2025-05-12
1 小时 4 分钟Thank you for listening to The Rest Is History.
For weekly bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to series,
and membership of our much-loved chat community, go to therestishistory.com and join the club.
That is therestishistory.com.
On what foundation stands the warrior's pride?
How just his hopes let Swedish Charles decide.
A frame of adamant, a soul of fire.
No dangers fright him and no labours tire.
Her love, her fear extends his wide domain.
Unconquered lord of pleasure and of pain.
No joys to him Pacific scepters yield.
War sounds the trump.
He rushes to the field.
behold surrounding kings their power to combine and one capitulate and one resign peace courts his hand but spreads her charms in vain think nothing gained he cries till naught remain on moscow's walls till gothic standards fly and all be mine beneath the polar sky so that was dr samuel johnson the greatest Englishman of all time in his poem,
The Vanity of Human Wishes, which was published in 1749.
Swedish Charles, the hero of that splendid passage,
is not just the supreme antagonist of Peter the Great,
a worthy rival to the theme of our ongoing series,
but one of the most charismatic and extraordinary characters in all of European history.
So he is the king of Sweden and he is a magnetic, terrifying, swashbuckling, obsessive oddball,