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King Charles XII of Sweden is one of those immensely impressive and tragic men who were in the wrong place at the wrong time and are forever associated with failure, rather like Neville Chamberlain.
His defeat at Poltava by Peter the Great meant Sweden ceased to be a great power that dominated much of Europe and Russia became one, all because of Charles XII's fateful decision to invade Russia (in fact what is now Ukraine).
His war, unlike Trump’s with Iran, seemed to serve his country's interests but like Trump's it was a war of choice and like Trump’s it was absolutely disastrous.
Unlike Trump Charles XII was a heroic man who understood well the science of war.
Had he taken Moscow.... but Napoleon did and little good it did him.
Russia is too big to defeat.
So thankfully is Iran.
As Trump has learnt too late.
IMHO will be remembered more for how a supposed Ally completely manipulated Pax Americana for its own ends, bringing about the end of post-WW2 consensus politics.
ReplyDeletePaul Wood is spot on. Some people never learn …
ReplyDeleteCharles XII was an impressive soldier, but didn't see the bigger picture clearly. Sweden and Denmark often had kings who were too eager to start wars. Most of the commoners had little enthusiasm for fighting, and sometimes Danish and Swedish farmers were in cahoots, sabotaging the war efforts.
ReplyDeleteI kept thinking you meant Charles X of France, King of the Ultras. Only Charles XII I could think of was the Poltava guy.
ReplyDeleteNo, I do not foresee The Donald starting any wars, least of all against a Russian Chief Magistrate who stands 6'9", sputters Tourettes-style grunts, and enjoys torturing his son to death with the knout and wheel.
D J Trump is more along the lines of Teddy Roosevelt, apart from Teddy's lack of longevity, love of cavalry horses and uniforms, and gut-wrenching horror when he realized that the bumptious young Churchill, known mostly from newsreels, had modeled his whole public self and career on the flamboyant style and performance of T.R. himself, the genuine article.
Now I shall turn to the Torygraph and see if Charles Moore endorses a similar view.
The interesting thing about Charles the 12th is that, in his own time, he was so famous that he had, in Diderot's encyclopedia, practically more lines devoted to him than almost any other monarch. He was apparently well regarded throughout Europe for his sort of fighting prowess. He was very brave, fighting at the head of his army always and defeating his much larger enemies one by one, but was mesmerized by the possibility of taking over Russia and failed.
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