we have a block here, meaning an axe was used, and several strikes were needed. Which is why I, if I were a murderer, would prefer to use a sword, in the hilarious words of luzula.
Btw, 19th century historian Bain says that while history has generally been kind to Patkul (Massie certainly has), treating him as a fearless patriot, he was actually quite awful to his peasants and just wanted the freedom to continue oppressing them.
Me, raised on stories of the slave-owning Founding Fathers: I don't know if it's true in this particular case, but the logic checks out!
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Great Northern War: Johann Patkul
Date: 2021-11-17 12:18 am (UTC)This ended up casting a long shadow. In the short-term, he made Sweden into a financially solvent state after his predecessor's ruinous wars. In the long-term...Well, it's a bit of a long story, settle in.
Sweden conquered Livonia, modern-day Latvia, in the seventeenth century. The local nobles had been promised that they would be exempt from the taking away of their estates, called reduction. And then C11 kept reducing their estates!
One Livonian noble, Johann Patkul, protested. Vehemently. In person to the king. C11 was like, "You seem upright and honest, and I like the way you spoke frankly. But I'm not changing my mind." So Patkul went off and wrote an inflammatory pamphlet, which resulted in C11 having him placed under the death penalty.
So Patkul decides to take Livonia back from the Swedes. He goes in person and (according to the books I've been reading, single-handedly, although that might be a little too neat to be true), convinced Frederik IV of Denmark, Peter the Great, and August the Strong that making war on Sweden when C12 was just a teenager was just the thing to do! One of my sources says he convinced August that the northern Baltic territories would support the campaign to make Poland a hereditary monarchy. August was all over that!
Now Charles is in a three-front war. He's not happy with Patkul.
Energetic and active, Patkul keeps moving around the courts of the major players in the war, advising them on how to conduct the war.
Eventually, he pisses off August/the Saxons enough that they have him arrested for treason and locked up. Peter the Great keeps trying to intercede for him, pleading for mercy and to have Patkul handed over to the Russians (who are much less pissed off at him) instead. August wavers.
He waits too long. After Charles has conquered Sweden, he demands the extradition of certain prisoners, ESPECIALLY Patkul. August, knowing that of all the people pissed off at Patkul, Charles is the MOST pissed off, is like, "Wait, no, can I get out of this?"
Charles: NOW, buddy.
Patkul: *ends up in Swedish captivity*
European monarchs: Have mercy on him!
Charles: You are confusing my chill toward my generals with my total lack of chill toward my enemies. This guy single-handedly started a three-front war against my country, which was minding its own business, to take advantage of my youth!
Patkul is broken on the wheel and decapitated. To quote Wikipedia:
Differing slightly, the accounts agree that Patkul, after a prolonged process of breaking his bones with the wheel, begged for his decapitation (crying "Kopf ab!") and rolled to the block on his own; the following decapitation did however not succeed until after several strikes.
See how we have a block here, meaning an axe was used, and several strikes were needed. Which is why I, if I were a murderer, would prefer to use a sword, in the hilarious words of
Btw, 19th century historian Bain says that while history has generally been kind to Patkul (Massie certainly has), treating him as a fearless patriot, he was actually quite awful to his peasants and just wanted the freedom to continue oppressing them.
Me, raised on stories of the slave-owning Founding Fathers: I don't know if it's true in this particular case, but the logic checks out!