With Gods help? A qualitative study of Carolean's perceptions about the Great Northern War and Charles XII The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what perceptions Charles XII’s Caroleans had about him, the Great Northern War and how these perceptions changed during the war. There is also an underlying ambition to show how these perceptions differ. The underlying issues for the thesis are thus: - What perceptions/opinions describes the Caroleans of Charles XII as a person and leader? - What perceptions are described about the war as a whole? - In what way do perceptions concerning loyalty and hopes change during the war? The theoretical point of departure of the thesis is briefly the fatalistic beliefs and image of the King as the elect of God. A majority of the Swedish army was characterized by this approach and based their experiences and values on it to varying degrees. The methodology in which the essay's research is based on are threefold and consists of narrative diary analysis, microhistory and mentality history. The study is based on a source material composed of six diaries from six of Karl XII’s Caroleans with varying positions. Based on analyzes of these diaries, each individual’s experiences and perceptions have been distinguished and reported. The conclusion of this result is that all of the mentioned Caroleans hulded a great respect for the king and saw him to varying degrees as a role model and the election of God. As the result shows they did not hold him personally responsible for the end of the war, likely due to the fatalistic beliefs that’s already mentioned. Perceptions of the war in whole occur to some extent but not to the extent expected. From this point of view, the chosen Caroleans were fairly value-free. During the war, one can clearly see that perceptions and hopes changed. This change is strictly linked to the Swedes pros and cons in the war.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hj-40659 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Svensson, Johannes |
| Publisher | Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, Högskolan i Jönköping, HLK, Ämnesforskning |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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