EXILE
The defeat was followed by the humiliation of the Surrender at Perevolochna which saw Charles XII exiled to the Ottoman Empire for four years. These years were spent formulating a plan to regain what he had lost under the terms of the Treaty of Nystad, which saw Russia occupy Sweden’s Baltic provinces, thus reshaping the map of Europe for centuries to come. Sweden also lost Bremen and Pomerania, and a hostile ruler took over in Poland.

Charles XII returned to Sweden in 1714. Much weakened, he could only confront neighbouring Denmark on equal terms. In December 1718, having gathered a large force of men, he led an assault on Norway with the aim of evicting the Danish king, his cousin. The campaign went badly from the start and, on 11 December 1718, during the Siege of Fredriksten, Charles was killed by a shot through the head in strange circumstances, which are still disputed to this day. Some even suggest that Charles XII was not killed by enemy fire, but was murdered by disillusioned men from his own side.

On the day of his death, Charles had gone forward under the cover of night to inspect the construction of a front line trench that had drawn lots of Danish fire already. Indeed, some 60 Swedish diggers had already fallen to accurate musket fire. The Danish were using ‘light bombs’, an early form of star shells, to illuminate the enemy positions. Just as the King stood momentarily to survey the construction, he slumped forward as a large-calibre projectile sliced into his head. The object entered below one temple, straight through his brain, and exited the other side of his skull.
The King was dead, aged just 36.

None of the men who were digging the trench saw the impact that did the damage, but equally none were displeased
to see him dead. King Charles XII had brought nothing but misery for the ordinary people of Sweden through 20 years of bloody warfare.

Suspicions arose about who might have murdered the king. Suspects included his brother-in-law, who eventually succeeded him as King Frederick I, and indeed any wealthy Swede who was suffering from Charles’ 17% taxation of their wealth to fund his wars.

A possible connection to this suggestion was that within months of the King’s death, his hated chief minister, Baron Goertz, who was responsible for the despised taxation policy, was tried and executed. Yet another scenario involved King Frederick’s secretary, André Sicre, who confessed to killing Charles, albeit in the throes of delirium; once he had
recovered, he recanted his statement.

Finally, there is an unusual account from the King’s surgeon, Melchior Neumann, who left some intriguing remarks on the inside cover of a book. Neumann wrote that he had dreamed that he saw the dead King on the embalming table. Then the King regained life, took Neumann’s left hand and said, ‘You shall be the witness to how I was shot.’ Agonised, Neumann asked, ‘Your Majesty, graciously tell me, was Your Majesty shot from the fortress?’ The King answered, ‘No, Neumann, es kam einer gekrochen [one came creeping].’

The mummified remains of King Charles XII lie in the grounds of a Stockholm church, but have been exhumed no fewer than three times, the last being in 1917 for forensic analysis. The results are inconclusive; when ‘the Swedish Meteor’ fell, the nation replaced him with a mystery surrounding his death.