Remnants from a Glorious Carousel

On 18th December 1672 the 17-year-old Karl XI ascended to the Swedish throne. The occasion was celebrated with several days’ festivities organized by the architect Nicodemus Tessin the Elder and the artist David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl. The climax of the celebration was the carousel at the Tilt-Yard (Rännarbanan). Ehrenstrahl was also commissioned to immortalize the proceedings. His drawings were transferred to copperplate by Georg Christoph Eimmart in Nuremberg and printed 1685 by Georg Eberdt in Stockholm. The prints show the splendour of the carousel; the remnants from it are kept in the Royal Armoury.

The carousel was a competition arranged in forehand with four quadrilles (teams): the Geats, the Turks, the Poles and Other European Powers. The Geats, forebearers to the Swedes and contemporary to the Roman Empire, were dressed in Roman garb. Most possibly because dressing in animal fur and coarse wool was not perceived as elegant as shining brass cuirasses and flying colours. The tournament revolved around King Karl XI who, in the guise of a Geat-Roman Emperor, succeeded in uniting the Poles and the Other European Powers against the Turks.

Thus passes the glory of the world. Most of the objects relating to King Karl's carousel are now gone forever, disintegrated and turned into historical dust. Karl XI’s reign began in full baroque splendour. In history books, however, he is often referred to as “Grey Cloak” because of his frugal ways and, allegedly, for his habit of riding alone through his kingdom in a grey cloak talking to his subjects.