While Karl besieged Thorn, Rehnskiöld with 8,000 Swedes combined with Stanislaus Leszczyüski leading an army representing the nobility of Great Poland (northwestern Poland). They cleared Great Poland, fighting Augustus backed by the Saxon cavalry, the Lithuanian and Polish Crown Armies. During this period Karl also received word of a convention signed by the United Provinces and the New Queen Ann of England guaranteeing the Travendal Treaty. Denmark would be held in check a while longer.
By September 14 the heavy guns had arrived from Kurland via Danzig where they were held up-the free city demonstrating its independence. The assault planned for the end of the month was not needed. On October 4, 1703, the city and fort surrendered. Five thousand Saxon soldiers were sent to Sweden. The city paid 100,000 thaler in indemnities and turned over all artillery and other war materials. Augustus’s Saxon army was now down to 4,000.
The elector-king needed help and again he turned to his Russian ally. On October 10, 1703, a new treaty was signed promising Russian subsidies to Augustus for building a new Saxon army. These troops plus the commonwealth’s forces were to join a Russian army in a war against Karl to be fought on Polish soil.
This was too much for the neutralist party and Cardinal Radziejowski. In January 1704 the cardinal called the Sejm in to session at Warsaw. Augustus was declared to have forfeited the commonwealth crown. Now Karl pushed for an election session to be called so that James Sobieski could be duly elected and a government favorable to Sweden would be in place. But Augustus still had a trick or two up his sleeve.
In February James was captured by Saxon soldiers as he left his castle in Silesia to return to Poland. He and his brother were whisked away to Saxony as prisoners. The clear successor to the commonwealth throne had been kidnapped by Augustus himself and now the various Polish parties were completely divided as to a selection. So Karl presented his own choice, Stanislaus Leszczyüski. The Swedish king sold his candidate on the offer only after making many concessions and guarantees, one of those being that upon James’s return Stanislaus could step down in James’s favor.
Next, Karl had to persuade Radziejowksi to hold a coronation session of the Sejm, but the good cardinal balked. The pope (Clement XI) objected to so close a friend of a Lutheran king being crowned and there was still Augustus and his Saxons and the Russians to be removed from the country.
Leaving Stanislaus and his Polish army to guard Great Poland and Avid Horn with a small garrison at Warsaw, Karl and Rehnskiöld with the main army moved southeast to secure that part of Poland and drive out the Russians. They took Lemberg while Lewenhaupt and the Sapiehas defeated Wisüiowecki and his Russian allies in July at Jakobstadt in Lithuania. As a consequence of his success Count Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt was given command of all Swedish forces in the northeast (Lithuania, Kurland and Livonia) and ordered to keep Russian troops at bay.
At Lemberg Karl received bad news. It was here he learned of Peter’s conquest of Dorpat and Narva. Furthermore, Augustus, with 3,000 Saxons and 9,000 Russian troops had taken Warsaw. Stanislaus’s Polish army had pulled back and not come to Horn’s aid.
Karl and Rehnskiöld moved back to the northwest and chased the enemy out of Great Poland. Augustus and his Saxons left Warsaw crossing the Vistula. Another 4,000 Saxons under Lieutenant General Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg slipped across the border into Silesia. Most of the Russians and Cossacks headed east out of harm’s way. Those that Karl did catch he cut down.
The 1705 campaign season saw two attempts to disrupt the coronation process. A large Russian army 50,000 strong under Sheremetev entered Kurland headed for Poland. Lewenhaupt met them at Gemäuerthof and defeated Sheremetev in a brilliant victory; 9,000 Swedes fought 45,000 Russians in a battle lasting a day and a half. The Swedes lost 1,000 men while Peter suffered 17,000 casualties and the loss of all their guns and train. Peter halted his troops in Kurland while Lewenhaupt withdrew into Livonia. Though the Swedish general had won the battle and held the field, he did not have sufficient strength to occupy Kurland and resist the Russians that were pouring in.
Augustus sent General Paijkull to attack Warsaw with all the Saxons and Poles he could gather. Swedish major general Nieroth defeated them with a much smaller army taking Paijkull prisoner. On September 14, 1705, Stanislaus was crowned king of Poland-Lithuania in Warsaw. This was followed by a treaty of mutual cooperation against Tsar Peter and against any attempt by Augustus to retake Poland.
Karl now split his army. Leaving 10,000 men with Rehnskiöld in Western Poland, he took 20,000 and marched east to either meet Peter in a major battle or link up with Lewenhaupt at Riga. To the west on the Polish border Schulenburg had 20,000 troops, Saxons, Russians, and mercenaries, Swiss, German and French ready to invade if the opportunity presented itself.
Karl, accompanied by Stanislaus’s Polish-Lithuanian army, moved fast. He left the Warsaw area at the end of December 1705 and by the middle of January 1706 was near Grodno where he surprised a Russian, Saxon and Polish army under Augustus and the Russian general Ogilvie. The enemy refused to give battle and divided. Ogilvie took his 20,000 Russians into Grodno, a defensible position. Augustus headed west to catch Rehnskiöld from the rear. Karl scouted north toward Kovno and ordered Lewenhaupt to march toward him, hoping to force the Russians in Kurland to battle.
Rehnskiöld, meanwhile, was in trouble. He had Schulenburger with an army of 18,000 crossing the border and marching toward him from the west, while Augustus with 8,000 approached from the east. Indeed, as the deposed Polish king marched toward Warsaw he picked up additional loyal troops. They would crush Rehnskiöld between them, then turn on Karl at Grodno. Russian forces in Kurland would move south, Ogilvie would come out of Grodno and Augustus would wipe out the Swedish menace.
Rehnskiöld, however, was not about to be trapped. He took the offense, driving toward the Silesian border until he contacted Schulenburg. Both sides maneuvered for position, then Rehnskiöld feigned panic and retreated, looking for more favorable terrain. He found ground near Franstadt to his liking, better for cavalry where he had the advantage. He had 5,700 horse and 4,500 foot against Schulenburg’s 2,000 cavalry and 16,000 infantry.
Having engaged with the Swedes, Schulenburg deployed his troops with infantry and guns in the middle, cavalry on both wings anchored by a town at each end. He had a ditch dug in front of his line and mounted the stakes used to repel cavalry attack. These were improved, linked by chain and with knives at the end instead of just a sharp point.
Rehnskiöld formed up with a thin line of infantry in the middle; he had no heavy guns. His best weapon was his cavalry placed on both flanks. His only reserves were a few squadrons of Bremen and Verden dragoons forming a scanty second line.
At noon on February 3, 1706, the Battle of Fraustadt began. Though outnumbered almost two to one, Rehnskiöld took the initiative charging forward all along the front. The Swedish cavalry quickly drove off the Saxon wings of horse, then turned on the center already engaged by the Swedish infantry. It was over in two hours. Eight thousand Saxons, Russians and mercenaries were cut down. Four-fifths of the enemy were killed or captured. Schulenburg’s army ceased to exist.
Instead of trapping Karl’s forces, Augustus was left wandering in central Poland between two Swedish armies. Peter was now in a panic. He had uprisings at home and his two main armies were in danger of being cut off by Swedish forces. He ordered Ogilvie to retreat from Poland any way he could and he ordered his troops in Kurland and Livonia to evacuate.
Ogilvie slipped out of Grodno when in spring the ice broke up, taking out Karl’s boat bridge on the Niemen. His 20,000 men had been reduced by half through disease and starvation. Russian cannon and ammunition were dumped into the river as the troops fled toward the Ukraine. Flooded streams and rivers impeded Karl’s pursuit and Ogilvie didn’t stop until he reached Kiev.
Though he didn’t bring any major Russian force to battle, Karl did free Livonia and Kurland. He linked up with Lewenhaupt and induced the Lithuanian
nobility to support Stanislaus, at least temporarily.
Rehnskiöld was rewarded with the rank of field marshal and given the title of count. He was also informed of Karl’s next move, the invasion of Saxony.
Karl had to bring Augustus to heel and the invasion of his seat of power was the obvious way to do it. Earlier he had been reluctant to attack the German state as it would be seen as aiding Louis XIV’s fight against the emperor which had gone well for the French in 1702 and 1703. The French had thrust deep into German territory and were assisted by attacks against the empire from another Louis, the elector of Bavaria, and Rákóczi, leader of the Hungarian independence movement.
By 1706, however, the tide had turned. Louis XIV was being pushed back by the emperor’s forces. Bavaria had been crushed and Flanders was in jeopardy. A new champion had arisen to lead the allies. This was the brilliant, John Churchill, duke of Marlborough. His victories at Blenheim and Ramillie put Louis clearly on the defensive. Now Karl felt he could attack Saxony without upsetting the Maritime Nations.
On August 28, 1706 the main body of the Swedish army crossed into Saxony. There were few soldiers in the country and no organized resistance. Karl put Swedish garrisons in Dresden and Leipzig, then made his own headquarters in Altranstädt Castle outside Leipzig. He had left Swedish general Mardefelt with 4,000 men (many were French battalions that had taken service with Karl after Fraustadt) to support the Polish-Lithuanian army under Potocki that served Stanislaus.
The Geheimrat (Saxon Council) signed the Treaty of Altranstädt with Karl recognizing the dethroning of Augustus, the kingship of Stanislaus and end of the Saxon alliance with Russia. The treaty was carried to Augustus who was invading Poland from Lithuania at the head of a Saxon-Polish-Russian army while Peter was busy besieging Viborg in Finland. On October 10 he signed the treaty, but nine days later his army attacked Mardefelt and Potocki at Kalisz. Potocki’s Poles and Lithuanians fled leaving the Swedish army to be cut to pieces. Over half the troops were killed or captured. Russia was now free to occupy the commonwealth from the east.
Karl retaliated by making the treaty with Augustus’s signature public. Stanislaus, having lost Poland, fled to Saxony and Karl’s protection. Augustus, now exposed as having made peace with Karl, also left Poland for Saxony. Karl finally had his peace with Saxony and the commonwealth, only Russia now controlled Poland and Lithuania.
Meanwhile, the Swedish army was doing well enough in Saxony. Strict discipline was maintained so there was no looting or pillaging. After the initial shock, soldiers and civilians got along well. German customs and language were more familiar than those in Poland. While Karl did extract a large contribution from the Saxons to sustain his army most of it was cycled back into the local economy through wages spent and supplies purchased. Large numbers of non-Swedes enlisted in the army of the successful king-general, swelling the rolls.
During his stay at Altranstädt Karl, though a shy person by nature, received many visitors of rank from all over Europe who came to see the young phenomenon. Most probably came out of curiosity, some to promote schemes or alliances. Among his visitors was the duke of Marlborough. At the same dining table sat the two greatest generals of their time, one a twenty-four-year-old king, the other a fifty-seven-year-old general and statesman. Marlborough was looking for guarantees, on behalf of Queen Ann, that Karl would soon be leaving Germany. Karl wanted further assurances of English support for the Treaty of Travendal, keeping Frederick IV of Denmark restrained, and he wanted recognition of Stanislaus as commonwealth king. That the two men respected each other there can be no doubt. That they had much in common and much to discuss is certainly true. Did they share stories and information or did they keep a formal stiffness, engaging only in diplomatic exchanges? If ideas, theories and experiences were not shared, it was, indeed, an opportunity lost.
25. Karl XII’s Russian Campaign
News from Russia indicated it was time for Karl to begin his long delayed campaign against the tsar. Muscovites were restive, unhappy with many of Peter’s reforms. The Astrakhan Cossack revolt, which commenced in 1705, was gathering steam. In 1707 the Don Cossacks under Bulavin challenged Russian authority and there was the uprising of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. With all this unrest, Ivan Mazepan of the Ukrainian Cossacks was looking for an opportunity to secure Ukrainian independence from Russia and Poland. It was time for Karl to move.
The size of the army which Karl had assembled was unimpressive, 33,000 troops. With non-combatants, medical people, civil servants, clergymen, et cetera, the total may have been close to 44,000. He had volunteers from various German Protestant states who were organized into regiments of dragoons. Sweden sent 9,000 new recruits which landed in Pomerania and caught up with him at Slupca, Poland. In all he had 7,100 cavalry, 9,600 dragoons, 14,200 infantry, 1,500 Vallochi (light cavalry, mostly Polish, used for scouting and patrols), 150 Drabants and 150 artillerymen. Besides the main army, there were 11,400 troops in the Baltics under Lewenhaupt, and 14,000 in Finland under Lybecker. Another 11,000 troops were stationed in the Baltics on garrison duty, 11,000 in the German provinces and 17,000 left to guard Sweden.
The soldiers were armed with new swords designed by Karl to be lighter, more akin to the rapier. All were now armed with the flintlock musket and bayonet. The cavalry carried flintlock pistols. Uniforms were the familiar blue and yellow with a dark blue cloak. In some regiments the cloak was replaced with a greatcoat. The army marching into Saxony had been in tatters, but now the uniforms and shoes were new and the army shined.
The king sent two of his most trusted officers, Stenbock and Arvid Horn, to Stockholm as councilmen. He wanted to strengthen his hold on the government. Rehnskiöld was kept in the field as Karl’s chief military advisor and Piper as counselor on political matters. On September 7, 1707, the Swedish army crossed the Oder at Steinau entering Polish territory. They found before them a land of desolation.
Peter planned to fight this war outside Russia if possible and had instructed Menshikov to lay waste to the country west of the Vistula and take up positions behind the river. The Swedes were shocked at the corpses of would-be home defenders left behind. Towns were razed and wells poisoned. The Swedes paused at Slupca to reorganize, but then kept moving through the ravaged countryside.
Menshikov garrisoned the towns around the bridges over the Vistula, particularly Warsaw and vicinity. But Karl swung north, crossing unopposed between Thorn and Plock in the bitter cold of late December. He took the entire army though an area known as the Masurian Woods, a stretch of swamps and marshes north of Pultusk, considered impenetrable by a military van. On January 28, 1708, Karl and 600 men road into Grodno which Peter had just evacuated a few hours earlier. A counterattack that night by Mühlenfels and 3,000 troops was beaten back. Karl had completely outflanked the Russian line in central Poland and forced a pullback into Lithuania. He had strengthened Stanislaus’s hand immeasurably and gained a position from which he could move either north into the Baltic region or east into Russia.
Peter figured Karl’s next move would be to free the Baltic provinces so he deported the population of Dorpat to Russia and razed the city except for the fortifications. Ingria was likewise ordered to devastate the countryside. In case the Swedes turned east Tsar Peter had a 150 mile wide strip from Pskov to Smoleüsk to Cherkassk turned into a no-man’s land. Peter had no problem with laying waste to his own territories to deny the enemy support.
The Swedish king moved to Smorgonie, between Vilna and Minsk, forcing the Russians still further back. Karl assigned 8,000 German mercenaries posted in Pomerania, Elbing, Posen and the Danzig area under the command of General Krassaw to support Stanislaus. Soon the Lithuanians came over to Karl as did the Polish Crown Army. The commonwealth, Karl’s flank, was becoming more and more secure. Good news arrived in May 1708; the Bulavin rebellion was now an open war with 60,000 Cossacks fighting for Ukrainian independence.
Peter put into effect an even more severe scorched-earth policy. Wh
ichever route the Swedes took, every building, field, pasture, granary and haystack was to be burned. The Swedes were to be presented with a desert to march through. To counter this tactic that had cost Karl’s army dearly in misery and lives, the Swedish king ordered Lewenhaupt to build a supply train and bring it to his army along with the 12,000 troops he commanded in the Baltics.
Meanwhile, Karl pressed on, to Minsk, then to Berezina and to Bialenicze where he heard that a large Russian force was gathered at Holovzin on the Vabich River. Here, 38,000 troops were stationed in two camps separated by woods and a marsh. Karl collected nearly 18,000 of his men intent on an attack through the woods to keep the Russian camps from supporting each other. He would cross the river into the wooded area then turned on the southern camp commanded by Repnin. It would be difficult to maintain order in the woods, but this would avoid the well prepared earthworks facing the river. The biggest danger was a large body of cavalry south of Repnin commanded by Goltz.
Through the night, in a downpour, the Swedes moved into position. Artillery was pushed up to the river opposite Repnin’s camp to pound his works. Karl led the assault group composed of the grenadier battalion of the Guards first followed by the other three battalions and one battalion of Dalesmen. The second group, commanded by Axel Sparre, consisted of the remainder of the Dalarnian Regiment, the Västermanland, Uppland and East Gothland Regiments. Spaced well back was the cavalry under Rehnskiöld. Wading through the deep mud Karl’s lead group didn’t reach the river until dawn so their crossing aroused the defenders.
The Swedish artillery opened up, dropping shell and bomb into Repnin’s works. The Russian general sent urgent cries for help to Scheremetyev commanding the other camp to the north and to Goltz. Karl’s infantry was still struggling through the swamp and woods. Repnin pushed some cannon in line and began to shell the first waves. He still had numerical superiority though in the dark and storm he probably had little knowledge of the Swede’s numbers. Without any help coming from Scheremetyev or Goltz, Repnin began to withdraw. Most of his Russian regiments retired in good order. As the Swedes began to attack, they would loose a volley, then retire to reload, covered by the next rank. As they backed into the wooded area to their rear their ranks finally broke and they fled.
Warrior Kings of Sweden Page 47