4 
LINNAEUS 
who succeeded to the throne of Sweden at the early 
age of fifteen. His tender years encouraged Russia, 
Denmark and Poland, to unite against him, but his 
enemies found him equal to the occasion. Denmark 
being defeated, he turned his arms against Russia, 
and in the famous battle of Narva in 1700, he is said 
to have slain thirty thousand of his opponents, and 
made twenty thousand prisoners, though his own 
force was under ten thousand. He next dethroned 
Augustus of Poland, and set up Stanislas in his place. 
So far his career had been brilliant and prosperous, 
but in striving to crush Tsar Peter, Peter the Great, 
he allowed himself to be manoeuvred into a false posi¬ 
tion, and sustained a disastrous defeat in the battle of 
Pultowa on the 8th July, 1709, practically the whole 
of his troops being captured, save a few hundred of 
his cavalry. The king, though wounded and carried 
in a litter, escaped to Bender in Turkey, where his 
violent conduct compelled the Sultan to besiege his 
residence. After a captivity of ten months, he was 
allowed to return to his own country. He met his 
death by a cannon-shot when besieging Fredrikshald 
in Norway in 1718, thus, during his short reign of 
twenty-one years, reducing the power and prestige of 
Sweden from one of great power to practical impo¬ 
tence. These events occurred during the boyhood of 
Linnaeus, to use the name he possessed during more 
than two-thirds of his life, and do not appear to have 
influenced his career in any degree. 
The family did not long remain in the lowly 
cottage where he first saw the light, for on the last 
day of the year 1707, his grandfather Brodersonius 
died, and the chaplain of Vaxjo, Petrus Comstadius, 
was appointed to succeed him, but he too died before 
taking up the pastorate. A powerful patron, State 
Secretary Josias Cederhielm persuaded Carl XII., 
who was then in Poland, to issue a licence for 
Commlnister Nils Linnaeus to become Rector of 
Stenbrohult, on the 12th August. Through this 
