THE EAST AND THE NORTH 307 supreme in spiritual as in secular matters. But his grand object was to establish himself on the Baltic and to create a naval power, ends which could only be compassed at the expense of Sweden. He had got his starting-point for naval training when he secured Azof on the Black Sea from the Turks. Sweden was in possession of nearly all the territories washed by the Baltic; but the populations, Swedish by conquest only, were hostile to the Swedish rule. Poland, Branden- Sweden : burg, and Denmark were all hungering to recover Charles XII. what Sweden had robbed them of. In 1697 a boy of fifteen had just ascended the Swedish throne. Peter found his oppor- tunity for an alliance with Poland for the partition of the Baltic provinces. They were joined by Frederick of Denmark, whose desire to annex Holstein was blocked by Sweden. In viewing this combination, however, we must note first the absence of Brandenburg, whose elector, Frederick, was a less enterprising person than his father Frederick William ; and, secondly, that the people of Poland and the King of Poland were a long way from being in harmony. The great John Sobieski was dead, and the Poles had chosen for their king Augustus, the Elector of Saxony, who wished to make himself an absolute monarch — the main object of every prince at this time — whereas the Polish con- stitution designed that the king should be merely a figure-head. In 1700 Denmark was on the point of opening the attack on Holstein. The Swedish council of regency was alarmed at the coalition, and would have conceded everything successes of to everybody, if young Charles himself had not Charles, grasped the reins of government by a coup-d'etat. Before three months had passed he had struck at Copenhagen, and com- pelled the King of Denmark to retire from the coalition. Riga, attacked by Augustus of Poland, successfully defied the assailant, and Charles with supreme audacity flung himself with a small body of troops on the Russian hosts which had collected at Narva on the Gulf of Finland. The Russians, as yet wholly inexperienced and undisciplined, were scattered; and Charles proceeded to sweep the King of Poland's Saxon troops out of Livonia. Then he made the mistake of disregarding Russia and attacking Poland, demanding the deposition of King
