Charles XI of Sweden has complained about…

Charles XI of Sweden has complained about stomach pains since 1694.

He had in the summer of 1696 asked his doctors for an opinion on the pain that had gotten continuously worse, but they had no viable cure or treatment for it.

He continues to perform his duties as usual, but, in February 1697, the pains had become too severe for him to cope and he had to return to Stockholm where the doctors discover a big hard lump in his stomach.

At this point, there is little the doctors can do except to alleviate the King’s pain as best they can.

Charles dies on April 5, 1697, in his forty-first year.

An autopsy shows that the King had contracted cancer, and that it had spread through the entire abdominal cavity.

His fifteen-year-old son succeeds him as Charles XII.

Like all kings, Charles is styled by a royal title, which combines all his titles into one single phrase.

This is: We Charles, by the Grace of God King of Sweden, the Goths and the Vends, Grand Prince of Finland, Duke of Estonia and Karelia, Lord of Ingria, Duke of Bremen, Verden and Pomerania, Prince of Rügen and Lord of Wismar, and also Count Palatine by the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, Count of Zweibrücken–Kleeburg, as well as Duke of Jülich, Cleve and Berg, Count of Veldenz, Spanheim and Ravensberg and Lord of Ravenstein.

The fact that Charles is crowned as Charles XII does not mean that he is the twelfth king of Sweden by that name.

Swedish kings Erik XIV (1560–1568) and Charles IX (1604–1611) had given themselves numerals after studying a mythological history of Sweden.

He is actually the sixth King Charles.

(The non-mathematic numbering tradition continues with the current King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf, being counted as the equivalent of Charles XVI.)