144 The Third and Fourth Generation 



taint of neurosis. He married a gentle and 

 tactful princess; their son Charles IX was a 

 very able man, although of their three other 

 children one was insane and two weak. The 

 children of Charles IX were both remarkably 

 able. The daughter Catherine becomes the 

 mother of a later succession of kings. Her son 

 Charles X and his son Charles XI were rather 

 mediocre; but Charles XI, with this fine 

 stock behind him, married Ulrica Eleanor (7), 

 granddaughter of Christian IV of Denmark, the 

 most brilliant of all Danish sovereigns, and 

 Charles XII, their son, is pronounced by 

 Voltaire the most remarkable man who ever 

 existed. Charles XII had no children: the 

 succession passed to his sister's son, Adolph 

 Frederick of Holstein-Gotthorp, who married 

 Louisa Ulrica, sister of Frederick the Great of 

 Prussia. The result of this union of two great 

 lines of hereditary ability was Gustavus III, a 

 fit successor of Gustavus Vasa, Gustavus 

 Adolphus, and Charles XII; he was "a prodigy 

 of talents," statesman, poet, dramatist. 



