One More Button / This week with Entrecard July 26th to August 1st, 2010

- July 31, 2010

Portrait of Charles XII of Sweden from Wikkipedia

This week ABC-Wednesday has the letter 'B'. For my 'B-post' I have shown a portion of my collection of beads and buttons, as well as featured two blogging jewelley-artists that make beautiful pieces with both beads and buttons. A post that appeals more to women than to men.

Painting of battle from Wikkipedia

This is why I am adding an extra button that may be of interest to all of you boys out there and history-buffs: My extra button is a button-bullet, that is believed to have killed the Swedish king, Charles XII (1682-1718). There has been a long debate about who actually killed this king. Was it the enemy's that shot him in the battle of Fredrikshald in 1718, or was it one of his own? To look at what Wikipedia has on this subject please click here.

This is a painting from the National Gallery of Art in Stockholm. Photo from Wikkipedia

This picture depicts the body of Charles XII being carried home to Sweden.

According to popular belief at that time, Charles XII was immune to bullets; He was considered to be protected by Divine Powers, and that only something that belonged to him, such as a button from one of his uniforms, could kill him. According to this button-bullet-theory a soldier named Nordenstierna saw Charles XI get shot and picked up the bullet that had gone through the king's head. Nordenstierna found that the bullet was made from a button from one of Charles XII own uniforms. At first Nordenstierna kept the button-bullet, but then later threw in a gravel pit, for fear of being cursed. The button-bullet was miracleously found in 1924 and left to Varberg's Museum in 1932. In 2002 it was analysed for DNA to see if blood traces were the same as on a pair of gloves that had the king's blood stains on it. The DNA tests showed that the button-bullet in Varberg's museum could be the bullet that killed Charles XII.
This would seem to support the idea that CharlesXII was assassinated by one of his own, but the experts are still not in agreement on this point.

To read more about the button-bullet that ended the life of Charles XII (in English here) (in Swedish here).
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Monday, July 26th - Sara Cat writes / Sara Katt skriver