The Battle of Narva on 30 November [O.S. 19 November] 1700 was an early battle in the Great Northern War. A Swedish relief army under Charles XII of Sweden defeated a Russian siege force three to four times its size. Previously, Charles XII had forced Denmark–Norway to sign the Treaty of Travendal. Narva was not followed by further advances of the Swedish army into Russia; instead, Charles XII turned southward to expel August the Strong from Livonia and Poland-Lithuania. Tsar Peter the Great of Russia took Narva in a second battle in 1704.
The Battle of Poltava was the decisive and largest battle of the Great Northern War. The Russian army under the command of Tsar Peter I defeated the Swedish army under the command of Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld. The battle put an end to the status of the Swedish Empire as a European great power, as well as its eastbound expansion, and marked the beginning of Russian supremacy in eastern Europe.
The Battle of Fraustadt was fought on 2 February 1706 (O.S.) / 3 February 1706 / 13 February 1706 (N.S.) between Sweden and Saxony-Poland and their Russian allies near Fraustadt in Poland. During the Battle of Fraustadt on February 3, August II was only 120 km away, with a cavalry force about 8,000 men strong. According to Cathal Nolan that caused Swedish General Rehnskiöld to rush to engage Schulenburg. The Swedes were outnumbered by more than two to one by Saxons, mercenaries, and Russians. Ignoring the odds, Rehnsköld attacked the enemy's well-entrenched position. He sent cavalry to drive off defending Saxon horse on either wing and complete a classic double envelopment. The manoeuvre meant they could attack from behind into the center rear of the enemy's main line. The result was 8,000 Russian deaths and 5,000 Saxons and German mercenaries taken prisoner. The battle is a textbook example of a perfect pincer movement and was one of Sweden's key victories in the Great Northern War.
The Battle of Gadebusch or Wakenstädt was Sweden's final great victory in the Great Northern War. It was fought by the Swedes to prevent the loss of the city of Stralsund to Danish and Saxon forces.
Count Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld was a Swedish Field Marshal (fältmarskalk) and Royal Councillor. He was mentor and chief military advisor to King Charles XII of Sweden, and served as deputy commander-in-chief of the Carolean Army, an army he assisted both in its education and development.
The Battle of Kliszów took place on July 19, 1702, near the village of Kliszów in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Great Northern War. A Swedish army under the command of King Charles XII of Sweden defeated a Polish–Saxon army twice the size that was led by King Augustus II the Strong.
The Crossing of the Düna took place during the Great Northern War on July 19, 1701 near the city of Riga, present-day Latvia. The Swedish king Charles XII was in hot pursuit of king Augustus II the Strong of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Saxony. The crossing was easily made, and the coalition troops were quickly broken and retreated.
The Battle of Pułtusk took place on April 21, 1703 in Pułtusk during the Great Northern War. The Swedish army under the command of Charles XII defeated the Saxon army under Adam Heinrich von Steinau.
The Battle of Jakobstadt was fought in the Great Northern War. It took place on 25 July 1704 (O.S.) / 26 July 1704 / 5 August 1704 (N.S.) between a Swedish army under Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt and a combined Polish/Russian force under Great Hetman Michał Serwacy Wiśniowiecki at the town of Jēkabpils in the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia. The Swedes were victorious.
The Battle of Kalisz took place on 29 October 1706 in Kalisz, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Great Northern War. The battle was fought by Russian cavalry along with allied Saxon and Polish forces, led by commander Aleksandr Menshikov; against a smaller Swedish force headed by colonel Arvid Axel Mardefelt and resulted in an allied victory. By this time the Polish forces under Augustus the Strong had signed a peace treaty with the Swedes, but August had delayed informing his Russian allies, leading to the battle.
The Battle of Warsaw was fought on 31 July 1705 near Warsaw, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, during the Great Northern War and Swedish invasion of Poland (1701–1706). The battle was part of a power struggle for the Polish–Lithuanian throne. It was fought between Augustus II the Strong and Stanisław Leszczyński and their allies. Augustus II entered the Northern war as elector of Saxony and king of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and had formed an alliance with Denmark–Norway and Russia. Stanisław Leszczyński had seized the Polish throne in 1704, with the support of the Swedish army of Charles XII of Sweden. The struggle for the throne forced the Polish nobility to pick sides; the Warsaw Confederation supported Leszczyński and Sweden, and the Sandomierz Confederation supported Augustus II and his allies. The conflict resulted in the Polish civil war of 1704–1706.
The Swedish invasion of Poland (1701–1706), also known as Charles XII's invasion of Poland or the Polish front of the Great Northern War, was a conflict in eastern Europe overshadowed by the ongoing Great Northern War fought between the Swedish Empire against the Russian Empire, Denmark-Norway, Saxony and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Polish front was a major part of the greater conflict, and it included some decisive battles in favor of the Swedes that contributed to the length of the war.
The Battle of Praga took place on October 25, 1705, near the town of Warsaw, Poland during the fifth year of the Great Northern War. The Swedish army of more than 270 men assisted by approximately 140 soldiers from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth under the command of Valentin Dahldorf defeated a combined Polish–Saxon–Russian force of about 5,000 men under Michał Serwacy Wiśniowiecki and Aleksandr Menshikov.
The Campaign of Grodno was a plan developed by Johann Patkul and Otto Arnold von Paykull during the Swedish invasion of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a part of the Great Northern War. Its purpose was to crush Charles XII's army with overwhelming force in a combined offensive of Russian and Saxon troops. The campaign, executed by Peter I of Russia and Augustus II of Saxony, began in July 1705 and lasted almost a year. In divided areas the allies would jointly strike the Swedish troops occupied in Poland, in order to neutralize the influence the Swedes had in the Polish politics. However, the Swedish forces under Charles XII successfully outmaneuvered the allies, installed a Polish king in favor of their own and finally won two decisive victories at Grodno and Fraustadt in 1706. This resulted in the Treaty of Altranstädt (1706) in which Augustus renounced his claims to the Polish throne, broke off his alliance with Russia, and established peace between Sweden and Saxony.
The Battle of Wismar took place on December 5, 1711 close to Wismar, Swedish Empire during the Great Northern War. A 3,000 strong Danish force under the command of Jørgen Rantzau blocked the Swedish city of Wismar. The Swedes under Martin von Schoultz, sent out 2,500 men from their garrison in an attempt to surprise the Danish forces camping a distance away. However, the Danish commander got words of the approaching Swedes and countered them, resulting in 478 Swedes dead, with another 1,500 captured to only 300 Danes killed and wounded.
The Battle of Tryškiai, (Tryszki or Triski), on 4–5/5–6/15–16 December 1701, was a small engagement between the Swedish forces under the command of the Swedish King Charles XII and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth’s forces under the command of the Polish–Lithuanian Field Hetman Grzegorz Antoni Ogiński, in the town of Tryškiai of the Duchy of Samogitia. After the Crossing of the Düna Charles XII went into an alliance with the Sapieha family to gain his support in dethroning Augustus II the Strong from the Polish–Lithuanian throne, in exchange for protection from rival families in Samogitia, such as the Ogiński family. After initial engagements between the Swedish forces and those loyal to Grzegorz, the Swedish King personally takes command of the troops and engages Grzegorz at the town of Tryškiai; after a brief encounter, Grzegorz is forced on the run and, with Charles XII being hot on his heels, eventually retreats out of Samogitia altogether. A Swedish detachment is established at Kaunas in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as a sort of forward operating base before the inevitable Swedish invasion of Poland (1701–1706); further engagements, foremost the Battle of Darsūniškis, confirms the Swedish invasion. Although only a small action in a major war, the battle quickly sparked false rumours to be spread around Europe; one spoke of Charles XII’s death somewhere in Lithuania, while the other mentioned a major defeat for Grzegorz, involving many thousands of participants.
The Storming of Lemberg on September 6, 1704, was a successful Swedish assault on the town of Lemberg (Lviv), in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, during the Great Northern War.
The Drabant Corps of Charles XII was the most prestigious unit in the Swedish Army during the time of the Great Northern War. As a result of the reforms of 1700, all personnel in the corps received an officer's rank with increased wages, while its size was eventually set at 168 men. Those serving as Drabants were almost exclusively recruited from the Swedish Empire, with most coming from Sweden. The corps was issued the finest weapons, horses, and clothing was often adorned with gold lacing. They fought according to the cavalry regulations of the Caroleans, emphasizing the cold-steel charge in slight wedge formations, knee behind knee, over the more common caracole. This strategy allowed them to function as a bodyguard for the king as well as an elite combat unit, often playing a crucial role in the battles despite their relatively small size. During the war, the corps frequently marched with the main army and the king, fighting in most battles.
The Swedish invasion of Saxony took place in 1706 during the Great Northern War, which began in 1700 when Russia, Denmark–Norway, and Saxony attacked Sweden or its ally, Holstein-Gottorp. To force Augustus II the Strong out of the war, who was the elector of Saxony and king in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Charles XII of Sweden invaded the Commonwealth; Augustus was dethroned in 1704, and, after a devastating Saxon defeat at Fraustadt, Charles XII marched against Saxony in 1706 with 20,000 men.
The Battles of Usedom were fought on 21–27 April and 31 July–22 August 1715, between Swedish and Prussian–Saxon forces. In 1711, the Great Northern War spread to Germany as anti-Swedish forces invaded Swedish Pomerania, capturing the islands of Wolin and Usedom, and Stettin (Szczecin) in 1713. In hope of gaining an ally, Sweden's enemies offered neutral Prussia guardianship over the conquests; Frederick William I of Prussia, eager to expand his territories on Sweden's expense, accepted. On 21 April 1715, Charles XII of Sweden launched a preemptive strike on Usedom to deny the allies from using its vital waterways for a Stralsund offensive; the Prussians were forcibly removed and the island captured by the 27th, resulting in a Prussian declaration of war. In July, Prussia, Denmark–Norway, and Saxony initiated a blockade of Stralsund.
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