VOLTAIRE’S
HISTORY of
CHARLES XII
King of
Sweden
Translated by
WINIFRED
TODHUNTER
LONDON: PUBLISHED
by J·M·DENT·&·SONS·LTD
AND IN NEW YORK
BY E·P·DUTTON & CO
| First Issue of this Edition | 1908 |
| Reprinted | 1912 |
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| [PREFATORY NOTE] | [vii] |
| [INTRODUCTION] | [ix] |
| [TRANSLATOR’S NOTE] | [xxi] |
| [BOOK I] | |
| Outline of Swedish history up to the time of Charles XI—Charles’s education—His enemies—Character-sketch of the Czar, Peter Alexiowitz—His peculiarities—Alliance of Russia, Poland, Denmark against Charles XII. | [3] |
| [BOOK II] | |
| Sudden and extraordinary transformation in the character of Charles XII—At the age of eighteen he carries on war with Denmark, Poland and Russia—He concludes the war with Denmark in six weeks—Beats an army of 80,000 Russians with 8,000 Swedes, and proceeds to Poland—Description of Poland and its Government—Charles wins several victories, and conquers Poland, where he makes preparations to nominate a king. | [37] |
| [BOOK III] | |
| Stanislas Leczinski chosen King of Poland—Death of the Cardinal-Primate—Great retreat of General Schullemburg—Exploits of the Czar—Foundation of Petersburg—Charles’s entry into Saxony—The peace of Altranstadt—Augustus abdicates in favour of Stanislas—General Patkul, the Czar’s plenipotentiary, is broken on the wheel, and quartered—Charles receives the ambassadors of foreign princes in Saxony—He also goes to Dresden to see Augustus before his departure. | [97] |
| [BOOK IV] | |
| Charles leaves Saxony—Pursues the Czar—Advances into Ukrania—His losses and wounds, and the battle of Pultowa—The consequences of the battle—Charles forced to escape into Turkey—His reception in Bessarabia. | [147] |
| [BOOK V] | |
| The state of the Ottoman Porte—Charles retires to Bender—His occupations—His intrigues at the Porte—His plans—Augustus restored—The King of Denmark attacks Sweden—All the King’s other territories are invaded—The Czar keeps festival at Moscow—The affair of Pruth—History of the Czarina. | [187] |
| [BOOK VI] | |
| Intrigues at the Porte—The Kan of Tartary and the Pasha of Bender try to force Charles to depart—He defends himself with forty servants against their whole army. | [229] |
| [BOOK VII] | |
| The Turks remove Charles to Demirtash—King Stanislas is seized at the same time—Bold action of M. de Villelongue—Revolutions in the seraglio—Battles in Pomerania—Altena is burnt by the Swedes—Charles returns to his kingdom—His strange method of travelling—His arrival at Stralsund—The state of Europe at that time—The losses of King Charles—The successes of Peter the Great—His triumphal entry into Petersburg. | [267] |
| [BOOK VIII] | |
| Charles marries his sister to the Prince of Hesse—He is besieged in Stralsund and escapes to Sweden—The enterprise of Baron Gortz his premier—Plans of reconciliation with the Czar—An attack on England—Charles besieges Frederickshal in Norway—He is killed—His character—Gortz is beheaded. | [301] |
| [INDEX] | [339] |
PREFATORY NOTE
“To Charles the Twelfth of Sweden I owe much of what has stood me in best stead all my life. It was nearly thirty years ago, when but a boy, that I bought his Life for a penny in the New Cut. I took it home and devoured it. It made a great impression on me. Not his wars, but the Spartan heroism of his character. He inspired me with the idea of triumphing over physical weakness, weariness and pain. To inure his body to bear all manner of hardships indifferently, to bathe in ice, or face the torrid rays of the sun, to discipline his physical powers by gymnastics, to despise the niceties of food and drink, to make his body an instrument as of tempered steel, and at the same time to have that body absolutely at the disposition of the mind, that seemed to me conduct worthy of a hero. And so, boylike, I tried to imitate him, and succeeded at least so far as to be happily indifferent to the circumstances of my personal environment.”
JOHN BURNS.
“Och än är det likt det slägte som bor