Editing Charles XII of Sweden (section)

==Death==
[[File:CharlesXIIAutopsy1916.jpg|thumb|left|From the [[autopsy]] of Charles XII, July 1917<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-blazing-career-and-mysterious-death-of-the-swedish-meteor-39695356/|title=The Blazing Career and Mysterious Death of 'The Swedish Meteor'|last=Dash|first=Mike|magazine=Smithsonian|access-date=24 December 2017|language=en|archive-date=8 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211008101925/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-blazing-career-and-mysterious-death-of-the-swedish-meteor-39695356/|url-status=live}}</ref>]]

While in the trenches close to the perimeter of the fortress on 30 November (11 December [[Adoption of the Gregorian calendar|New Style]]), 1718, Charles was struck in the head by a projectile and killed. The shot struck the left side of his skull and exited from the right. He died instantly.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.peterenglund.com/textarkiv/mordslumpskott.htm |title=Välkommen till Peter Englund |access-date=10 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005011236/http://www.peterenglund.com/textarkiv/mordslumpskott.htm |archive-date=5 October 2013 }}</ref>

The definitive circumstances around Charles's death remain unclear. Despite multiple investigations of the battlefield, Charles's skull and his clothes, it is not known where and when he was hit, or whether the shot came from the ranks of the enemy or from his own men.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/kolumnister/hermanlindqvist/article12156251.ab?partner=www|last=Lindqvist|first=Herman|title=Karl XII:s död ger inte forskarna någon ro|date=29 November 2009|newspaper=Aftonbladet|access-date=26 February 2012|archive-date=8 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140308092106/http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/kolumnister/hermanlindqvist/article12156251.ab?partner=www|url-status=live}}</ref> There are several hypotheses as to how Charles died, though none have strong enough evidence to be deemed true. Although there were many people around the king at the time of his death, there were no known witnesses to the actual moment he was hit. A likely explanation has been that Charles was killed by [[Dano-Norwegian]]s as he was within reach of their guns.<ref name=SMITH /> There are two possibilities that are usually cited: that he was killed by a [[musket]] shot, or that he was killed by [[grapeshot]] from the nearby fortress.

More theories claim he was assassinated: one is that the killer was a Swedish compatriot and asserts that enemy guns were not firing at the time Charles was struck.<ref name=SMITH /> Suspects in this claim range from a nearby soldier tired of the [[siege]] and wanting to put an end to the war, to an assassin hired by Charles's own brother-in-law, who profited from the event by subsequently taking the throne himself as [[Frederick I of Sweden]], that person being Frederick's aide-de-camp, [[André Sicre]]. Sicre confessed during what was claimed to be a state of delirium brought on by fever but later recanted.<ref name=SMITH>{{cite magazine| title=Past Imperfect| author=Mike Dash| magazine=Smithsonian Magazine| url=http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2012/09/the-blazing-career-and-mysterious-death-of-the-swedish-meteor/| date=17 September 2012| access-date=25 September 2012| archive-date=28 August 2016| archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20160828170810/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-blazing-career-and-mysterious-death-of-the-swedish-meteor-39695356/| url-status=live}}</ref> Others suspect a plot to kill Charles by a group of wealthy Swedes who would benefit from blocking a 17% wealth tax that Charles intended to introduce.<ref name=SMITH /> The [[Varberg Fortress]] museum displays a lead-filled brass button of Swedish origin that some claim was the projectile that killed the king.

Another odd account of Charles's death comes from Finnish writer Carl Nordling, who states that the king's surgeon, Melchior Neumann, dreamed the king had told him that he was not shot from the fortress but from "one who came creeping".<ref name=SMITH />

[[File:Carl XII of Sweden grave 2007.jpg|thumb|Charles XII's sarcophagus in Riddarholmen Church, Stockholm]]

Charles's body has been exhumed on three occasions to ascertain the cause of death; in 1746, 1859 and 1917.<ref name=SMITH /> The 1859 exhumation found that the wound was in accordance with a shot from the Norwegian fort. In 1917, his head was photographed and x-rayed. [[Peter Englund]] asserted in his essay "On the death of Charles XII and other murders<ref>Förflutenhetens landskap ("The Landscape of Times Past") (1991), collection of essays, pp. 126–129.</ref>" that the mortal wound sustained by the King, with a smaller exit wound than entry wound, would be consistent with being hit by a bullet with a speed not exceeding 150&nbsp;m/s, concluding that Charles was killed by stray grapeshot from the nearby fortress. A 2022 study by the [[University of Oulu]] and the [[University of Helsinki]] also found that iron grapeshot was likely to have killed the king, citing evidence from ballistic experiments as well as the absence of lead fragments in Charles's skull.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://yle.fi/a/74-20005744 | title=Tutkijat ratkaisivat yli 300 vuotta vanhan mysteerin: Kaarle XII ei kuollutkaan omien luodista, vaan vihollisen ampumana | date=23 November 2022 | access-date=23 November 2022 | archive-date=23 November 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221123143610/https://yle.fi/a/74-20005744 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=juho22>{{cite journal|author=Juho-Antti Junno|display-authors=et. al.|title=The death of King Charles XII of Sweden revisited|journal=PNAS Nexus|date=November 2022|volume=1|issue=5|page=pgac234 |doi=10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac234|pmid=36712377 |pmc=9802245 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Charles was succeeded to the Swedish throne by his sister, [[Ulrika Eleonora]]. As his duchy of [[Palatine Zweibrücken]] required a male heir, Charles was succeeded as ruler there by his cousin [[Gustav, Duke of Zweibrücken|Gustav Leopold]]. [[Georg Heinrich von Görtz]], Charles's minister, was beheaded in 1719.