My life and accomplishments

            Hello, everyone. I am Charles the Eleventh, the King of Sweden starting from my inheriting the crown in 1660. I was born in 1655. I had a very tough childhood because of my father’s death. He died of a strange illness and left me, a five year old child, the crown of Sweden. Now of course I was unable to lead anything at the small age of five, so the country and I were left in the care of the governors. They kept the country running while I grew and matured. Once I reached age seventeen, my seniors deemed me old and mature enough to lead the country on my own and they relinquished the reigns to me in 1672.

            I would say I led the kingdom very well myself. During the first few years of my rule, Sweden was at war with the Danish in the Scanian War. They tried to invade the Scanian land and conquer them, but I was able to fend them off and make peace with them as well in 1676. This was one of my first successes and this war showed that I was able to lead my people well. I also weakened the power of the nobility here, which had been dominant before. I rallied the support of all the civilians in the lower classes against the noble class and was able to make major changes to the government.

            I made major changes in the country’s finances, government, army, and the bureaucracy of Sweden during the time of peace that followed the war. In 1680, at the Riksdag of the Estates, I restored Sweden’s treasury by taking back all of the property given by the government since 1650. This ruined a lot of nobles and people, but it was necessary to restore the country’s treasury. I also made the government an absolute monarchy instead of letting the nobility rule. In terms of the army, I changed how the soldiers were hired. I made a new conscripted army that was paid with land and it became very successful. I then reformed the bureaucracy in 1680 with the introduction of the Table of Ranks. It made people have to distinguish themselves in order to earn a position, instead of basing it off birthright. This allowed some commoners to earn a position and weakened the nobility more. These are some of my greatest successes in Sweden and are why I am considered one of the greatest monarchs from Sweden.

            In 1680, I married Ulrika Eleonora, the daughter of the King of Denmark, Frederick III. This was part of the agreement we made in the peace treaty that stopped the war. Even though it was an arranged marriage, we still loved each other very much. We had seven children together, but four of them died before me. Ulrika also died before me in 1693. This was the worst moment of my life and my health started to deteriorate shortly after. I felt stomach pains in 1694, and they continued until I could no longer bear the pain and passed away in 1697. It turns out I died of stomach cancer. My rule of Sweden was very successful and I had a relatively good life, not including my childhood and my later years.