Charles Xi

(born Nov. 24, 1655, Stockholm, Swed.—died April 5, 1697, Stockholm) King of Sweden (1660–97).

At age five he succeeded his father, Charles X Gustav, and the kingdom was ruled under a regency of aristocrats until Charles came of age in 1672. The regents drew Sweden into the Dutch War (1672–78), but Charles took control of the armies and won favorable results for Sweden by the Treaties of Nijmegen, after which he maintained a foreign policy of neutrality. Within Sweden, Charles expanded royal power at the expense of the higher nobility and established an absolutist monarchy.