Charles XII of Sweden

Charles XII, Karl XII or Carolus Rex, (June 17, 1682 – November 30, 1718), the Alexander of the North, nicknamed in Turkish as Demirba? ?arl (Charles the Habitue), was a King of Sweden from 1697 until his death. He came to the throne at the age of fifteen and left the country three years later to embark on a series of battles overseas, that briefly made Sweden the predominant power in Northern Europe. His youth gave other nations a decent pretext with which to invade Sweden; Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth-Saxony, Denmark-Norway, and Russia joined in a coalition to attack Sweden, beginning the Great Northern War. Charles XII turned out to be more astute than the other powers imagined, a great tactician, defeating all of the invaders. However, his strong tactical abilities were not accompanied by strategic and political wisdom. He is quoted by Voltaire as saying upon the outbreak of the Great Northern War, "I have resolved never to start an unjust war but never to end a legitimate one except by defeating my enemies." He took this resolution to an extreme level, which eventually resulted in the end of the Swedish Empire and its dominance of the southern Baltic Sea.

Scientific contributions

Apart from being a monarch, the King's interests included mathematics, and anything that would be beneficial to his warlike purposes. He is attributed to having invented an octal numeral system, which he considered more suitable for war purposes because of all cubic boxes used for materials such as gunpowder. According to a report by contemporary scientist Emanuel Swedenborg, the King had sketched down a model of his thought on a piece of paper and handed it to him at their meeting in Lund in 1716. The paper was reportedly still in existence a hundred years later, but has since been lost. Several historians of science suspect that either the multi-faceted Emanuel Swedenborg or the brilliant inventor Christopher Polhem – also present at the meeting in Lund 1716 – may have been the true inventor behind this feat, or at least a main contributor.

Related Topics:
Mathematics - Octal - Numeral system - Gunpowder - Emanuel Swedenborg - Historians of science - Christopher Polhem

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