The Swedish warrior-king Charles XII spent his entire adult life fighting the Great Northern War of 1700-21. His modernization of the army and batdtlefield leadership gained him the reputation as one of Sweden’s greatest military leaders and allowed him to dominate early-eighteenth-century Europe.
As the only surviving son of King Charles XI, young Charles received an excellent academic and military education after his birth on June 17, 1682, in Stockholm. He spent much time at the side of his father and succeeded to the throne when Charles XI died in 1697. A regency briefly assisted his rule, but the maturity of the teenage Charles XII resulted in his assuming full dudes of the crown in less than a year.
Charles inherited an experienced, efficient army from his father, but he nevertheless devoted time to improving it by integrating artillery with infantry and cavalry maneuver and by emphasizing the use of the bayonet in close combat. Understanding the importance of supply lines, Charles also refined his logis¬tics organization and modernized transportation assets, which influenced similar advances in other armies.
Despite the strength of the Swedish army, an alliance of Poland, Russia, and Denmark decided to take advantage of the new king’s inexperience and reduce Sweden’s power in the Baltic. The three-country coalition moved against Sweden in April 1700 in what developed into the Great Northern War. Charles allowed the generals selected by his father to fight the initial, batdes with little supervision, and they rewarded him with victories that stopped the enemy advance.
Charles then ordered a counterattack into Denmark that quickly overran that country and ended its participation in the war with the Treaty of Travendal, signed on August 28, 1700. Now in personal command of the Swedish army, Charles landed in Livo¬nia in October and besieged the Russian invaders at Narva. On November 20, Charles advanced with a force of only ten thousand in a driving blizzard to surprise and defeat nearly seventy thousand Russians under the command of Peter I. Over the next three years, Charles marched against both Poland and Saxony, defeated their armies, and occupied their capitals. By 1705, Charles’s army had subdued the remaining forces throughout the Baltic region. The only remaining enemy of any real substance was Russia, and Czar Peter was ready to make peace.
Charles, however, spent the next two years reinforcing his army and improving his logistics system. Having litde respect for the fighting abilities of the Russians, he declared, “There is noth¬ing in winning victories over the Muscovites; they can be beaten at any time.” In 1708 he made the mistake of his life, one shared by great military leaders of other ages, in deciding to turn down peace offers and conduct a land invasion of Russia.
Charles captured Grodno on February 5 and waited out the spring thaw in a camp near Minsk. He resumed his offensive dur¬ing the summer, but the Russians refused to engage in pitched battie, harassing the Swedish army with skirmishes and destroying anything of use to the invaders.
Despite the weakening of his army by the long Russian winter and the loss of his primary supply train to enemy cavalry, Charles engaged the main Russian army at Poltava on June 28. In an eigh- teen-hour fight the Russians totally defeated the Swedes. Only Charles and about fifteen hundred soldiers escaped the slaughter.
Charles and his small escort fled south to Turkish territory, where for the next five years he ruled Sweden in absentia while he encouraged the Turks to declare war on Russia. The Turks finally tired of their uninvited guest and besieged his army at his Bender retreat. Charles escaped and in a remarkable journey traveled across the Hapsburg Empire, reaching Swedish Pomerania in only two weeks.
Back home for the first time in a decade, Charles renewed his efforts to rebuild the army and to expel invaders. For two years he experienced mosdy success and by 1717 had a powerful enough force to regain the initiative. In 1718, Charles, thirty-six, invaded Norway, but before he could achieve victory, he suffered a mortal musket-ball wound near Halden on November 30, 1718.
Ulrika Eleonora, Charles’s sister, succeeded him on the throne and immediately began peace negotiations. With the Treaty of Nystad, in 1721, Sweden lost most of its Baltic possessions but maintained its autonomy. Russia now replaced Sweden as the major Baltic power.
Legend and myth surround the deeds of Charles XII, as they do many historical figures. In actuality, Charles did prove to be a formidable commander in the field and a master in logistics and maneuvers. His primary “mistake” in not accepting the Russian peace treaty may not have been so much an error as a matter of timing. Realizing that a peace accord in itself would not keep the Russians from eventually invading Sweden, Charles may have preferred the risk of defeat in Russia when his army was strong to the task of facing invaders in his homeland at a later date.
Sweden still honors Charles XII as a hero and recognizes him as the last king to rule when the country enjoyed the status of world power. Yet his achievements and influence are far below that of his fellow countrymen GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS [6] and LENNART TORSTENSSON [80] because of his ultimate defeat by the Russians.