CHARLES XII - KING OF SWEDEN

This beautifully majestic room is steeped in history. A history invoked at least in part through restored furniture such as the Baroque era cabinet from c. 1700, original artwork and antique parquet flooring. The bed is decorated in Swedish green, of course. The line of "Meisenheimer Wittelsbachs" was founded by Stefan I, Duke of Pfalz-Zweibrücken, who ruled Meisenheim and is buried in the local castle church. His descendants include not just all of the Bavarian kings, but also Swedish kings Charles X, Charles XI and Charles XII. Charles XII was born in Stockholm in 1682. The historical view of his reign is mixed. As a general in the grand northern war, he stood for the rise and fall of Sweden as a major European power. When Meisenheim belonged to Sweden — or, as the Meisenheimers like to think about it: Sweden belonged to Meisenheim — the duchy was administered in exemplary fashion by a series of governors. Charles himself never visited Meisenheim, although his protégé Stanislaus Leszczynski, the Polish king in exile, visited this town on the Glan several times. His festivals remain legendary even today. Charles XII died in 1718 during the siege of Fredrikshald.