Charles XI and Swedish Absolutism, 1660-1697

by A. F. Upton

Overview

The reading public outside Sweden knows little of that country's history, beyond the era in the seventeenth century when Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus became a major European power by her intervention in the Thirty Years' War. In the last decades of the seventeenth century another Swedish king, Charles XI, launched a less dramatic but remarkable bid to stabilize and secure Sweden's position as a major power in northern Europe and as master of the Baltic Sea. This book gives an account of what was achieved under the absolutist direction of a distinctly unglamorous, but pious and conscientious ruler.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521024488
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/09/2006
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Early Modern History
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: the historical background to Sweden's seventeenth-century crisis; 2. The formative years: regency and war, 1660–79; 3. The defining of the absolute monarchy; 4. The financial reconstruction; 5. The indelningswerk and the rebuilding of the armed forces; 6. The search for external security, 1679–86; 7. The consolidation of the absolutist system; 8. Completing the superstructure; 9. The royal government at work; 10. The external territories under absolutism; 11. The maturing of Charles XI's foreign policies; 12. The last years of the reign; 13. The absolutism of Charles XI; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"With this scholarly biography Upton fills a long-standing void in the literature of Swedish history in the early modern period....highly recommended for university and larger public libraries." Choice

"Upton writes clearly and well." Marc Raeff, American Historical Review

"Upton's Charles KXI is certainly the most important book on late seventeenth-century Sweden to appear in English to date." Paul Douglas Lockhart, The International History Review

"Anthony F. Upton's book builds on a thorough familiarity both with the archival material in Sweden and with the languages necessary for its use...this book, in its detailed account of one of the most extraordinary examples, provides ample evidence that no generalized model does justice to the many alternative routes to state formation." Journal of Modern History

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