rtiAKLES XIV. 



CUARLK8 XIV. 



K-O 



d bad a long interview with Charie*, whom be wished to induce 

 to join the elUe.ageinet Loui* XIV. But Charles's views were 

 auilUil to UM north ; bis grt object was to dethrone hi* rival, 

 Peter of ITiMeli He however obliged UM emperor Joseph I. to sub- 

 eeribe to several cooditioos which he dictated ; among others, he 

 required that UM Preteetanta of SUeaia should have the free exercise 

 at their religion, and a certain number of churches given to them by 

 UM (orernment. Having settled theee aftaire. be marched out of 

 tiaxony in September 1707. at the bead of 48,000 men, to carry the 

 war into Mnseory. Another corps of 20.000 Swede*, under General 

 Lowenhaupt. was station*) in Poland. In January 1703, Charles 

 oroseed the Xiamen near Grodno, and defeated the Ruuian troop* 

 which bed entered Lithuania. In June 1708 be met Peter on the 

 of the Berezina. The Swedes crossed the river, and the 

 i Bed precipitately to the Dnieper, which Charie* crossed after 

 mr Mohilow. and pursued them as far as Smolensk, towards 

 the end of September. But her* Charie* began to experience the real 

 dimenltif* of a Ku*iao campaign. The country wa* desolate, the road* 

 wretched, the winter approaching, and the army bad hardly provisions 

 for fortnight. Cbarie* therefore abandoned hi* plan of marching 

 upon Moscow, and tamed to the south toward* the Ukraine, where 

 Maseppa. hetman or chief of the Coasaks, had agreed to join him 

 against Peter. Cbarte* advanced toward* the river Drma, an .{fluent 

 of UM Dnieper, which it join* near Kiew ; but he miseed hi* way among 

 UM extensive marshes which cover a groat part of the country, and 

 in which almost all hi* artillery and waggon* were lost Meantime 

 the Russians bad dispersed Maseppa'* Coesaks, and Mazeppa himself 

 oame to join Charles a* a fugitive with a small body of followers. 

 Uiwenbaupt also, who was coming from Poland with 16,000 men, 

 wa* defeated by Peter in person. Charles thus found himself in the 

 wild* of the Ukraine, hemmed in by the Russians, without provisions, 

 and the winter setting in with unusual severity. His army, thinned by 

 cold, banger, and fatigue, as well as by the sword, was now reduced 

 to 34,000 men. In this condition Chariot passed the winter iu the 

 Ukraine, hi* army subsisting chiefly by the exertions of Mazeppa. In 

 the spring, with 18,000 Swede* and at many Coaaaka, he laid siege to 

 the town of Pultawa, where the Russian* bad collected lar^e stores. 

 During the siege be was severely wounded in the foot ; and soon after 

 Peter himself appeared to relieve Pultawa, at theliead of 70,000 men. 

 Charles had now no choice but to risk a general battle, which was 

 fought on the 8th of July 1709, and ended in the totnl defeat of the 

 Swede*. 9000 of whom remained on the field of battle. With tho 

 remainder Charles fled toward* the frontiers of Turkey, which be 

 reached almost alone at Octakow, on the limen of the Bog and Dnieper. 

 He claimed the hospitality of Sultan Achmet III., who assigned to 

 him a liberal allowance, and the town of Bender on the Dniester for 

 his residence. We shall not here speak of the foolish behaviour of 

 Cbarie* while a refugee at Bender, of hi* arrogance towards the Turks, 

 his generous entertainers, whom he absolutely obliged to fight him 

 and bis liUle band of follower*, and at last to remove him to Demotica 

 Adrianople, where they continued to treat him with a generous 

 At last in October 1714, Charles left Turkey, and 



crossing Hungary and all Germany, arrived in sixteen days at Stral 

 and. Without going to Stockholm, ho immediately took the field 

 against Prussia, Denmark, Saxony, and Russia leagued against him, 

 obtained some advantages, was afterwards besieged in Stralsund, and 

 obliged to retire to Sweden at the end of 1715. In March 1716 he 

 invaded Norway at the head of 80,000 men, and advanced to Chris- 

 ttania, bat was obliged by want of provisions to return to Sweden. 

 He entered into negotiation, with Peter, but still punued the war 

 against UM Dane*, and in October 1718 be again invaded Norway, and 

 besieged Friedrichshall in the midst of winter. On the evening of the 

 llth of December, while he was inspecting the trenches exposed to 

 UM Are of a battery, he was struck in the head by a shot, and died 

 instantly, in hi* thirty-seventh year. For the particular* of bis adven- 

 turous career, Voltaire's 'Histoire de Charles XIL' is the chief 

 authority ; It 1* generally considered correct, and i* warranted by 

 the testimony of Sunlalaus, king of Poland. (See the < Attestation ' 

 prefixed to Voltaire's Life of Charles XII.') 



Cbarie* was a true specimen of a conqueror for mere glory, a* it is 

 ailed; bis passion for war engrossed all his thought*, and he eem* to 

 have bad no idea that a nation could be glorious and happy in a state 

 of peace In one respect be was superior to most conquerors. He 

 main tatn*d a most exemplary moral discipline in his army, which did 

 not disgrace iteelf by the licentiousness and the atrocities which have 

 marked the step* of moat other invaders. 



CHARLES XIV., of Sweden, CARL XIV. JOHAN (JKA BAPTIOTE 

 JOUB BcaxADOTra), born at Pau in the Beam, in January 1784, wai 

 the mood eon of a lawyer in that town. He was educated in his 

 paternal bone till the age of seventeen, when one day he left it 

 abruptly and enlisted a* a volunteer in the regiment royal marine, in 

 1780. Hi* nrst service wa* in the island of Corsica, where he remained 

 two years. On his return to France, he rose gradually through hi* 

 own good cood-ict to the rank of adjutant. He wa* doing garrison 

 duty at Marseille in 17I0, when the revolution began. Bernadotte 

 bad UM food fortune to save bis colonel, the Marquis d'Ambert, from 

 the popular fury which wa* then excited against the nobles. 

 l>madotte wa* nest promoted into the regiment of Anjoii, and as 



the royalist officer* emigrated in crowd*, promotion became rapid f..r 

 those who remained under their colours. Bernadotte was soon made 

 a colonel, and when the war broke out against Austria and Prussia, 

 te wa* seat to the army of the Rhine under General Custine, where 

 M distinguished himself, was made chief of brigade, and afterwards 

 wcame general of division in the army of Sambre-et-Meuac, under 

 Cleber and Jourdau. He served in the well-contested campaigns of 

 795-96, against the Austrian Generals Clairfait, Kray, and the Arch- 

 luke Charles. At the beginning of 1707, he wai ordered by the 

 >iroctory to march with 0,000 men from the Rhine to Italy, to rein- 

 ore* General Bonaparte. Bernadotto commanded the advanced guard 

 n the campaign of 1797, and distinguished himself at the paaaage of 

 the Tagliamento, and in the invasion of Carniola. After the prvlimi- 

 nariee of peace were signed at Leoben, Bonaparte returned to Milau 

 and left Bernadotte iu command of the advanced posts in the Venetian 

 trovince of Friulu He received afterwards the thanks of the States 

 >f 1'iiuli for his humanity and kindueas towards the inhabitants of 

 that country. 



During the negociations for the definite peace, Bonaparte sent 

 lernadotte to Paris to present to the Directory the standards taken 

 rom the Austrian*. On bis return to head-quarters, iu October IT'.'T, 

 Jooaparte interrogated him concerning the disposition of tho various 

 MU-Lies towards himself. Bernadotte told him frankly that he must 

 lot depend upon any party, that the Directory were suspicious of 

 lim, that he could not expect any reinforcements in case of a new 

 campaign against Austria, and that the wisest thing that he could do 

 was to hasten to conclude peace with the emperor. Four days after- 

 wards, Bonaparte signed the treaty of Cauipoformio. On leaving Italy, 

 Donaparte took away from Beruadotte one-half of the troops which 

 le had brought with him from the Rhine, and ordered them back to 

 France. Bernadotte, offended at this, requested of the Directory a 

 command in the colonies, or if not to accept hi* resignation. The 

 Directory appointed him ambassador at Vienna. 



In his embassy at Vienna, Bernadotte assumed a conciliatory and 

 temperate tone, and even made no outward display of the revolutionary 

 flag and cockade, till expressly ordered by the Directory to hoist tho 

 tri-coloured flag above the entrance of bis hotel. This was done on 

 the 13th of April 1798, and led to a riot which was only quelled by 

 the interference of the military. Bernadotte after this loft Vienuu, 

 but after some diplomatic explanations the affair was hushed up. In 

 the following August, 1798, Bernadotto married at Paris a younger 

 sister of Joseph Bonaparte'^ wife of the name of Clary. In the following 

 year he was appointed MinUter-at-\Var, at a time when the French 

 armies were discouraged by reverses, and were in a state of great 

 destitution. He exerted himself to re-establish confidence and dis- 

 cipline, and to protect the French frontiers, which were threatened 

 by the allies. He furnished Maasena with the means of resuming 

 offensive operations, which led to the defeat of the Russians at Zurich. 

 By one of those intrigues so frequent in tho councils of the French 

 Directory, Bernadotte was recalled from the war ministry; and ha 

 was living unemployed at Paris when Bonaparte arrived from Egypt 

 Bonaparte tried to cajole him into an acquiescence with his views 

 previous to the revolution of Brumaire, but Bernadotte firmly refused 

 to join him in upsetting the constitution of the republic, and would 

 have opposed him by force had the Directory so ordered him. A 

 military man, he remained strictly within the line of military duty. 

 Bonaparte knew this; and having become First Consul, ho gave 

 Bernadotte the command of the army of the west, for the purpose of 

 pacifying La Vendee and the other disturbed districts. 



After bis assumption of the empire, Napoleon made Bernadotte a 

 marshal, and sent him, in 1804, to command the army which was 

 stationed in Hanover. He there put a stop to tho irregularities and 

 arbitrary acts which had taken place in consequence of the military 

 occupation, and contrived to provide for the wonts of his soldiers 

 without distressing the inhabitants. This was the beginning of the 

 good reputation which he acquired in North Germany, and which 

 afterwards contributed materially to raise him to the throne of 

 Sweden. In 1805 Marshal Bernadotte left Hanover with his corps to 

 join Napoleon's army against Austria. He was present at the battle 

 of Austerlitz, where he broke through the centre of the Russians. 

 In June 1806, Napoleon created Bernadotto Prince of Pontecorvo, 

 which he designated as " immediate fief of the imperial crown." In 

 the war against Prussia, Bernadotto commanded the first corps. He 

 had some altercation with Davoust about precedence, on the eve of 

 the battle of Jena; ho afterwards defeated the Prussians at Halle, 

 and pursued Bliicher as far as Liibeck, where he defeated him. llu 

 fought afterwards against the Russians, and was wounded just before 

 tho battle of Friedlaud. After the peace of Tilsit, Napoleon appointed 

 him commander-in chief in North Germany, from Embden to Liibeck, 

 with orders to take possession of tho Hauseatic towns ; to exclude the 

 English trade entirely all along that line, and to induce Denmark to 

 make common cause with France. The English expedition against 

 Copenhagen deranged, in part, Bonaparte's calculations. In March 1808, 

 Napoleon ordered Bornadotte to uiurch into Denmark, and to iuvodo 

 Sweden in concert with the Danes by passing over the ice. But the 

 Danes were slow, tho thaw came, the English cruizcra appeared again 

 in the Sound, and Bernadotte remained in Denmark. Part of the 

 troops under him con?itcd of two Spanish division*, one of which, 



