Twice a year the whole city was
flooded by the Neva. But the terrific will-power of the Tsar
created dykes and canals and the floods ceased to do harm.
When Peter died in 1725 he was the owner of the largest city
in northern Europe.
Of course, this sudden growth of so dangerous a rival had
been a source of great worry to all the neighbours. From his
side, Peter had watched with interest the many adventures of
his Baltic rival, the kingdom of Sweden. In the year 1654,
Christina, the only daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, the hero
of the Thirty Years War, had renounced the throne and had
gone to Rome to end her days as a devout Catholic. A Protestant
nephew of Gustavus Adolphus had succeeded the last
Queen of the House of Vasa. Under Charles X and Charles
XI, the new dynasty had brought Sweden to its highest point
of development. But in 1697, Charles XI died suddenly and
was succeeded by a boy of fifteen, Charles XII.
This was the moment for which many of the northern states
had waited. During the great religious wars of the seventeenth
century, Sweden had grown at the expense of her neighbours.
The time had come, so the owners thought, to balance the account.
At once war broke out between Russia, Poland, Denmark
and Saxony on the one side, and Sweden on the other.
The raw and untrained armies of Peter were disastrously beaten
by Charles in the famous battle of Narva in November of
the year 1700.
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