To be fair, an immediate DoW by three great powers implies it wasn't all his own diplomacy failing; the groundwork of failure already existed.
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To be fair, an immediate DoW by three great powers implies it wasn't all his own diplomacy failing; the groundwork of failure already existed.
I wouldn't call Denmark-Norway a great power 
At best they were at level with Sweden, which IMHO had passed its zenith in 1659.
Charles XII was crowned in an extremely tense geo-political context, being pretty much surrounded by revanchist neighbours on top of the looming War of Spanish Succession. In regards to the diplomatic stuff I mentioned earlier, I was primarily thinking about his negotiations with the Jacobite pretender which led GB to declare war on the already beleaguered Swedish empire - which in itself is surprising, since it was the intervention by the Sea Powers that allowed Charles to conduct his lightning strike on Copenhagen in 1700 and thus knock Denmark-Norway out of the war.
At best they were at level with Sweden, which IMHO had passed its zenith in 1659. Charles XII was crowned in an extremely tense geo-political context, being pretty much surrounded by revanchist neighbours on top of the looming War of Spanish Succession. In regards to the diplomatic stuff I mentioned earlier, I was primarily thinking about his negotiations with the Jacobite pretender which led GB to declare war on the already beleaguered Swedish empire - which in itself is surprising, since it was the intervention by the Sea Powers that allowed Charles to conduct his lightning strike on Copenhagen in 1700 and thus knock Denmark-Norway out of the war.
He was an illegal immigrant who overstayed his welcome and forcibly resisted deportation.
I wonder how and what Swedish pupils learn about him... Is he glorified or just another king?
Given that he was venerated by he nazis ever year on the 30th november nationally up until a decade ago, the tradition lives on in some parts of course you'll have that issue to deal with so first and foremost every pupil learns (or as my knowledge goes)learned that he brought kåldolmar (stuffed cabbage) to Sweden. Karl XII is an intersting figure but for non revanchist purposes he's not that interesting. I can't really remember any king being glorified not even Gustav Vasa.
He is however by far the most written about king partly just because how dramatic his life was. But also how historically politicized he has been. No other king has been used as a symbol for this or that political movement as he. Right now there are those trying to pin him as a homosexual because he never married or had any children. I mean, it is possible that he was, but trying to force it with no evidence just to find some sort of gay role model or whatever is just silly. And that is just the last in a long string of things that Karl XII apparently was.
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He was the best of people, he was the worst of people, he was a man of wisdom, he was a man of foolishness, he was a man of belief, he was a man of incredulity, he was a man of Light, he was a man of Darkness, he was the spring of hope, he was the winter of despair.*
*cause I'm bored and I remembered that passage.
At least journalists and similar didn't learn anything about him in school at all. Back in 2005 author Ernst Brunner wrote a novel about Charles XII which he not only claimed was based on facts and research but he even claimed to have written the Truth about the king. Whereas in fact it was a ridiculous attempt to paint Charles XII as an insanely evil nutjob by modifying sources (the few sources that Brunner had actually bothered to read that is), sprinkled with laughable factual errors (Gustavus Adolphus was not the grandfather of Charles XII, Brunner...). Brunner had even shamelessly stolen large parts of the text (suitably changed of course to support his thesis) from 19th century books about the king. Newspapers etc swallowed it whole (and even commented on the well written old-style Swedish). Brunner of course is a walking joke, but one would have hoped that at least Sweden's most high-brow newspaper could find a reviewer who had a basic grasp of history and could call Brunner out. It did not.
1700 had Sweden probably the best army in the world let us not forget that Finland belonged to Sweden in this time.The Finish soldiers were feared since the 30 years war in Germany.The Swedish cavallary allways attackt in v formation and the men ride knee
to knee no enemy could stand that kind of attack.Sorry to said he is not glorifide in Sweden but I think we can remember him as a hero,but his misstake was to marsch into Russia and that huge country can not been invaded.
to knee no enemy could stand that kind of attack.Sorry to said he is not glorifide in Sweden but I think we can remember him as a hero,but his misstake was to marsch into Russia and that huge country can not been invaded.
I only read Voltaire's book about this subject, but in that, Voltaire claimed, that Peter saw they reached a status quo, and was willing to sign a peace treaty based on that - basically he would have left Sweden alone in the future, and knowing Peter's personality he would have probably even tried to team up with Charles. But Charles wanted to defeat Peter utterly, and he refused to sign a peace treaty unless he could force it on Peter, in Moscow.
I think Charles completely misunderstood Peter's personality, and he didn't trust him, because he attacked Sweden unjustly, so he wanted to be sure to deal with him for once and forever. But in reality these two great people were very much alike, and could have work together. Voltaire claims at the end of his book, that there is a probability, that later even Charles realized that, and after he returned from the Ottoman Empire, he signed a secret alliance with Peter (the Russians would have given back all the former Swedish territory they occupied, and in turn for that Charles would have helped them in other conquests, if I remember correctly), but Charles died before their plans became rife.
Sorry for the necromancy.