300 years ago today, on 30 November 1718, the last great Swedish King, Charles XII was killed.

He succeeded to the Throne at the age of 14 in 1697 and within three years was faced with a major conflict, the Great Northern War. Sweden had been gradually expanding at the expense of her neighbours, so in 1700 they jointly declared war to end Sweden's dominance. However Charles proved a superb war leader and by 1706 had defeated all but Russia. But Peter the Great's Russia proved too tough a nut to crack and in 1709 Charles was heavily defeated at the battle of Poltava (in modern Ukraine). He fled into exile in Turkey only returning home in 1714. He resumed the war, but died at the siege of Fredriksheld in Norway which was then ruled by Denmark.

The manner of his death is the main point here. He died, aged 36, from a head wound, but debate has raged over who fired the fatal shot. The most likely explanation is that he was killed by a musket shot from the beseiged fortress, but there has been speculation that he was killed by "friendly fire" or even assassinated by someone sick of the 18 year long war. In 1917 his body was exhumed and examined to determine, if possible, the nature of his death. The cause is obvious from the photograph below and experts decided that it was most likely gunfire from the fortress that ended his life.

He was succeeded by his sister Ulrika Eleanora who had no stomach for a continuation of the war and made peace with her country's enemies giving up much territory, Sweden's era of dominance in the north was over.