Charles XI. had appointed a government to reign during the minority of his son, to be presided over by Queen-dowager Hedvig Eleonore. But the Estates of the Riksdag, at the request of the nobility, declared Charles XII. of age when only fifteen. The young king placed the crown upon his head with his own hands at the coronation, and took charge of the government in November, 1697. Bengt Oxenstierna remained at the head of foreign affairs as the president of the chancery, while Charles took personal interest in continuing the life work of his father, the restitution of crown lands, which still went on. Charles Piper, who had been quite active in obtaining an early majority for the king, was raised to the dignity of a count, and became one of the most influential members of the state council. Charles was not influenced by anybody in spite of his youth. He listened to what the councillors had to say, then announced his resolutions with terse independence. He refused firmly the appeals of the nobility to reduce the demands of the work of restitution. He abolished the practice of torture, in spite of the unanimous vote of the state council to the contrary. When the aged Bengt Oxenstierna was anxious to have annulled a treaty with France, already signed, the young king answered tersely: “You have heard my opinion; I am the one who signed the treaty.” Charles took, in general, little interest in foreign affairs, except those concerning Holstein, to the duke of which country his elder sister was married. The exuberant spirits of the youthful Charles found an outlet in daring exploits and plays of war. The somewhat older man, Count Arvid Bernhard Horn, the commander of the royal body-guard, took an active part in these as the most intimate comrade of the king. They went bear-hunting together, with wooden forks as their only weapon, fought naval battles with hand-spurts, made breakneck rides on horseback, etc. When the king was near being drowned in one of these “naval battles,” the only ones that Charles XII. ever fought, he was saved by Arvid Horn, who pulled him up by the hair. When Horn in some other game was badly hurt and taken ill, the king kept the night watch at his bedside. Upon the visits of Duke Frederic of Holstein, the two young princes indulged in escapades of the wildest kind, if one were to believe the reports made by the foreign ambassadors at Stockholm to their respective governments, and chiefly founded upon hearsay. His application to state affairs was almost constant and very arduous, for which reason these reports of the escapades and adventures of the youthful king are probably wild exaggerations, or mere fables.