Charles XII of Sweden: The anatomy of a far-right idol

On 30 November 2018, in the Kungsträdgården park in Stockholm, neo-Nazis from the Nordic Youth group marched towards the statue of a long-dead king. The stated objective of the group was to ‘re-civilize the West’ and to resist the ‘levelling of all cultures’ — messages that have been shouted from beneath this statue, on this day of the year, for generations. Fighting promptly broke out between Nordic Youth supporters and counter-demonstrators, leading to two arrests.

The statue beside which this drama played out is of Charles XII, king of Sweden from 1697 until his death on 30 November 1718. He was the last to rule over the country during its ‘age of greatness,’ when Sweden briefly ranked among the most powerful nations in Europe. Although Charles does not feature very highly in the day-to-day consciousness of most modern Swedes, his military campaigns against Denmark, Poland and Russia still fascinate audiences through best-selling books and, more recently, video games. In 2012 he was even immortalised in four songs by the Swedish metal band Sabaton.

For well over a century, however, Charles' legacy has also been closely associated with royalist, ultra-nationalist, and racist movements — including the Swedish Nazis in the 1930s. Throughout the twentieth century, 30 November was regularly marked by press reports of…