Stenbock had a victory, but was still cornered by the Russian, Saxon, Polish and Danish coalition army. He moved to Holstein-Gottorp where Sweden’s old ally let him occupy the fortress at Tønning. The coalition army invested the stronghold. Stenbock was forced to surrender with his 11,000 troops due to starvation on May 16, 1713. Sweden’s last field army, built at great national sacrifice, had been destroyed. The great Swedish war machine, respected and feared by all of Europe, had finally been smashed, but it had taken a coalition of nearly every country in northern and eastern Europe.
That same year the Peace of Utrecht finally ended the War of Spanish Succession, with Philip of Anjou obtaining recognition as king of Spain, but with the proviso that Spain and France not be united. Charles, archduke of Austria and the Grand Alliance candidate for the Spanish throne, had been elected holy Roman emperor and was, therefore, no longer an attractive alternative. As compensation, Austria was given Spanish holdings in Italy and Belgium. The end of the war freed its participants to deal with the Great Northern War. Several peace proposals were offered, but now Sweden’s old enemies were moving in for the final kill.
Prussia took Stettin. The Russians took Helsingfors and Åbo with their galley fleet then defeated Karl Gustaf Armfelt at the bloody battle of Storkyro, opening the way to a complete conquest of Finland. By the end of 1714 all of the grand duchy was in Russian hands. Wismar and Stralsund were all that remained of Sweden’s overseas empire. With Denmark preparing to invade from the south and Russia from the east, the defenseless country was at the point of civil war.
Although forbidden, Chancellor Horn called a Riksdag. Princess Ulrica was invited to take a seat in the Råd. The Estates met at Stockholm on December 14, 1713. There was division in the government. One party backed Ulrica to take over the government. Another remained loyal to Karl. Still others pushed for peace negotiations and another argued for constitutionalism. Using all his political skills, Horn was able to hold the government together. The political crisis did accomplish one thing; it brought the king back from Turkey.
The adulation of the king and the excitement of the people upon Karl’s arrival at Stralsund on November 11, 1714, gradually turned to despair. They expected him to hurry on to Sweden and take his place as head of the government in Stockholm, but instead Karl stayed in Stralsund and ordered more soldiers be raised for its defense. The nation yearned for peace. More war is what it got. And now two more countries lined up against the beleaguered nation. First Prussia, having already taken Stettin in Pomerania, moved into Wollin and the surrounding islands. Karl collected his troops and drove the Prussians out, whereupon Frederick William I declared war on Sweden.
The second was England whose king (George I) was also the elector of Hanover and coveted the duchies of Bremen and Verden for his electorate. Thus, by mid–1715 Sweden, now exhausted, crippled and in utter despair was officially at war with six nations: Russia, Prussia, Poland, Saxony, England and Denmark. The only helping hands were from France, in the form of a yearly subsidy, and from the administrators of Holstein-Gottorp who helped out with 4,000 troops.
Karl managed to find 17,000 men with which to defend Stralsund, but it was not enough. The Prussians overran Rügen Island, the city’s strength, but also its weakness if taken. The king led a stout defense for over a year, but finally, on December 12, 1715, what was left of the fortress-city fell. The king had left the day before, escaping to Sweden in a small boat. Upon gaining Swedish soil, Karl rushed to Karlskrona to mount a relief effort for Wismar, now under siege. But the fleet was in disrepair and without funds to refit the ships Wismar would be left to its fate. It fell April 8, 1716.
But Karl XII was not broken yet. In January 1716 the Sound froze over and the king seized the opportunity to invade Zealand without the need for ships. He raised 12,000 troops and rushed to the strait at Malmö opposite Copenhagen. However, before the attack could be started, a storm broke up the ice. The Danish capital was saved. Even the elements had now deserted Karl and his beleaguered nation.
At the end of February Karl led a few hundred men into southern Norway taking the town of Kristinia. In the spring his support ships were destroyed by the Danish navy and Karl was forced to evacuate.
By spring 1716 the anti–Swedish coalition had dismembered the Swedish Empire and occupied the spoils they coveted. Prussia and Denmark held Pomerania, George I had Bremen and Verden, Russia occupied Finland and the Baltic provinces, Wismar was occupied by Hanoverian, Prussian and Danish troops. What the various countries needed were treaties recognizing their new possessions, no easy matter considering Karl’s stubbornness.
The coalition decided to use military pressure to bring Karl to terms. Twenty thousand Russian troops in Mecklenburg would be ferried to Zealand by Prussian transports. Then a Russo-Danish army would be taken from Zealand to Skåne. England would provide 22 ships to cover the landing. By August all was ready. An army of 53,000 Russians and Danes were at Copenhagen ready to cross to Sweden. A fleet of 19 English, 14 Russian and 23 Danish warships pushed the Swedish fleet out of the southern Baltic.
Karl had not been idle. From his headquarters at Lund, he had raised 20,000 men and strengthened all the fortresses in southern Sweden. All Europe waited expectantly for this final campaign. Would this be the end of Sweden as an independent nation?
The invasion was to begin September 21, but four days prior to the incursion the tsar declared it was too late in the season and postponed the venture until spring. Rivalries, jealousies and distrust had disrupted the coalition. By spring the alliance was in tatters and Karl had his chance to turn the tables, but his cause would have to be accomplished though diplomacy, not one of the king’s strong points. Fortunately, he had just the man for such a delicate job. This was Baron George Henry von Görtz.
Görtz appears in history about 1700 as an advisor to the duke of Holstein-Gottorp. He meets Karl at Stralsund and immediately becomes the king’s confidant. Karl found in Görtz the compliment to his own abilities. The king was a warrior, a general. Görtz was the consummate politician, financier and diplomat. Karl made him the de facto chief minister in charge of Sweden’s government departments. He supervised all government finances. On top of this, he was the chief diplomat responsible for negotiating peace with her many enemies.
Görtz was, of course, hated by all the councilors of the Swedish government. His sudden usurpation of their power made him their enemy. This was compounded by his personal morals. He was said to be subject to all vices and totally unscrupulous, traits that did not endear him to the Swedes, but were an asset in diplomacy. However, it must be remembered that these accusations were alleged by people who detested him so it is hard to discern the truth. He was cultured, articulate, an excellent judge of people and brilliant. He was also devoted to Karl and worked tirelessly for him without pay. He gained no wealth as unofficial chief minister of the Swedish government.
Görtz played the former allies off against each other using Sweden’s threat to recognize the ownership of her old territories by the new conquerors as bait. This led to a formal peace conference with Russia at Lofö, one of the Åland Islands, in May 1718. Suddenly Prussia offered to negotiate and George I sent an embassy directly to Karl at Lund.
At Lofö Görtz negotiated an incredible deal. Finland, Livonia and Estonia would be restored to Sweden in exchange for ceding Ingria with Narva, St. Petersburg, and part of Karelia to Russia. As an alternative, Sweden would recover Finland, cede the Baltics and Russia would help her recover her German possessions. Görtz was jubilant, believing he had accomplished the impossible. But Karl turned the deal down and sent Görtz back to the negotiating table.
Görtz returned with a new proposal actually signed by Peter on August 26, 1718. By this treaty Sweden would cede the Baltics, get back Finland and Russia’s help in recovering territories lost to Hanover and Denmark. Again Karl rejected the proposition and sent Görtz back a third time.
Meanwhile, Görtz had propped up the Swedish
economy by issuing base metal tokens and paper currency. This was meant to be a short term solution only, until peace could be restored and the country’s commerce put back in order. The government tender and a spurt in the economy allow Karl to raise another army of some 70,000 men and rebuild his warships.
In the summer of 1718 Karl decided to invade Norway once again. He sent Armfelt into Trondeim with 14,000 men in August. Armfelt met little resistance and advanced all the way to the Trondeim city walls.
Karl moved into southern Norway with 22,000 men. By late November he had reached the fortress of Fredriksten. He invested the stronghold. On November 30 he was inspecting his works when he was hit in the left temple by a ball that exited the skull on the right side. He died instantly. Karl XII left his country embroiled in the Great Northern War, a war in which Sweden was on one side and most of Northern Europe was on the other, a war which had broken the Swedish Empire.
Will and Ariel Durant, the historians, summed up Karl’s life eloquently: “He died as he had lived, stupefied with bravery. He was a great general, and won unbelievable victories against great odds; but he loved war to intoxication, never had victories enough, and, in search of them, planned campaigns to the verge of insanity. His generosity was spoiled by his pride; he gave much, but demanded more; and time and again he prevented peace by refusing concessions that might have saved his empire and his face. History pardons him because it was not he who had begun this ‘Great Northern War’ that he refused to finish except with victory.”1
Karl XII was thirty-six years old and had reigned for twenty-one years. He had presided over the collapse of the Swedish Empire. He was the last of Sweden’s warrior kings; indeed, he was more warrior than king. In spite of Karl’s military abilities, he had lost nearly all Sweden’s hard won possessions. He had squandered several opportunities that might have saved much of his nation’s territories. He was probably the greatest general of his day, but he had failed as a king.
Perhaps Voltaire had it right when he said of Karl: “For where is the monarch who can say, I am braver and more virtuous than Karl XII; I have a more resolute spirit and a sturdier body; I have a greater understanding of warfare; I have better troops than he?”2
But it was not enough. Karl could destroy army after army thrown at him by five countries, but he had to be defeated only once. Sweden didn’t have the resources to recover. Eventually, Sweden was going to be overwhelmed and pulled apart by so many enemies. Sweden’s age of greatness had drawn to a close.
Epilogue
Karl XII was the last of Sweden’s warrior kings. Never again would a Swedish monarch ride at the head of his army into battle. With his death came the end of Sweden’s age of greatness and role as the dominant power of Northern Europe.
Karl is often accused of devastating his country to feed his own megalomania. Statistics are tossed around about how two-thirds of the farmland had ceased to be cultivated for lack of laborers by the end of his reign, and that most of the fisheries had been abandoned because the fishermen had been taken as sailors. Foreign trade had been ruined due to blockage of the Sound and the blockades of Swedish ports. There was a dearth of meat, butter, salt and tallow in the towns and cities. Artisans, merchants, and businessmen could work only for a few hours in winter for lack of candles. Most telling, his critics say, was the decrease in Swedish population from 1,376,000 at the beginning of his reign (1697) to 1,247,000 at his death (1718), a decrease of over 9 percent.
The strain of war was tremendous and was born principally by the peasant. It was he who had to supply the materials of war, the sons to fight, the wood for wagons and ships, and the surpluses that could be turned into cash to buy the weapons of war. The blockades did affect commerce, but much of the devastation was due to crop failures and famine.
Between 1696 and 1700 there were a series of famines followed by epidemics. The plague years of 1710–12 took their toll. There were severe crop failures in 1717 and again in 1718. In fact the latest calculations show that only 3 percent of the farms lay derelict at Karl’s death. Recent estimates indicate Karl’s wars resulted in the loss of less than 30,000 men during the war and about 8,000 of those eventually returned as repatriated prisoners of war from Russia. Even some war prisoners taken by Denmark and sold to Venice as galley slaves made it back to Sweden. While the losses were certainly significant, they do not represent the disastrous conditions sometimes presented for the age of greatness and certainly nothing like the devastation wrought in Germany by the Thirty Years’ War. It must be remembered that after Karl XII’s death the country still carried on the war for two and a half years, albeit in a different manner.
This period of development of the modern Sweden covered here and particularly the age of greatness (1632–1718) was one of almost constant warfare. Yet, except for Danish incursions into southern Sweden, the battles and associated destruction were on foreign soil, exempting the homeland from the worst aspects of seventeenth century warfare. The dominant Swedish navy kept the Baltic open and safe for commerce. Miners and agriculturalists had markets for their produce and merchants could trade freely anywhere along the Baltic rim. Therefore, the economy was generally healthy and at times booming. The period saw the incorporation of territories that make up modern Sweden, the results of war.
Except for Denmark, with about the same population, the country’s enemies were much larger than Sweden. Gustav I’s Sweden had about a million people and at its height under Karl X the Swedish Empire contained only about 3 million compared to Poland (about 7.5 million) or Russia (10 to 15 million). Sweden was sparsely populated by European standards of the day; consider England with 5 million people or France with 20 million. In order to compete on the battlefield, Sweden had to gear all her resources for war. Like ancient Sparta, Sweden became the archetype military state with the economy and her political and social systems organized for war. This gave her power and military dominance for a time, but also caused her neighbors to turn against her. In the end Sweden could not stand against so many enemies.
Karl XII died leaving no heir; indeed, he had never married. When the king was fatally shot, Frederick of Hesse, who was with the army, immediately passed the word to his wife, Ulrika Eleonora, the king’s younger sister. He saw to the arrest of Görtz, who favored Duke Karl Fredrick of Holstein-Gottorp, son of Karl’s older deceased sister, as heir to the throne. Görtz was soon tried on dubious charges, convicted and executed, having made enough enemies in the government and nobility to seal his fate. The Råd and Riksdag confirmed Ulrika Eleanora queen, but only upon acceptance of a limiting constitution. After Karl XI and Karl XII’s absolutism, the aristocracy again insisted on sharing the power. The ghost of Erik Sparre had arisen. The divine right of the monarch was dead. What is called the Swedish age of freedom (1718–71) had begun.
With his wife on the throne, although in a reduced capacity, Frederick had a free hand in conducting the war. He found that most of the generals and the Råd were not in favor of the Norwegian war, so this campaign was abandoned. Sweden obtained England’s help and a million thalers compensation in exchange for a treaty turning Bremen and Verden over to George I. Prussia took Pomerania up to and including Stettin for two million thalers. Sweden paid Denmark 600,000 riksdalers for the return of lost territories, but allowed Frederick VI to absorb Karl Fredrick’s Holstein-Gottorp, extinguishing any hope the duke had of taking the Swedish throne. Sweden retained Wismar, Rügen and her ancient ally Stralsund.
Through this series of treaties Sweden reduced its wars to just one active enemy, Russia. England attempted to help settle this in Sweden’s favor, even sending her fleet to the Baltic twice to intimidate the tsar. But Peter retaliated by dispatching his galley fleet to raid the coasts of Finland and Österbotten in 1719 and again in 1721, burning crops and homes. Finally, France stepped in and mediated a peace. During negotiations Russia continued to spread wanton destruction up and down the Bothnian coast, keeping the pressure on Sweden to give concessions. By the T
reaty of Nystad, Sweden lost all her Baltic provinces, but kept Finland except for Kexholm, most of Karelia and the fortress of Viborg. The treaty signed in August 1721 finally ended the Great Northern War.
Sweden’s age of greatness had been exemplified by her military prowess and territorial expansion. Yet, there was another side to this period and to the country so adept at war. During this period Sweden also commenced a cultural flowering in the arts and sciences which would continue through the next period, the age of freedom, and blossom particularly in the Gustavian period that followed.
As early as Gustav Vasa’s rebuilding of Stockholm and Johan III’s architectural and construction projects, Sweden began to advance in areas other than warfare. Cultural progress was heightened by Gustav Adolf’s sending whole libraries and wagonloads of art to Uppsala University and other institutions. It was furthered with Christina’s importation of illustrious scientists, artists and philosophers from all parts of Europe. By Karl XI’s reign Sweden was producing its own outstanding figures in the arts and sciences. Many gained renown throughout Europe and their accomplishments are of note even today.
Christina’s court poet was Georg Stjernhjelm, called the father of Swedish poetry. But he also excelled in the fields of law, science, mathematics, history, and philosophy. Architecture flourished with perhaps its highest achievement being the building of the majestic royal palace in Stockholm. The building of this structure (1693–97) was the work of Nicodemus Tessin. Some notables were eccentrics like Lars Johansson, the Swedish bard who was stabbed to death in a tavern brawl at only thirty-six. Gunn Dahlstierna composed the epic poem Kunga-Skald (1697) in Dante’s meter to honor Karl XI.
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