Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - XIII. Reign of Charles XII, 1697–1718 - G. Charles XII in Turkey - H. Conditions in Sweden after Charles’ Return
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Sweden after Charles
9
Return 237
from capture. He boarded a small boat. All around
were Danish warships, but they paid no attention to
the little craft, and safe and unharmed Charles landed
on the shores of Skane, a year after his arrival at
Stralsund. The day after his departure the city sur-
rendered. The next year Wismar fell. Sweden had
now no land on the southern side of the Baltic.
H. CONDITIONS IN SWEDEN AFTER CHARLES’ RETURN
Complete Destitution. Peace, peace was the earnest
prayer to the king from every Swedish heart as he,
after an absence of fifteen years of dangers and adven-
tures in foreign lands, now returned home. The people
fainted under the heavy burdens of taxes and levies
of soldiers for the war. In some provinces complaints
arose, even during* the first years of the war, that only
old and decrepit men, and women and children were
left. How much worse must it have been after the
calamities of 1709 and subsequent years ! But the peo-
ple had to fill the vacant places of fallen men and cap-
tives. Many a peasant at last had no means for hiring
a substitute and had to go himself, leaving his home
and land wasted. A Hollander, who traveled from
Skane to Stockholm in 1719, expressed his astonish-
ment at what he saw. He found only old men, women,
and children serving as coachmen. "I can truthfully
say," he declared, "that I have not seen in all Sweden
any man between twenty and forty years of age, except
soldiers." To crown the calamity Sweden suffered from
failure of crops seven different times during the reign
of Charles. Large masses died of hunger. In the wake
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