In the last decades of the seventeenth century Swedish king Charles XI, launched a remarkable bid to stabilize and secure Sweden's position as a major power in northern Europe and as master of the Baltic Sea. This project, which is almost unknown to students of history outside Sweden, involved a comprehensive overhaul of the government and institutions of the kingdom, on the basis of establishing Sweden as a model of absolute monarchy. This book gives an account of what was achieved under the direction of a distinctly unglamorous, but pious and conscientious ruler who was convinced of his Christian duty to secure the welfare of his kingdom and the subjects God had placed in his care.