The Many Swedish Wars - 1700s

A Summary of the Great Northern War 1700 - 1721

The Great Northern War - Introduction

Map, the Swedish borders before the war When King Karl XI of Sweden died in 1697 he had introduced the New Allotment System (Det yngre indelningsverket) and rearmed the Swedish armed forces. The soldiers were well trained and well equipped. The Swedish Army was at this time probably the best army in Europe. When the 15-year-old Karl XII became the new sovereign of Sweden he was in command of a perfect military machine. In Russia, Peter the Great was the new tsar. In Poland, August, Elector of Saxony, had been elected new king of Poland and in Denmark Frederik IV had been crowned as a new king. Karl XII, Frederik IV and August II was by the way, cousins. The picture to the right shows King Karl XII of Sweden.

Pact of aggression against Sweden

Russia, Poland and Denmark formed a pact of aggression against Sweden. They were all after Swedish territory. Russia was after the Baltic coast, Poland wanted Livland (a Swedish Baltic province) and Denmark wanted to regain the Skåne provinces in south of Sweden. So, in August 1698 Peter the Great and August of Saxony made plans of a pact of aggression against Sweden. In July 1699 Denmark and Russia signed the pact and in September 1699 Denmark and Poland. Finally, in November 1699, Russia and Poland signed the pact of aggression. At this time Sweden had an alliance with England and the Netherlands. The tension between Sweden and Denmark increased in 1697 when Danish forces destroyed fortifications in Holstein-Gottorp, Northern Germany. Holstein-Gottorp was an allied of Sweden and Sweden sent a force of 2,400 soldiers from Wismar and Bremen, two Swedish provinces in northern Germany, to rebuild the fortifications. Strengthened by the pact of aggression, Denmark started to be more and more aggressive towards Holstein-Gottorp. In February 1700, August of Saxony attacked Swedish Livland with troops from Saxony. In March 1700, when Frederik IV got information on this, he launched an attack on Holstein-Gottorp. Sweden answered by sending a force of 17,000 soldiers to Holstein-Gottorp, 7,000 Swedes and 10,000 soldiers from Lüneburg. Karl XII decided to deal with Denmark before he turned on August of Saxony/Poland.

The War with Denmark

In June 1700 the Swedish Navy set sail. Together with navy units from England and Netherlands, the Danish Navy was forced to stay in port. Sweden, Lüneburg, England and the Netherlands were there to guarantee the independence of Holstein-Gottorp. On July 25, 1700, Sweden landed a force at Humlebäck, Denmark, just north of Copenhagen on Zealand. The landing area was soon in Swedish hands and the force was extended to 10,000 soldiers. Karl XII planned to attack Copenhagen but King Frederik IV of Denmark immediately initiated peace talks. Denmark was forced to peace and the peace treaty was signed in Traventhal on August 18, 1700. Karl XII wanted to attack Copenhagen before any peace talks, however both England and the Netherlands were against that. In the peace treaty Denmark was forced to leave the pact of aggression against Sweden. See detailed map plus a map of Skåne/Zealand. August of Saxony/Poland had to use soldiers from Saxony when he attacked Livland since the Polish parliament didn’t allow him to use Polish soldiers in the war. The Polish parliament believed the war with Sweden was a personal war for August. In May 1700, a Swedish relief force arrived to Livland from Finland with 3,200 soldiers. This force had no problem to drive the soldiers of August out of Livland. During the summer of 1700, August returned to Livland with an army of 18,000 men and occupied the Swedish province and besieged the city Riga.

The War with Russia and the Battle of Narva on November 20, 1700

In September 1700, Karl XII received information that also Russia had broken the peace and had made an attack on Swedish Finland and Ingermanland. In October the city of Narva in Estonia was besieged by an Russian force of 30,000 – 35,000 men. The Swedish garrison at Narva still held the fortress and the city. With this fact in hand, King Karl XII of Sweden decided to deal with Russia before August of Saxony/Poland. A Swedish force of 8,000 soldiers was shipped to Pernau in the Baltic region (present day Estonia). The force was there extended to 11,000 soldiers. Instead of waiting for reinforcements, Karl XII immediately started the march towards Narva. On November 20 1700, the Swedish force of 11,000 soldiers attacked the Russian army in Narva of more then 30,000 Russian soldiers in the battle of Narva. Despite the disadvantage of being outnumbered by the Russians, the Swedes won a splendid victory. After the battle the Swedes camped for the winter at Dorpat. During the winter the Swedish field army in the Baltic was extended to 18,000 men. King Karl XII now had to decide whether to go directly to Moscow or to go south and first deal with August II. Karl XII decided for August and Poland.

The War with Poland and Saxony

On July 9, 1701 the Swedes crossed the Düna river. On the south side of the river August and his 20,000 strong army waited. Also this battle was a splendid Swedish victory. After the battle the Swedes occupied the whole of Kurland and the road to Warsaw was now fully open. The following years included many campaigns in Poland. The purpose of Karl XII was to force the Polish to remove August from the throne of Poland and the Swedish king succeeded in doing so. Since Poland now was under attack by the Swedes, August got permission to use the Polish army in the war. The Swedes began occupying Poland in 1702 and in May, Warsaw was in Swedish hands. The Polish were reluctant to remove August from the throne, which resulted in many years of war. In the beginning of 1704, Poland gave up and August was removed from the throne. On July 2, 1704 the Swedish candidate Stanislav Leczinski was elected new King of Poland and on September 24, 1705 he was officially crowned. The Swedes were thereby satisfied and prepared to sign a peace treaty with Poland. The treaty was signed on November 17, 1705 in Warsaw. See detailed map. Saxony: However the chase for August wasn’t over. On February 3, 1706 the Swedish army defeated an army from Saxony at the Battle of Fraustadt. During the summer of 1706, Karl XII decided to cross the border to Saxony to force August to give up all plans of the Polish throne. This had effect and August surrendered. A peace treaty between Sweden and Saxony was signed on September 14, 1706 in Altranstädt. In the peace treaty August was forced to give up all plans of the Polish throne and agreed not to participate in any wars against Sweden. The Swedes didn’t leave Saxony until 1707. See detailed map.

The War with Russia

Se detailed map. Now it was time to deal with Russia, the last of the enemies in the pact of aggression. The Swedish march eastwards begun during the fall of 1707. At this time the Swedish field army in Poland counted 35,000 soldiers. About 24,000 of them were horsemen. Roughly 11,000 soldiers were left in Poland for protection of king Stanislav. One way of dealing with the Russians would have been to return to the Swedish provinces in the Baltic and remove the Russians from those areas and then turn to Moscow. However, Karl XII decided to directly go for Moscow.

1708

During 1708 the march to Moscow continued. On June 30 1708 the Swedish army met up with the Russian main army in the Battle of Holowczyn. Although only a part of the Swedish army had arrived at Holowczyn, Karl XII decided to attack. The battle ended with a Swedish victory. The Swedish cavalry carried out a splendid battle and had a lot to do with the victory. After this battle the Russians avoided any further battles and withdrew as soon as the Swedes approached them. However, the Russians constantly irritated the Swedish army by small-scale attacks and ambushes. As the Russians retreated, they burnt all villages and fields to make it more difficult for the Swedes to obtain supplies etc. During the summer of 1708, the Swedish general Adam Ludvig Lewenhaupt, governor of Livland, received orders to pick 11,000 men from the Swedish force in Livland and join the Swedish field army. During the march to Karl XII and the field army, the Russians attacked the Lewenhaupt force on September 29, 1708 in Ljesnaja. The attack was a ambush and a very bloody battle with a lot of casualties on both sides. After a 4th attack the Swedes had to withdraw. However all the artillery and the supplies had to be left behind, supplies that was badly needed by the filed army. At the end of August 1708, King Karl XII decided to change the route and go south to Ukraine to get in contact with Ivan Mazepa and his Cossacks and to get him join the Swedes in the war against Russia. During the very cold winter of 1708/09 the Swedes went into winter camp in the northern parts of Ukraine. The supply situation was very bad for the Swedes.

1709

In April 1709 the Swedes besieged the city of Poltava. In the fortress of the city there was a Russian garrison. The Swedish field army didn’t count more then 25,000 soldiers at this point. In the middle of June King Karl XII had a gun wound when he was hit at the foot by a Russian sniper. At the end of June a Russian army of 40,000 soldiers was arriving at the scene. On June 28, 1709, the Swedish army attacked the camp of the Russian army just north of Poltava. The Swedish army had been outnumbered in lots of battles, so being outnumbered this time didn’t bother them. The Battle of Poltava turned out to be a very bloody battle. In reality it was two battles on the very same day. Due to Karl XII:s wound, the command of the army was handed over to General Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld. The so victorious Swedish army was finally defeated at Poltava. Circa 6,900 Swedish soldiers were killed in the battle. About 2,760 soldiers were taken prisoner of war. In total 9.600 soldiers were lost for the Swedish army in the battle. The Russians lost 1.345 in dead soldiers and 3,290 were wounded. The Swedish losses in the battle were tremendous. The Swedish cavalry was more or less intact; it was the infantry that had the greatest losses. Poltava on the map. After the battle the Swedish army retired to Perovolotjno. This was next to the Dneper river. During the night to July 1, King Karl and a few thousand soldiers crossed the river and headed for Bender in Turkey. At Perovolotjno, general Lewenhaupt was in charge of the remaining Swedish field army. During the day of July 1, 1709, parts of the Russian army approached Perovolotjno. Against given order, general Lewenhaupt surrenders to the Russians. About 16,000 Swedish soldiers were taken prisoners of war. A whole army ceased to exist. This was a tremendous blow to Sweden. The Swedish defeat at Poltava had far-reaching consequences for Sweden. Both Denmark and August of Saxony/Poland now saw a chance when the Swedes had been defeated at Poltava. On August 8, 1709 Denmark once again declared war on Sweden. Also in August, August of Saxony crossed the Polish border with his army. Once in Poland he was accepted as new King of Poland and declared war on Sweden. In November, the Danes landed a force of 14,000 soldiers in Skåne. In Sweden a new army was raised and General Stenbock takes on the Danes in Skåne. On February 28, 1710 the Swedes defeated the Danish army in Skåne at the Battle of Helsingborg. After the battle the Danes evacuated their forces in Skåne. Instead the Danes concentrated on the Swedish provinces in northern Germany. See detailed map.

1712

In 1712 Stenbock shipped his army to Germany to liberate the occupied Swedish possessions there. On December 9, 1712 Stenbock defeated a combined army of soldiers from Denmark and Saxony in the Battle of Gadebuch. After the battle the Swedes moved north to the fortress at Tönningen in Holstein-Gottorp. The enemy besieged the fortress and due to hunger and diseases the Swedes had to surrender on May 5, 1713. This was the second Swedish army during a short period that was lost for the Swedes. Once again new regiments had to be recruited. In 1710, the last of the Swedish possessions the Baltic; Viborg, Riga, Reval and Pernau, were lost to the Russians. During 1713, the Russians attacked Finland and in 1714 Finland was in the hands of the Russians.

1715

In June 1715, Prussia declared war on Sweden, attacked Pommern and besieged Stralsund. The attacking Prussian army counted 50,000 soldiers. King Karl XII had at this time left Bender and was now in Stralsund. However, the King left Stralsund just in time before the city capitulated. In October 1715, also Hanover declared war on Sweden. See detailed map. Back in Sweden, Karl XII planned for counter-moves. One move was to attack the Danish Norway. The attack on Norway was launched on February 18, 1716. The attack was difficult due to very bad snowstorms and in April the campaign was terminated. During 1716, the last of the Swedish possessions in Northern Germany falls into the hands of the enemy.

1718

During 1717 Karl XII planned for another attack on Norway. One of the purposes of the attack was the get a hold on Denmark in the coming peace negotiations. In August 1718 the attack was launched on two fronts. One attack went from the Swedish provinces Värmland/Dalsland into Norway and one went from Jämtland into the Trondheim County in Norway. General Carl Gustav Armfeldt was in charge of the northern attack, the one from Jämtland. King Karl XII was killed in action on November 30, 1718 at the Fredrikshald fortress and the whole Norwegian campaign was terminated. The northern retreat from Trondheim County was done over the mountains between Norway and Sweden during the New Year Eve / New Years Day 1718/1719 in a very cold and heavy snowstorm. A very large number of soldiers froze to death on the mountains that night. The picture to the right is Gustav Cederström's painting from 1878: The Last Journey of King Karl XII of Sweden. After the death of King Karl XII, his sister Ulrika Eleonora was elected on February 23, 1719 new sovereign of Sweden as Queen Ulrika Eleonora. The plan of Sweden was now to get peace with all its enemies, except the Russians. Then the idea was to get an alliance with England in order to get better terms in the peace negotiations with Russia. Also Russia is looking for peace, but since the Swedes was delaying the peace talks, Russia sent their galley fleet to Sweden to ravage the Swedish coast. This was done to set pressure on Sweden and get the Swedes willing to peace talks. The Russians burned many coast towns. On August 13, 1719 at Södra Stäket, just south of Stockholm, the Swedish Södermanland Regiment stopped a Russian landing attack. The Danish fleet operated on the Swedish west coast. With diplomacy, England forced Denmark to stop their operation on Swedish waters. On October 28, 1719 Sweden signed an armistice with Denmark for 6 months. On November 9, 1719 a peace treaty was signed in Stockholm between Sweden and Hanover. In the treaty, Sweden had to give up the provinces Bremen and Verden in northern Germany. See detailed map. On February 29, 1720 the Swedish Queen Ulrika Eleonora abdicated in benefit of her husband, Fredrik av Hessen. As a new king he received the name King Fredrik I. On January 21, 1720 a peace treaty was signed in Stockholm between Sweden and Prussia. In the treaty, Sweden had to give up an area in southern Pommern, more exactly, the land south of river Peene and east of river Oder plus the islands Usedom and Wollin. See detailed map plus map of Pommern. On June 3, 1720 in Stockholm, Sweden finally signed a peace treaty with Denmark. According to the treaty, Sweden had to give up the exemption from duty at the sound between Sweden and Denmark. Sweden also had to pay a 600,000 riksdaler to Denmark. The peace treaty was a disappointment to Denmark who had hoped to regain the Skåne provinces from Sweden. However, England was an allied of Sweden and forced Denmark to accept the terms. Also during the summer of 1720 Russian galleys were ravaging the Swedish coast. On July 27, 1720 the Swedish navy came a cross a Russian galley fleet at the Åland islands between Finland and Sweden. The Russian galleys were badly damaged in the battle and had to retreat to Russia. The Swedish and Finnish coastlines are filled with thousands and thousands of islands. In most cases these waters between the islands are narrow and very shallow. The big navy ships of the line were too big and too deep draught to pursue the galleys into shallow waters through the narrow channels of the archipelago of Swedish waters. However, Galleys couldn’t engage large navy ships in battle on the open sea. But, with hardly any wind in coastal waters galleys could attack a navy ship and win the battle if they attacked from behind. During 1720 England sent a navy fleet to the disposal of the Swedes. This strengthening of the Swedish fleet was to remain for the rest of the war. On August 30, 1721, a peace treaty finally was signed in Nystad between Sweden and Russia. The treaty ended the Great Northern War. In the peace treaty Sweden had to give up all possessions in the Baltic; Ingermanland, Livland and Estonia including the islands Ösel and Dagö. Further, Sweden lost Viborg County and the southern part of Kexholm County, both in the southeastern part of Finland. See detailed map There were no formal peace treaties between Sweden and Poland / Saxony. However, on April 28, 1729 the war formally ended with Saxony when Sweden and Saxony signed a declaration of friendship. A similar declaration was signed with Poland on September 26, 1732. Top of page