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Karl XI 1655-97
King of Sweden

He was born in Stockholm, the son and successor in 1660 of Karl X Gustav. After regency rule by the nobility, he assumed power in 1672, and in 1675 helped stop a Danish invasion at Lund, winning favourable terms in the peace treaty (1679). Thereafter he followed a neutral foreign policy. He severely moderated the power of the nobility by reviving the Reduktion (repossession) of their Crown lands, and reorganized the armed forces and the administration. He was granted almost absolute monarchical power in 1693. Although shy and narrow-minded, he was abstemious and conscientious, and made bureaucratic promotion depend on merit rather than birth. He was succeeded by his adolescent son, Karl XII.