The name of the Swedish soldiers in the early 18th and late 17th centuries.
Around 1680 King Karl XI renewed the Swedish military system. He introduced a uniform in the Swedish blue and yellow. Every province now held a regiment and every village provided for one soldier. Thus the soldiers in a regiment knew and trusted each other and trained together to become a tight fighting unit.
The Karoliner were famous throughout Europe for their courage and patriotism. They were the elite soldiers of their time and often won battles three to four times outnumbered until the fateful battle of Poltava in 1709 where the Swedish suffered a horrible loss against the Russians.