, he had five
children, including Gustavus Adolphus and Charles Philip, duke of
Finland.

See _Sveriges Historia_, vol. iii. (Stockholm, 1878); Robert Nisbet
Bain, _Scandinavia_ (Cambridge, 1905), caps. 5-7. (R. N. B.)

CHARLES X. [CHARLES GUSTAVUS] (1622-1660), king of Sweden, son of John
Casimir, count palatine of Zweibrucken, and Catherine, sister of
Gustavus Adolphus, was born at Nykoping Castle on the 8th of November
1622. He learnt the art of war under the great Lennart Torstensson,
being present at the second battle of Breitenfeld and at Jankowitz. From
1646 to 1648 he frequented the Swedish court. It was supposed that he
would marry the queen regnant, Christina, but her unsurmountable
objection to wedlock put an end to these anticipations, and to
compensate her cousin for a broken half-promise she declared him (1649)
her successor, despite the opposition of the senate headed by the
venerable Axel Oxenstjerna. In 1648 he was appointed generalissimo of
the Swedish forces in Germany. The conclusion of the treaties of
Westphalia prevented him from winning the military laurels he so
ardently desired, but as the Swedish plenipotentiary at the executive
congress of Nuremberg, he had unrivalled opportunities of learning
diplomacy, in which science he speedily became a past-master. As the
recognized heir to the throne, his position on his return to Sweden was
not without danger, for the growing discontent with the queen turned the
eyes of thousands to him as a possible deliverer. He therefore withdrew
to the isle of Oland till the abdication of Christina (June 5, 1654)
called him to the throne.

The beginning of his reign was devoted to the healing of domestic
discords, and the rallying of all the forces of the nation round his
standard for a new policy of conquest. He contracted a political
marriage (Oct. 24, 1654) with Hedwig Leonora, the daughter of Frederick
III., duke of Holstein-Gottorp, by way of securing a future ally against
Denmark. The two great pressing national questions, war and the
restitution of the alienated crown lands, were duly considered at the
_Riksdag_ which assembled at Stockholm in March 1655. The war question
was decided in three days by a secret committee presided over by the
king, who easily persuaded the delegates that a war with Poland was
necessary and might prove very advantageous; but the consideration of
the question of the subsidies due to the crown for military purpose