The Swedish Wars II - Absolute monarchy
The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes published his work "Leviathan" in 1651. nine years before Frederik 3. introduced absolute monarchy in Denmark in 1660. Hobbes believed that human nature is egoistic and dominated by "a desire for power, wealth, knowledge, and honor," and that, consequently, individual life in a state of nature, without the formation of a society, would be characterized by "continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." To achieve peace and order, citizens must enter into a social contract with one another and jointly appoint a legitimate ruler, one possessing power so immense that all must fear it, thereby compelling the people to maintain peace among themselves.
There is no evidence that Frederik 3. knew "Leviathan", but Peter Schumacher, later ennobled as Griffenfeld, undertook a study tour of the Netherlands, England, France, Spain, Italy, and Germany between 1654 and 1662, during which time he would almost certainly have encountered the work. Absolute monarchy was the prevailing political trend in Europe at the time.
Schumacher later personally drafted the "Kongeloven" (The Royal Law), which served as the legal foundation for the absolute monarchy.
33. The absolute monarchy
Frederick 3. s queen, Sophie Amalie, introduced an extravagant court modeled on French fashion, featuring court balls and masquerades. Despite the hard times following the Karl Gustav War, in 1667 she commissioned the pleasure palace Sophie Amalienborg, which stood on the site where Amalienborg is located today.
During this period, Copenhagen emerged as the kingdom's largest city by far, populated by merchants and artisans, who profited handsomely from supplying the absolute monarchy's court with everything it required.
During the Karl Gustav wars had the merchants and artisans, especially in the capital, with little justification, blamed the nobility for all the calamities that befell the country. The king s personal position had been strengthened, and the wars had thus paved the way for absolute monarchy.
Frederik 3. introduced absolute monarchy on October 10, 1660, through a military coup. Thereby, the old Danish nobility, represented by the Council of the State, was stripped of all power.
The nobility and the Council of State evolved from the "hird" of the Viking Age. The king s men, or corps of housecarls, were organized as a military brotherhood known as the "hird", with the king as its principal member. The relationships among the members were governed by a code of law that Saxo called the "Hirdskrå", while others referred to it as the "Vederlov".
In the early Middle Ages, the king began using his trusted retainers to carry out tasks elsewhere in the country. They were known as "herremænd", meaning "a herre's men" as they were bound by oath of fidelity to a "herre", that is a lord, namely the king. They became noblemen, who, in exchange for tax exemption, were obliged to show up with armed men, whenever the king summoned them.
However, because they were originally organized in a fellowship - the "hird", in which the king was merely a very important member, they expected the king to govern the country together with them. This manifested in annual assemblies held in Nyborg, Kalundborg, and elsewhere, where the king consulted with his sworn men. It was Valdemar Atterdag, who began calling these assemblies "Danehof."
The three figures at the top of Odense City Hall symbolize the separation of powers. At the top center is the judicial power, embodied by the goddess of justice, Justitia, wearing a blindfold. To the left, the executive power is represented by a medieval town guard wearing an iron helmet and armed with a sword. To the right stands a learned man holding a law book, representing the legislative power. The three figures were created by the sculptor Aksel Hansen in 1882. Photo Claus Thøgersen Stadsarkivet.
However, over time, it proved inconvenient for so many people to have to travel long distances every year to gather. Consequently, the Danehof was gradually replaced by a standing body representing the nobility: the Council of State.
However, as we can see, right from his first day as king, Frederik 3. worked in many ways to undermine the authority of the Council of State, and, consequently, that of the nobility. Accusations of oppressing the peasantry and of financial mismanagement were always readily available. He pursued Christian 4. s highly capable sons-in-law by every possible means.
However, Machiavelli of Florence wrote in the early 16. century that it is not wise for a single man to hold power: "even if a single man should organize a government, it will not last long, if its administration remains on the shoulders of one individual; it is therefore wise to entrust this responsibility to many, for in this way it will be sustained by the many."
Elsewhere, Machiavelli explicitly recommended a three part division of power as a mean of creating a stable society: "Thus, wise legislators recognize the drawbacks of each of these systems of government and have chosen one that incorporates (the advantages of) them all, judging it to be the most stable and solid. Indeed, when the same constitution combines a prince, an aristocracy, and the power of the people, these three powers will watch over one another and keep each other in check."
The European Middle Ages were characterized by the fact that power within the Christian kingdoms was effectively divided in three, being divided among the king, the church, and the nobility.
However, with the Protestant Reformation in 1536, the Danish-Norwegian King Christian 3. overcame the power of the Church and acquired its immense wealth. This endowed the monarchy with such overwhelming economic strength, that it was subsequently able to dominate and undermine the position of the nobility. Christian 4. s fateful and stubborn participation in the Thirty Years' War was undertaken at his own expense and in defiance of the Council of State.
In 1660, Frederick 3. completely ignored the Council of the State and convened an entirely new assembly, known as the Assembly of Estates. The estates consisted of the nobility, the clergy, and the burghers. The peasantry was not represented.
The assembly decided that Denmark should for the future be a hereditary kingdom, meaning that the eldest sons of kings would automatically inherit the royal title upon their father's death. This made coronation charters and similar preconditions impossible, and rendered the king an absolute monarch.
Not only Frederik 3. but all subsequent absolute monarchs up to Frederik 6. harbored deep distrust of the old Danish nobility, because they feared it still harbored ambitions of participating in the governance of the country together with the king.
Peder Schumacher, later ennobled as Griffenfeld, drafted and personally wrote the "Kongeloven", which defined the absolute monarchy:
Only the king can enact, amend, and cancel laws.
The king stands above the law. He may exempt whomever he pleases from the provisions of the law.
The king is the supreme judge of the kingdom.
Only the king can declare war and conclude alliances and agreements with other powers.
The king is the commander-in-chief of the army.
The king has the right to levy taxes and impose customs duties without the consent of the estates.
Following the introduction of absolute monarchy, Frederick 3. was acclaimed as Denmark's hereditary king in the square in front of Copenhagen Castle on October 18. 1660. Photo
Wolfgang Heimbach - Rosenborg Castle Wikipedia.
Under the Treaty of Copenhagen in 1660, the Duke of Gottorp gained full independence from the Danish king regarding the ducal part of Slesvig. Consequently, Gottorp became a constant threat to Denmark due to the Duke's close ties to Sweden..
From his deathbed in Paris in 1669, Hannibal Sehested sent three letters to Frederik 3. that became known as "Hannibal Sehested's Testament".
To secure the future, Sehested proposed that Denmark should settle its outstanding issues with the Duke of Gottorp and seek to establish a close alliance with Sweden. To achieve this goal, the king would have to set aside his personal feelings toward the duke and attempt to wrest him from Sweden s grasp. As a first step on this path to reconciliation, he was to give his daughter, Frederikke Amalie, to the duke in marriage.
As for Sweden, the king would have to accept the loss of the Scanian provinces and the lost Norwegian territories. Denmark could do this all the more readily, given that it would be impossible to regain the lost regions without an extraordinary and unforeseeable change in Europe. Moreover, a union between Denmark-Norway and Sweden would restore the Nordic kingdoms to their former power and prestige, he wrote.
King Frederik 3. died on 19. February 1670. In accordance with the provisions of "Kongeloven", he was succeeded by his son, Christian, without any form of coronation charter, conditions or restrictions. Christian 5. was 24 years old upon his accession to the throne. He was Denmark's second absolute monarch.
The new king was good-natured but, by all accounts, not particularly bright. However, he generally recognized his limitations and listened to his advisors. Likely because of this, his education had been neglected, except for physical pursuits. He was an eager hunter and horseman.
34. The Scanian War
The Scanian War 1675 1679 was an offshoot of the French-Dutch War, also known as the Dutch Revenge War (1672 1678). Under the Sun King, Louis 14.
Under the Sun King, Louis 14. France invaded Dutch islands and territories. England saw an opportunity to exploit the situation to weaken Dutch trade during the Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672 1674) and attacked the Netherlands in alliance with France. Conversely, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, including Brandenburg, entered the war on the side of the Netherlands.
The young Danish Grand Chancellor, Griffenfeld, wished to avoid going to war against France. He knew that France was Europe's dominant power, and that entering a war against a Sweden, which was allied with France, was futile and could prove catastrophic. "Without France, we won't get Scania back!" he said.
Ulrika Eleonora 1656 1693, daughter of Frederik 3. and Sophie Amalie, became Queen of Sweden. In 1675, the same year the Scanian War broke out, she accepted a marriage proposal from the Swedish King Karl 11. When Sweden and Denmark subsequently went to war, the Danes demanded that the marriage not should take place, noting that Ulrika Eleonora had several other suitors. However, she rejected them all, remained committed to her original engagement, and insisted on becoming a pledge for peace. The wedding took place in 1680. As Queen of Sweden, she became known for her gentleness, generous philanthropy, and for being a caring mother to her children, including the future Karl 12.
In line with "Hannibal Sehested s Testament," Griffenfeld recommended that Denmark-Norway instead should ally itself with Sweden, which was allied with France, a move that was feasible given Sweden s actual interest in such an alliance. However, they set two conditions, that the King of Denmark reached an understanding with Sweden s ally, the Duke of Gottorp, and that Denmark removed the three crowns in its coat of arms to a more peripheral position on the shield. Christian 5. flatly rejected both conditions.
However, there was one move towards understanding with Sweden that actually came to take place. In 1675, the Swedish side expressed a desire for Christian 5. s sister, Ulrikke Eleonora, to become Queen of Sweden. Although the King had significant objections to this match, it was pushed through by the Queen Dowager and Griffenfeld, and a marriage was arranged between the young Karl 11. and the Danish princess.
But Griffenfeld did not succeed in carrying through his policy regarding France. There was too much opposition, especially from the king.
As an ally of France, Sweden invaded Brandenburg, but the formidable Swedish army under the experienced General Wrangel suffered an unexpected defeat in the Battle of Fehrbellin in 1675, about 40 km northwest of Berlin. This encouraged Christian 5. to enter the war on the side of the Netherlands, Spain, and Brandenburg against France, Sweden, and England, in the hope of regaining the Scanian provinces.
Denmark first struck against the internal enemy in Slesvig. Duke Christian Albrecht of Gottorp, who was staying in Rendsburg, was taken prisoner and forced to surrender his troops and fortresses to Denmark.
Denmark s allies, Brandenburg, the German Emperor, and the Netherlands, wanted Denmark to first attack the Swedish territories in Northern Germany. Operations could be launched against two targets there, namely Bremen-Verden and Pomerania.
Brandenburg demanded Danish military action in Pomerania, whereas Griffenfeld favored an attack on Bremen-Verden, as Denmark could retain a portion of any territory conquered there, whereas Pomerania would inevitably fall to Brandenburg. Yet again, Griffenfeld suffered a political defeat at the hands of his rivals, and the king sided with "the generals".
Forpommern was captured in the autumn of 1675 with Danish assistance..
The Danish army could then turn against the Swedish fortress of Wismar. But by now it was December 1675, and cold, damp weather had set in.
An officer's report paints a grim picture of the situation: "The men have become so exhausted that it is almost impossible for them to perform their duties. Because so many are constantly rushing back and forth across, the ground has turned into such a complete quagmire that it is a struggle to lift one's feet. If the soldiers are urged on, they begin to weep like children and beg to be shot, so that an end might be put to the misery that they are suffering."
The generals were in despair. They feared the entire army was on the verge of ruin and considered abandoning the siege. However, Griffenfeld reportedly refused to give up. He understood that a defeat would make a very poor impression on their allies as well as on France.
On December 13. 1675, the Danes stormed the fortress of Wismar. The attack took place amidst a raging snowstorm, but it succeeded. The commander surrendered, and the Danes were able to occupy the city.
However, during 1676, the ground began to give way beneath Griffenfeld. In addition to his numerous rivals, his greatest enemy was the Spanish envoy, Balthasar de Fuenmayor, who had managed to obtain a letter from the Danish envoy in Paris, Henning Meyercrone, addressed to the French envoy in Copenhagen. The letter clearly revealed Griffenfeld s attempts to maintain good relations with France. Consequently, Denmark s alliance policy was seriously compromised in the eyes of its allies.
Portrait of Peder Schumacher, ennobled as Griffenfeld. Born 1635 died 1699. Danish Grand Chancellor 1674 1676. Griffenfeld was the son of a Copenhagen wine merchant. He showed great aptitudes at an early age, and following university studies in Denmark, he spent the years 1654 1662 traveling for educational purposes in the Netherlands, England, France, Spain, Italy, and Germany. Photo Abraham Wuchters Wikipedia.
The situation could only be saved by letting Griffenfeld fall, but how deep did he have to fall for it to be convincing?
On March 11, 1676, Griffenfeld went to the king, where he was arrested and placed in a cell in the Citadel. His imprisonment caused a sensation throughout Europe.
He was brought before a court on charges of treason, and the sentence was forfeiture of honor, life, and property.
The execution was to take place at the Citadel on the morning of June 6. 1676. The proceedings were slow and elaborate. Finally, the executioner arrived. He seized Griffenfeld s noble coat of arms and crushed it beneath his heel. Peter Schumacher, as he was again had to be named, knelt, made a prayer, and then signaled to the executioner that he was ready. But the executioner hesitated. Eventually, one of the clergymen urged him to perform his duty. He raised his sword, but at that very moment, General Schack, who was in command, shouted: "Hold! There is a pardon."
Schumacher was taken back to the prison. He remained there for four years, and was then moved to the island of Munkholm in Trondheim Fjord, where he spent another 18 years until his death in 1699.
In 1675, working from his observatory in the Round Tower in Copenhagen, Ole Rømer was the first to demonstrate that light does not propagate instantaneously, as had previously been assumed, but travels at a finite speed. By measuring variations in the orbital timing of Jupiter's moon Io, and using the diameter of Earth's orbit around the Sun, he was able to calculate the speed of light at approximately 230,000 km/s. The value measured today is 300,000 km/s.
But outside Peter Schumacher s prison and the Round Tower, the war continued. Now the goal was the reunification of the Scanian lands with Denmark.
An army of 14,000 men, comprising both mercenary and national regiments, assembled in Dyrehaven, north of Copenhagen. The army was led by Adolf von Plön, a young man, who had earned a reputation as a capable soldier. Most of the officers were German, the only one from the old Danish nobility was Niels Rosenkrantz.
On the other side of the Sound, Karl 11. was also assembling his troops, whom he intended to transport across to Zealand. He was merely waiting for that the large, newly built Swedish fleet should clear the Sound of Danish warships.
The Danish navy was far from as large as the Swedish one, but it put to sea earlier, and Admiral Niels Juel used this head start to capture Gotland.
After some time, a naval battle took place south of Ystad, ending in a draw. Karl 11., who watched the engagement from shore, "was somewhat surprised that his large fleet did not make short work of the few, small Danish ships."
Subsequently, Cornelius Trump arrived with a Dutch relief fleet, and the balance of forces became more equal.
On June 1. 1676, the fleets met off Öland. The Swedish fleet included a massive flagship named "Stora Cronan," carrying 130 guns. Scarcely had the battle begun, when the ship executed a risky maneuver that caused it to heel over sharply. The guns, which had not been lashed down, rolled toward the leeward side, and the ship capsized. At the same time, a fire broke out on board. The flames reached the powder magazine before the water did, and the ship exploded with a tremendous blast. Only 40 of the 800-man crew survived. Admiral Creutz himself perished. The vice-admiral's ship also caught fire and exploded. Some Swedish ships were boarded, while others ran aground.
The Swedish navy was so badly battered that it did not become combat-ready again that summer.
The sea was now open for Christian 5.'s invasion and reconquest of the Scanian lands.
On June 27, 1676, the Danish-Dutch fleet anchored off Ystad and landed troops, who subsequently captured the town. Karl 11. immediately dispatched his cavalry to the town.
However, the landing of the main Danish army began at Råå, south of Helsingborg, on June 29, 1676, without encountering resistance.
It is said that Christian 5. was overcome with joy, when he set foot on Scanian soil. He was hopping about like a schoolboy. A shout of "hurrah" made him freeze. He thought the Swedes were coming, but it was his own soldiers expressing their enthusiasm. An old woman was able to report that the Swedes were heading towards Ystad at full speed.
The sinking of the largest warship of the time, Stora Kronan, in the Battle of Öland. den 1. juni 1676 mellem den dansk-nederlandske flåde og den svenske. Udsnit af maleri af Claus Møinichen, 1686. Foto Claus Møinichen - Kalmar Museum Wikipedia.
Things went smoothly at first. Helsingborg Castle surrendered on July 3.. Landskrona fell on July 11. 1676. Later, Kristianstad also fell. The entire region of Blekinge and the fortified towns of Carlshamn and Christianopel were captured by the Danes.
The French envoy accompanying the Swedish troops wrote: "I have never seen such confusion and disorder as during this retreat, which completely resembled a flight."
From Norway, the Governor-General Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve advanced into Bohuslän and burned down Vänersborg in Västergötland.
A Danish force under General Duncan was sent up through Halland to meet the Norwegians. However, at the Fylle River, east of Halmstad, on 17. August 1676, they were taken by surprise by the Swedes under Karl 11. Only a force of 500 - 600 horsemen managed to break through and return to Scania. This victory was a great boost to Swedish morale.
In the midst of the campaign, the army's commander-in-chief, Hans Adolf of Plön, resigned his command. This was due to Christian 5.'s interference in the army's leadership. Hans Adolf wanted to advance north and capture Halmstad as well, a move the king opposed.
Hans Adolf, who was a forceful man, had many rivals and adversaries among the other generals, moreover, Christian detested self-assured men, an attitude he had also displayed toward Griffenfeld. But now, the King wished to serve as his own commander-in-chief for the campaign, which was proceeding so brilliantly.
The King declared the year's campaign at an end and had the army go into winter quarters in the area between Helsingborg and Ängelholm. He himself traveled to Copenhagen, where he was received as a victor. Cannons roared from the warships and the ramparts. Ships and houses were illuminated by hundreds of lanterns.
For decades, the Swedes had conscripted young men for military service in their many wars, taking them from both the Scanian lands and Sweden proper. Being taken as a soldier was considered a death sentence, few ever returned to their villages. Consequently, many of the young men fled to the forests and became "snaphaner", a term originally denoting a type of highway robbers. From the forests, they waged "the Little War," a guerrilla war against the Swedes.
The Snaphaner operated throughout the Scanian lands, but they were based primarily in the old Gønge shires. The people of Gønge had a tradition of producing excellent guns, their long muskets were in demand in both Denmark and Sweden. They cast their own bullets and produced their own gunpowder.
Snaphane sculpture in Hässleholm Created by the artist Axel Ebbe in 1934, depicting the snaphane Little Mads. The statue is located in Hembygdsparken. Photo David Castor Wikipedia.
The Snaphaner's greatest coup was when they robbed a transport carrying the entire Swedish war chest.
On the morning of July 25, 1676, word spread that a Swedish transport carrying the entire Swedish war chest had halted at the church in Loshult, near the border with Småland. The transport reportedly consisted of a convoy of wagons loaded with copper plate money weighing a total of 100,000 kg (?). It was guarded by only 15 horsemen under the command of Captain Gustav Lilienstrøm.
Six peasants from the Loshult area rode to the Danish camp and returned with a corporal, a trumpeter, and ten horsemen. Led by the horsemen, a large crowd of men and women armed with pitchforks and clubs attacked the unsuspecting Swedes, who were relaxing in the churchyard. Nine of them were killed, while the rest managed to escape northward with some of the wagons, though these were later looted by peasants from Småland.
The Snaphaner had repeatedly been close to kill King Karl.
A legend has it that as he rode through Mörrum Kirkeby, a snaphane lay in wait with his long musket. He had the king in his sights and was about to pull the trigger, when a falling leaf ruined his aim, causing the shot to miss.
On another occasion, it is said, when the king was visiting the pastor in Åhus alone, the snaphaner surrounded his farm and searched it, but failed to find the royal guest. Acting on the pastor's advice, he had hidden himself in the chimney, where he was forced to spend about an hour, while the pastor entertained the snaphaner with beer and schnapps.
The "Little War" was waged with the utmost cruelty. A red-hot spear or a wooden stake would be forced up through the rectum, out the back of the neck, and planted by the roadside. In this manner, the Swedes reportedly impaled hundreds of captured snaphaner as a gruesome warning to passersby. Captured Swedish officers might be roasted over a slow fire.
When all of Karl 11.'s attempts to crush the Snaphane rebellion had proved futile, he decided to make an example.
In strictest secrecy, he planned in April 1678 to destroy two of the snaphane strongholds, the parishes of Ökened and Gemsö - by killing all men capable of bearing arms. Lieutenant Colonel Johan Hedefeldt was ordered to march to the Gønge shires with 200 men. The royal order read:
"Upon arriving at Ökened, where the snaphaner had not only established their main retreat but also stashed most of their plunder, he order the slaughter of every man in the parish capable of bearing arms, sparing only women and children, he shall burn the farmsteads after removing all livestock and provisions, and everything else he will found to be looted. From there, he shall marched to Gemsö, continuing to deal with the disloyal and the snaphaner wherever he encounter them in the harshest manner, so that others might take heed from their example."
But after the raid of Ökened, King Karl called off the operation and instead offered a cash reward for every snaphane neutralized. Ten rigsdalers for a live one and half that amount for a dead one handed over to the Swedish authorities.
While Christian was still resting on his laurels in Copenhagen, Karl 11., inspired by his victory at the Fylle Å near Halmstad, raised a new army, reportedly numbering 16,000 17,000 men. On October 25. 1676, the army crossed the border at Markaryd. It advanced ruthlessly, plundering the villages along its path without mercy. Wounded Danish soldiers quartered in the farmhouses were simply killed. King Karl had hoped to catch the Danish army off guard, but he was delayed by peasants felling trees across the road, while the snaphaner fired upon the army from the woods with their long muskets.
The Swedes captured Helsingborg but could make no headway against the castle. The Danish army avoided battle and took up positions behind the streams. The Swedes lacked provisions and had to seize everything from the peasants. The more looting that occurred, the more snaphaner emerged, who ruthlessly dispatched any straggling Swedes.
The Swedish army was ravaged by hunger and disease, and soldiers were dying by the hundreds: "In the churchyards, great piles of dead bodies lay heaped upon the ground like large stacks of firewood.".
In late November 1676, the Swedish army faced total disaster. A few more weeks and the army would have ceased to exist. But then the weather turned freezing, and within a few days, the Lödde Å froze all over and became passable.
On the night of December 4, 1676, Karl 11. led his army across the stream in pitch darkness. The Danish patrols were lax, and it was not until morning, that they realized the Swedes were on the march.
The Battle of Lund in Scania in 1676. Karl 11. returns after pursuing the fleeing Danish cavalry and spreads panic through the Danish ranks. A total of 9,000 soldiers were killed, 6,000 of whom were Danish. The Swedes emerged victorious thanks to superior leadership.
The prelude to the battle was a race between the Danish left wing and the Swedish right wing to reach the tactically important Sankt Liberts Hill north of Lund first..
The Swedes arrived first. Later in the morning, they managed to outflank the Danish left wing and attack from the side and rear, causing the absolute monarchy's new national cavalry to panic and flee towards Landskrona.
Karl 11. could not resist the temptation to pursue the defeated enemy, and in doing so, he came upon the nearly deserted Danish camp, which was filled with all kinds of supplies. Vast stores fell into Swedish hands.
By late afternoon, the centers of the armies had made contact. After a brief artillery duel, fierce close-quarters fighting ensued, and the Swedes fell back. The French ambassador, following the fleeing Swedish soldiers, was already drafting a dismal report to his king regarding Karl's crushing defeat.
But at one point, King Karl regained his composure, broke off the pursuit, and returned to the battlefield, where the remaining Danish troops were about gaining the upper hand.
But just as the Danish troops were preparing the decisive attack, Karl and his horsemen appeared at the Danes' rear, or from another unexpected quarter. The sight of the Swedish king leading the cavalry instilled new courage in the Swedes, who launched a fresh attack. In an instant, the situation turned around. The Danish troops, who had so recently been confident of victory, found themselves surrounded, all order vanished in no time, giving way to confusion and flight.
It was only pitiful remnants of the Danish army, that reached safety behind the ramparts of Landskrona as evening fell.
The Battle of Lund was a disaster for the Danes. Out of a force of approximately 11,000 men, around 6,000 lost their lives, presumably a couple of thousand were wounded, and 1,500 were taken prisoner by the Swedish army.
In earlier wars, the Danish infantry consisted mainly of recruited foreign troops, but Danes apparently made up a very large proportion of the foot soldiers in the absolute monarchy's army at the Battle of Lund. The noble cavalry units that had distinguished themselves during the Kalmar War had been replaced by the absolute monarchy's new national cavalry, a force that, on the left flank, fled upon contact with the enemy.
There are accounts indicating that the officers of the Danish army, who were predominantly Germans, did not spare themselves, and many fell. It is difficult to attribute the ease with which confusion and panic arose within the Danish ranks to a failure of leadership at this level.
For decades, the Swedish army had fought in numerous wars across Europe. It is easy to imagine that all Swedish units included veterans, who served as natural leaders within the groups, providing psychological support to the less experienced soldiers.
However, many of the Danish units of the absolute monarchy had never before seen combat, and consequently, they were more prone to disintegrating due to confusion and panic.
Christian 5. refused to face the facts, and a few days later he made a triumphant entry into Copenhagen with captured banners and other trophies, and he ordered all the country's churches to hold thanksgiving services for the victory in the Battle of Lund.
After the battle, Karl 11. besieged all the towns occupied by the Danes. Helsingborg was the first to fall. The terms of capitulation stipulated that the garrison was to be granted safe passage to Danish territory, and the Danes assumed this meant the short route across the Sound to Helsingør.
However, there was no mention of this in the terms of capitulation. In the harsh winter weather, the Danes were forced to march all the way to Jämtland, and only there they were permitted to cross the border into Norway. Only 160 of the 700, who began the death march, survived. The Danish garrisons at Kristianopel and Carlshamn were subjected to the same cruel ruse when they surrendered in the spring of 1677. Danish protests were scornfully dismissed, citing that the Danes themselves had, the previous year, sent the Landskrona garrison home via Livonia.
The Battle of Køge Bugt on June 30. 1677. Photo: An episode from the naval battle of Køge Bay in 1677 by Anton Melbye 1818 1875. Statens Museum for Kunst. Wikipedia.
In Scania, the Danes now had only two strongholds left, and the Swedes were besieging both of them, namely Landskrona and Kristianstad.
Eventually, 10,000 Danish soldiers had gathered in Landskrona, while the Swedish besieging force numbered only 3,000 men. However, before the Danes could decide to make a sortie, the Swedes had withdrawn.
Subsequently, Christian 5.'s army relieved the besieged Kristianstad.
All that remained was Malmø, which the Swedes had held since the very beginning of the war. After a brief siege, the Danes stormed the city on the night of June 26. 1677. They managed to penetrate behind the ramparts, but the Swedes destroyed the assault bridges spanning the moat, preventing the reserves from following. The failed assault cost 3,000 Danish soldiers their lives.
By the summer of 1677, the Swedes had rebuilt their fleet following the disaster at the Battle of Öland the previous year. Their strategy was to gain control of the Sound and thereby cut off the remnants of the Danish army in Scania from the motherland.
Around May 31, 1677, a small Swedish naval detachment under Admiral Erik Sjöblad attempted to sail from Gothenburg through the Sound to join the main Swedish fleet in the Baltic. It was intercepted off Møn by a superior Danish force under Niels Juel and completely destroyed over the course of two days.
After this battle, Niels Juel sailed to Køge Bay to carry out repairs and take on new supplies.
On the evening of June 30, 1677, he sighted the main Swedish fleet under Admiral Horn.
The battle the following day - known as the Battle of Køge Bay 1677, though it actually took place between Stevns and Falsterbo, ended in an overwhelming Danish victory. The large Swedish warship "Draken" ran aground at Stevns Klint, and the Danes captured eight Swedish warships along with a number of smaller vessels. Seven of the ships were incorporated into the Danish navy. The Swedes suffered around 3,000 casualties, killed, wounded, and captured, whereas Danish losses were limited to approximately 100 killed and 275 wounded.
The Swedish admiral Henrik Horn was originally a field marshal before being placed in command of the Swedish navy, whereas Niels Juel had served in the Dutch navy as a midshipman in his youth and participated in several major naval battles against the English fleet during the First Anglo-Dutch War. Between 1654 and 1656, he took part in two expeditions to the Mediterranean against North African pirates under Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, gaining experience in modern naval warfare regarding how to utilize wind, currents, and the thick clouds of gunpowder smoke, that invariably arose during naval engagements.
The outcome of the Battle of Køge Bay in 1677 as it is known, shattered Swedish plans to gain naval supremacy in Danish waters and ensured that the connection between the motherland and the remnants of the Danish army in Scania remained intact.
The Franco-Dutch War concluded with the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678 and the Treaty of Saint-Germain in 1679, through which France secured significant territorial gains. With the peace, France was freed from all fronts other than Scandinavia and could turn its full attention and military resources toward supporting its ally, Sweden, in the war against Denmark.
The Scanian War ended in 1679. On behalf of its ally Sweden, France dictated the peace terms in the Treaty of Fontainebleau on August 24, 1679.
Despite the fact that the Danes had conquered Gotland, Western Pomerania, and Wismar, and still held most of Scania, and the Norwegians had repelled Swedish attacks and conquered Bohuslän, Denmark-Norway was not permitted to retain even a foothold in Scania.
The Battle of Lund. Karl 11., Rutger von Ascheberg, and Erik Dahlbergh exploit a gap in the Danish lines that has opened up due to confusion among the Danes. Oil painting from 1696 by Johann Philip Lemke. Wikipedia.
To preserve Sweden's prestige, the peace with Denmark was reaffirmed in Lund on September 27. 1679, on the terms France had already dictated to Denmark at Fontainebleau.
Denmark-Norway permanently lost Scania, Halland, Blekinge, Bohuslän, Jämtland, and Härjedalen to Sweden. The peace treaty left Sweden's borders largely intact, and the German provinces that the Danes had captured from Sweden at the beginning of the war were essentially retained by Sweden.
This was what the intelligent Chancellor, Griffenfeld, had so persistently warned against in 1674, warnings that fell completely on deaf ears with Christian 5. "Without France, we will not get Scania back!" said Griffenfeld.
33. Great Northern War
As early as 1697, Christian 5. sent an envoy named Paul Heinz to Moscow with the task of seeking an alliance with Russia directed against Sweden.
It was known that the Swedish king, Karl 11., was seriously ill, and his son and heir, also named Karl, was then 15 years old, meaning that Sweden would soon be led by a young and inexperienced monarch. Furthermore, the international situation was favorable for a diplomatic or military move to push back Sweden, as England, the Netherlands, and the German Emperor were engaged in the War of the Grand Alliance against France and could be expected to take less interest in events in the Nordic region.
By late 1699, an alliance had been secretly formed between Christian 5. of Denmark, Peter the Great of Russia, and Augustus 2. of Saxony-Poland..
Christian 5. wished to put an end to the independence and hostility towards Denmark of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, as the duke was supported by Sweden. In the longer term, he wished to regain the Scanian provinces.
Peter the Great wanted to extend his Russia to the Baltic Sea.
August of Saxony-Poland sought to reconquer "Livland," which roughly comprised modern-day Latvia.
Christian 5. died on August 25, 1699, and in accordance with the rules of the Kongeloven he was succeeded without problems by his son, Frederik 4. who fully endorsed the plan. He was Denmark's third absolute monarch.
Denmark-Norway participated in the Great Northern War during two periods separated by a decade. The first period was in 1700, when Denmark was forced to conclude a separate peace at Traventhal as early as August of that same year. The second period lasted from 1709, following Karl 12. s disastrous defeat by Peter the Great at Poltava in present day Ukraine until the Treaty of Frederiksborg on July 3, 1720.
The operation by the three allied states was planned to begin in early 1700. Denmark was to invade the territory of the Duke of Gottorp in Slesvig and Holsten, while Augustus 2. of Saxony-Poland was simultaneously to attack Livonia..
Tönning, north of the Eider's mouth into the Wadden Sea. Wikipedia.
There was the minor problem with Peter the Great that Russia was at war with the Turks. But everyone expected that to be resolved before long.
But "no plan survives contact with the enemy," as the Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke said. That was certainly true, especially when the enemy was Karl 12. and the Swedish war machine.
In the spring of 1700, Frederik 4. attacked the Duke of Gottorp with an army of 19,000 men, and before long, the Duke was besieged within the fortress of Tønning, located on the northern bank of the Eider River near its mouth at the North Sea. So far, so good. But then things began to go wrong.
The Sound was the Strait of Hormuz of its day. All the large sailing ships used kilometers of rope made from flax, hemp, and linden bast. The sails were made of flax. All of these raw materials were absolutely indispensable.
These raw materials came largely from the Baltic region, and they had to pass through the Sound to reach Western Europe.
The Netherlands and Great Britain were major maritime nations, and they did not want war to break out in the Baltic region, with all the pirates and privateers that would entail. Nor did they want the same power to rule on both sides of the Sound.
Frederick 4. received a diplomatic note from England informing him, in polite terms, that an Anglo-Dutch fleet would be dispatched to the Baltic area unless he immediately withdrew his troops from the lands of the Duke of Gottorp and paid compensation for damages.
From the south, a combined Swedish-English-Hanoverian-Dutch army was approaching to relieve the besieged Duke in Tønning. Everyone seemed to love the Duke of Gottorp.
The Swedish fleet departed from Karlskrona on June 26. King Karl 12. was himself on board the ship "Konung Carl", which carried 108 guns, 750 sailors, and 150 soldiers. It joined forces with the Anglo-Dutch fleet off Copenhagen.
In the meantime, the Danish fleet had sought shelter from the superior force in Copenhagen Harbor.
The Allies' most important weapons against Copenhagen and the Danish fleet in June and July 1700 were the new bomb vessels, which could bombard fortresses and cities from the sea using a type of mortar. They fired in a high trajectory, enabling them to hit targets behind ramparts and walls.
However, the early bomb vessels were not built with sufficient structural strength below decks to withstand the force of the recoil, consequently, the bombardment in 1700 did not amount to much.
A standard 18th-century cannon absorbed the kinetic energy of the recoil by moving backward, opposite to the direction of fire, but mortars, which fired upwards, could not by their very nature move in the opposite direction, instead, they created a shockwave into the deck, which the structure could not withstand in the long run.
The Danes defended themselves using gun-barges, a type of vessel that would remain a Danish specialty right up until the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. A barge with a low freeboard was equipped with heavy cannons and towed into position alongside an enemy warship. Enemy guns struggled to hit the barge because it lay so low in the water, whereas the gun-barge could fire a broadside that was bound to hit the enemy ship directly in the hull.
With the Danish fleet blockaded in Copenhagen and thus effectively neutralized, Karl 12. saw an opportunity to transport troops to Zealand. On August 3, 1700, he landed the first 2,500 men at Humlebæk following a brief exchange of fire with Danish cavalrymen and peasants. Two weeks later, he had a force of 10,000 men at his disposal, comprising both infantry and cavalry, and was preparing to attack Copenhagen.
The Swedish victory at Narva in 1700. The defeated Russians place their banners in front of Karl 12. Painted by Gustaf Cederström in 1910. Gustaf Cederström - Bodil Karlsson/ Nationalmuseum Wikipedia.
But then came the news - highly unwelcome to him - that peace had been concluded between Frederik 4. and the Duke of Gottorp at Traventhal.
The commanders of the English-Dutch fleet concluded that they had fulfilled their mission and informed Karl 12. that they intended to sail home. England and the Netherlands had no interest in seeing the same power dominate both sides of the Sound. As a pointed hint, they offered to assist King Karl in transporting his troops back to Scania.
For when the English-Dutch fleet had left the Sound, the Danish-Norwegian fleet could sail out of Copenhagen harbor, drive away the Swedish warships, and thereby cut the connection between Scania and the Swedish army north of Copenhagen.
Karl 12. had to swallow his pride and ask the English-Dutch fleet to protect him against the Danes, while he brought his army back to Scania.
The Danish-Norwegian navy was a powerful fleet comprising 50 warships, including 21 line-ships, the largest warships of the time, with 50 to 100 guns and carrying crews of several hundred men. The largest ship was the line-ship "Christianus Quintus", with a crew of 662 men.
Under the Peace of Traventhal of August 18. 1700, in southeastern Holsten, Denmark was forced to conclude a separate peace, thereby abandoning its allies. Frederik 4. had to accept the Duke's sovereignty in Slesvig-Holsten-Gottorp, pay 260,000 rigsdalers in war compensation, and pledge not to support Sweden's enemies.
However, upon his return to the capital on September 1. 1700, Frederik was acclaimed by the enthusiastic citizens of Copenhagen. Accompanied by a large entourage, he was rowed around the harbor amidst the cheers of the crews. Poems and newsletters highlighted the fact that Copenhagen had withstood the fleets of three nations.
The Great Northern War continued without the participation of Denmark-Norway.
First, the 18-year-old Karl 12. turned against Peter the Great, who was besieging the Swedish fortress of Narva with 30,000 men. Amidst a fierce snowstorm, the Swedes launched a counterattack on November 30, 1700, with 8,000 men led by Karl in person, and the poorly trained Russian soldiers were cut down with almost no resistance.
The following year, Karl turned against King Augustus of Saxony-Poland, drove his army out of Livland, occupied Courland, and then marched into Poland. On July 19, 1702, he won a major victory over the Saxon-Polish army at Klissow, 75 km northeast of Krakow, and subsequently captured Krakow. He triumphed again at Pultusk and induced the Poles to depose King August and elect Stanislaus Leszczynski as king in his place.
The Baltic territories during the Swedish Age of Greatness. Thomas Blomberg Wikipedia.
In the Treaty of Altranstädt in September 1706, Karl 12. also forced King August to conclude a separate peace and thereby abandon the alliance with Russia under Peter the Great.
Now only Russia remained.
In the meantime, however, Tsar Peter had learned his lesson. He had adopted the Swedes' combat methods. The Russians captured the Swedish fortresses Nöteborg at the beginning of the Neva in Lake Ladoga and Nyenskanse at the Neva's mouth on the Gulf of Finland. Immediately afterwards, he began constructing his new capital, Saint Petersburg, on the Neva River.
But instead of attempting to retake the fortresses along the Neva River, Karl 12. chose to march on Moscow. The Swedes were victorious in several minor skirmishes, but King Karl never got the major, decisive battle he desired. Wherever they went, the towns had been emptied of people and the fields burned.
In September 1708, when the Swedes were positioned 40 miles from Moscow with an exhausted and rapidly dwindling army, King Karl admitted to quartermaster Axel Gyldenkrok that he had no plan. On September 25., the king decided to break camp and march south, hoping to find more fertile regions, where they could obtain food and rest.
A Swedish force of 12,000 men under General Lewenhaupt was en route from the Baltic provinces with food and ammunition. However, by the time they met, the relief army had dwindled to 7,000 exhausted soldiers without supplies following an encounter with superior Russian units.
The Swedish army suffered enormous losses during its long march due to cold and hunger, as the Russians employed a scorched-earth tactics. Even the local Russian population had never seen anything like this. Thousands of soldiers lost hands, feet, noses, and even genitals in the Russian winter.
King Karl was approached by a Ukrainian hetman (a leader, a kind of king for the Cossacks) named Ivan Mazepa who promised that thousands of Cossacks would join the Swedes, when they arrived in Ukraine.
But when the Swedish army finally reached Ukraine, it faced a large Russian army, and, so the story goes, only a few hundred Cossacks showed up.
The Battle of Poltava on 28. June 1709 in modern-day Ukraine was a turning point in the Great Northern War.
Following his habit, King Karl sought to seize the initiative against the numerically superior Russians. He launched a night attack on their fortified camp, but in the darkness, a large part of the Swedish infantry was cut off from the main army and destroyed. The battle resulted in a total defeat for the Swedish army. General Lewenhaupt was forced to surrender with 15,000 men, most of whom never saw Sweden again.
However, King Karl and Hetman Ivan Mazepa managed to escape to Moldavia, which was controlled by the Turks at the time. He lived there for five years, until November 1714, when he decided to return to Sweden.
The Column of Glory in the Ukrainian city of Poltava, commemorating the Russian victory at the Battle of Poltava in 1709. Foto Vlad Butsky from San Jose, CA, USA. Uploaded by Szczebrzeszynski Wikipedia.
The Dutchman Justus van Effen, who traveled in Sweden in 1710, wrote: "Our drivers were always old, bearded men. Throughout Sweden, I saw no young men between the ages of 20 and 40, except as soldiers. Further inland, we often had boys of 11 or 12 years old as drivers, indeed, more than twenty times we were driven by girls."
When news of Karl 12.'s crushing defeat at Poltava reached Copenhagen, it seemed obvious that an opportunity had arisen to win back the Scanian provinces. On June 28 1709, Augustus the Strong of Saxony - though no longer of Poland - and Frederik 4. of Denmark-Norway once again formed an alliance against Sweden amidst a series of lavish festivities in Dresden. Denmark was to invade Sweden from Zealand and Norway, while Saxony was to attack Poland.
The declaration of war came on 28 October 1709.
Led by Christian Ditlev Reventlow, the Danes landed at Råå on November 12. 1709, just as they had done during the Scanian War in 1675. Inscribed on the baggage wagons was "Aut nunc aut numquam", which is Latin for "now or never".
From a nearby ridge, the Swedish General Stenbock watched the landing. He had only three cavalry regiments with him and dared not launch a counterattack ."I have never learned how cavalry should fight against warships," he reportedly said. Instead, he withdrew to Småland to prepare his counter-offensive.
Just as in the previous war, they succeeded in quickly conquering most of Scania. A few minor skirmishes went in the Danes' favor. The Swedish fleet lay icebound in Karlskrona, a tempting prize, but the Danes did not get that far. A rumor that the Swedes were advancing through Småland caused them to withdraw.
In an incredibly short time, Stenbock had managed to scrape together an army around Växjö. His soldiers were known as "Bocken's Goat-herds." They wore non-regulation uniforms and, it is said, often marched in wooden clogs. Yet there was nothing amiss with their weapons and equipment. Stenbock remarked: "Battles fought in homespun wool jackets are just as good as those fought in the finest uniforms."
The Danish commander-in-chief, Christian Ditlev Reventlow, fell ill and was replaced by Jørgen Rantzau, who lacked the military talents of his Rantzau ancestors.
At the Battle of Helsingborg on March 10. 1710, the Danes held a strong defensive position, but Rantzau ordered the cavalry to counter-attack and personally led the charge with his saber drawn. He became embroiled in fierce hand-to-hand combat and consequently lost sight of the overall situation, an opportunity the experienced Stenbock exploited.
It is estimated that the Danes suffered around 5,000 killed and wounded, with 2,000 to 3,000 taken prisoner. The Swedes' total losses were only around 3,000.
The Danish navy succeeded in evacuating the army, but the entire artillery train and around 4,000 horses could not be taken aboard the ships, and the Danes were unwilling to let the Swedes have them. Consequently, thousands of horses were slaughtered in an indescribable bloodbath. The Danish cavalrymen did not merely kill them, they also slit the animals' bellies open, causing their entrails to spill out, in order to make the subsequent cleanup as difficult as possible for the Swedes.
Nor could the army s vast stores of provisions be taken across the Sound. They were scattered throughout the streets of Helsingborg, until the city eventually looked, and smelled, like a gigantic rubbish dump. The task of cleaning up after the Danish army fell to the city s poor and took several weeks.
In September 1710, an attempt was made to transport a Russian expeditionary force of 6,000 men from Danzig to Scania, escorted by the Danish navy. The attempt failed due to bad weather and communication problems with the Russian ships.
The burning "Dannebroge" during the Battle of Køge Bugt in 1710.
Two naval battles have been fought that are both known as the "Battle of Køge Bugt": the Battle of Køge Bugt in 1677, which was Niels Juel s brilliant victory, and the Battle of Køge Bugt in 1710, where Iver Huitfeldt and his brave crew fought on until their ship, the "Dannebroge", blew up.
Subsequently, the entire Danish fleet - including 26 line ships, frigates and smaller vessels anchored in Køge Bugt to take on board supplies and repair masts and rigging that had been damaged by the bad weather.
On October 4. 1710, Admiral Gyldenløve was holding a meeting with his ship commanders when the lookout reported sighting a large number of sails on the horizon. After some uncertainty, it turned out to be the Swedish fleet, which, with the wind from aft, was steering directly toward the unprepared Danish ships.
Now it became a fight for survival. Anchor ropes were cut, and sailors and soldiers swarmed across the ships in a frenzy of activity, preparing for battle. The decks were cluttered with all manner of things, and in the scramble to clear them, clothing, trunks, chicken coops, geese, ducks, and squealing pigs were thrown overboard.
They succeeded in bringing the ships out into deeper water and arranging them into three battle groups, which cruising against the vind towards the Swedes were ready for combat.
The leading group was under the command of Iver Huitfeldt. However his line ship, Dannebrog, caught fire following a brief exchange of fire. To avoid drifting into the other Danish ships, Huitfeldt dropped anchor. While he continued firing at the Swedish ships, the flames crept ever closer to the powder magazine. Shortly thereafter, the "Dannebrog" exploded with a tremendous blast and sank to the seabed, taking Iver Huitfeldt and his crew of 600 men down with it.
Two Swedish line ships ran aground off Dragør. The Swedes tried to free them, and when this failed, they set them on fire. The following day the Swedish fleet sailed back to Karlskrona.
From his exile in Moldavia, Karl 12. ordered the victorious General Stenbock to come to the aid of the threatened Swedish provinces in northern Germany. Once again, Stenbock managed to raise an army of more than 10,000 men.
He succeeded in evading the Danish blockade and transported the new army from Karlshamn to Rügen, where it landed near Dornbuch. However, the army's supplies remained on the transport ships, and the 70 80 vessels were attacked, burned, or sunk by the Danish fleet under Gyldenløve on September 29. 1712, with the young naval lieutenant Peter Wessel participating enthusiastically.
It took four weeks before Stenbock's army was transported to the mainland.
The Swedish army then marched westward into Mecklenburg, presumably in search of food for the soldiers and fodder for the horses, while awaiting the return of Karl 12.
Here, the Swedes encountered the Danish army on 20 December 1712 at Gadebusch, approximately 30 km southeast of Lübeck. The Danish army is said to have consisted of 6,300 cavalrymen and 9,350 infantrymen, supported by 3,500 Saxon cavalrymen. The Swedish army numbered 6,000 cavalrymen and 7,800 infantrymen. The Swedish army was thus clearly outnumbered, yet superior in terms of artillery and leadership.
The result was a total Swedish victory. The Danish and Saxon forces were split up, and a total of 6,000 men were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner, compared to around 1,600 Swedes. The battle ended at nightfall with cries of distress from the freezing, swampy battlefield, where the wounded begged for help.
After the battle, around 1,500 wounded Danish soldiers were reportedly left without care in the surrounding villages. The Danish staff surgeon Heinrich Hoffmann, who arrived in early January of the new year, still found wounded men, whom no one was attending to. The Swedes had cared for their own, but simply left the enemy's wounded soldiers where they lay.
Field Marshal Magnus Stenbock. 1664 1717. Painting by Johann Heinrich Wedekind. Wikipedia.
Frederik 4. was reportedly present at the battle himself and displayed considerable personal courage.
However, the Swedes were exhausted and followed the retreating Danes only slowly. Along the way, they burned down Altona, even though the town offered to pay 50,000 rigsdalers to be spared.
Magnus Stenbock had likely planned to emulate Karl 10. Gustav by crossing the ice and attacking Copenhagen.
However, hard-pressed by allied armies, the 13,000 exhausted Swedish soldiers sought shelter and safety in February 1713 within the Gottorp fortress of Tønning, located in Holsten north of the Eider s mouth at the North Sea. The entire Eiderstedt peninsula was besieged by Danish and Saxon forces.
The sick and starving Swedish soldiers threatened to mutiny, and Magnus Stenbock was forced to surrender with his entire army on May 15. 1713, though only after they had killed all their horses. Field Marshal Stenbock was taken prisoner to Copenhagen, where he died four years later.
But the Swedes were not yet defeated. Karl 12. decided to return from his exile in Moldavia. Traveling in disguise, he rode the 2,150 km in an incredible 16 days, arriving on the night of November 22-23 in Stralsund, a city under siege by an ever-growing number of enemies, as King Frederick William of Prussia and George 1. King of England and Elector of Hanover, had joined the alliance against Sweden.
As Karl 12. remained in Stralsund, it was expected that a Swedish army would be transported to Pomerania so that he could launch attacks on his enemies from there. Danish reconnaissance vessels kept the Swedish fleet at Karlskrona under intermittent observation, and the outfitting of the main Danish fleet was accelerated.
In early April 1715, Schoutbynacht Wachtmeister sailed from Karlskrona with four line ships and two frigates. The squadron drove off the Danish ships, and the frigate Hvita ørn even captured the Danish frigate "Ørnen" off Rügen after a two-hour battle.
As early as April 17., a Danish squadron under Gabel, comprising eight line ships and two frigates, including Løvendals Galej under Peter Wessel, left its anchorage in the Sound to pursue Wachtmeister.
The squadrons clashed in a naval battle late in the day on April 24, 1715, off Fehmern. Early in the evening, the Swedes attempted to break through a gap in the Danish line, but the Danish ships closed ranks in time and managed to subject the leading Swedish line ship, "Södermanland", to such heavy fire that it lost its bowsprit and its captain was killed. Under the cover of darkness, Wachtmeister tried to escape through the Great Belt, but the wind and current were against him, and he was forced to head toward the narrow western part of the Baltic known as Kolberger Heide, the very place where Christian 4. lost an eye in 1644.
Among the Swedish ships was the legendary frigate Hvita Örnen, considered the fastest ship in Scandinavia. Under its captain, Printz, it had captured a number of Danish prizes and defeated two Danish frigates.
Peter Wessel, ennobled as Tordenskjold (1690 1720), painted in the autumn of 1719 by Balthasar Denner. The naval hero gifted the painting to his brother, Caspar Wessel.
At the 1923 auction of Emil Glückstadt s art collection, Norwegian and Danish bids drove the price of the painting to a record 79,000 kroner. It has since hung at the Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle. H. E. Gosch & Co., which provided financial support for the purchase, has featured the portrait on its matchboxes since 1882.
Balthasar Denner Wikipedia.
During the pursuit, Peter Wessel was the first to reach the Swedish squadron, which had run aground at Bülck Hoved at the entrance to Kiel Fjord and was already in the process of destroying its ships. However, invoking Gabel s name, Wessel threatened the Swedish squadron commander, Wachtmeister, warning that his crews would be shown no mercy unless he immediately ceased the destruction. Wachtmeister thereupon struck his colors to Wessel, threw his sword overboard, and surrendered. Wessel then sailed to meet Gabel with the Swedish admiral on board.
The Swedish flagship "Hedvig Sofie" was too badly damaged to be salvaged, but the other three line ships and two frigates were refloated in the following days and subsequently incorporated into the Danish navy.
In recognition of his efforts, Peter Wessel was given command of the "Hvita ørnen", which was renamed "Hvide Ørn".
In the autumn of 1715, commanding the 30-gun "Hvide Ørn" he engaged two Swedish ships, the 54-gun line ship Ösel and the 30-gun frigate Gotland and put them to flight after a five-hour battle. Together with his earlier exploits, this victory earned him the noble title of Tordenskjold on 24 February 1716.
The Swedish fortress of Stralsund capitulated on Christmas Day 1715, but a few days earlier, Karl 12. had managed to leave the city in a small boat. After an absence of 15 years, he again set foot on Swedish soil near Ystad.
Sweden had lost its entire empire, except for the Finland we know today. Werden-Bremen, Wismar, Stralsund, Livland, Estonia, and Ingemanland had all been lost.
The other allied powers, Saxony, Prussia, England, Hanover, and Russia, had largely got what they wanted and had no longer much appetite for war. The final phase of the Great Northern War was essentially a conflict between Sweden and Denmark-Norway.
The Swedish king succeeded in raising a new army. He intended to attack Denmark by crossing the ice on the Øresund, just as his famous ancestor Karl 10. Gustav had crossed the Little Belt and the Great Belt. However, the ice on the Øresund broke up following a severe storm, and the plan had to be abandoned.
After that, he decided to conquer Norway.
Norwegian place names in the final phase of the Great Northern War. Fredriksten Fortress is located in the town of Fredrikshald, known today as Halden. Own work.
Karl 12. then chose to invade Norway from Halland and Bohuslän, transporting his supplies by ship along the Kattegat coast. He bypassed the Fredriksten fortress in the town of Fredrikshald and captured Christiania without major difficulty, but without siege artillery, he was unable to do anything against the Akershus fortress.
A Danish relief force cut off the Swedish supply line at Moss, prompting Karl 12. to withdraw from Christiania along the Glomma River and instead lay siege to the fortress of Fredriksten, which was skillfully defended by the Colbjørnsen brothers.
The inhabitants of the town of Fredrikshald set fire to their own houses, so that the Swedish soldiers would have no cover against fire from the fortress.
A major assault on July 4, 1716, failed, resulting in heavy Swedish losses. Four days later, Karl 12. received word that Tordenskjold had destroyed his entire supply fleet in the Dynekilen fjord.
The action at Dynekilen on 8 July 1716 was Tordenskjold's greatest feat. He surprised and destroyed a large Swedish transport fleet, thereby preventing a Swedish invasion of Norway.
The Swedes considered Dynekilden impossible to attack from the sea, as it is a narrow fjord that precludes maneuvering, allowing only for a frontal assault. Furthermore, the Swedes had positioned a battery of cannons on a small islet at the fjord's entrance. The supply fleet was also guarded by approximately 400 soldiers. However, Tordenskjold possessed a decisive advantage, namely the superior artillery firepower of his gun barges.
Tordenskjold commanded two frigates, "Hvide Ø;rn" and "Vindhunden", two gun-barges, "Hielperen" and "Arca Noa", and three galleys, "Louise", "Prins Christian", and "Charlotte Amalie."
The attack began at six or seven in the morning. It was a dramatic affair, as the towline to the gun-barge "Hielperen" snapped during the towing operation. Both the barge and the galley towing it ran aground quite close to the Swedish battery on the small islet. However, after fierce fighting, the Danes succeeded in capturing the gun battery, destroying the cannons, and getting the barge under tow again.
Around 13.00 military time, the Danish squadron reached the bottom of Dynekilen, where the transport ships were anchored. The Swedish galleys tasked with defending them were run aground by their crews themselves, who then fled in fear of the overwhelming artillery power of Tordenskjold s gun barges. The crews of the supply fleet did the same. However, they had not wasted their time. instead, they had used it to place burning fuses connected to gunpowder containers and tar barrels throughout the vessels, intending to destroy the ships, which carried ample supplies of gunpowder, so they would not fall into Danish hands.
It was a race against time to extinguish the fuses before everything exploded..
Dynekilen on Google Maps. It is 6 7 km from the entrance to the bottom of the fjord.
The action at Dynekilen was an overwhelming Danish victory, costing the Danish side only 19 killed and 57 wounded. They succeeded in capturing the gun barge "Stenbocken" and possibly nine transport ships laden with supplies, five galleys, and other naval vessels. The remaining ships, perhaps between six and twenty vessels, were set on fire and thus destroyed.
Carl 12. could not continue the war in Norway without supplies, and therefore he abandoned the siege of Fredriksten, retreated rapidly across Svinesund, and burned the bridges behind him. By July 12 1716, not a single Swedish soldier remained in Norway.
As a result of this incident, Frederik 4. appointed Tordenskjold a commander.
But Karl 12. had not forgotten Norway. In the autumn of 1718, he invaded the country with an even larger army than the previous time, namely around 36,000 men divided into several armies. He had left only about 14,000 men behind to defend southern Sweden.
The King himself led the largest army against southern Norway, while General Carl Gustaf Armfeldt commanded the smaller army that entered Trøndelag. The Swedes attempted to besiege Trondheim but faced great difficulties in obtaining food.
Karl 12. himself advanced directly against the Fredriksten fortress. By proceeding systematically and first capturing the border areas, he hoped to avoid a fiasco similar to the one in 1716.
The Frederiksten garrison, numbering between 1,400 and 1,800 men, fought fiercely to hold their ground against the large Swedish force, commanded personally by their king. But the Norwegian garrison suffered a severe setback, when the forward bastion, Gyldenløve s Bastion, fell on December 8, 1718. Encouraged by this hard-won success, the Swedish army intensified its assault on the main fortress.
Detail of the painting "The Funeral Procession of Karl 12.," painted by Gustaf Cederström (1845 1933). It hangs in the Gothenburg Museum of Art. The subject is the retreat of Swedish forces following the failed siege of Fredriksten in 1718, during which the Swedish king was shot and killed. Photo Wikimedia Commons.
But on the evening of 30. November 1718, Karl 12. inspected the trenches in front of Fredriksten. Between the time 20.00 and 21.00 millitary time, he was hit in the temple by a bullet and killed instantly.
Thereafter, the Swedish troops at Fredriksten abandoned all further fighting and brought the body of their fallen king back to Sweden.
When the starving Swedish army in Trøndelag learned that their king had died, they too abandoned all further hostilities and began a retreat. However, while crossing the Tydal mountains, the army was surprised by a fierce snowstorm, that claimed the lives of 3,000 Swedish soldiers.
The death of Karl 12. marked the end of Sweden s era as a great power, and it was expected that the new king, Frederik 1., who was Karl s brother-in-law would seek peace. The Swedes were weary of the many wars, which had dragged on far too long. Sweden was exhausted, impoverished, and on the brink of collapse, while the Russians were burning and pillaging along the Swedish Baltic coast.
Nevertheless, the new Swedish king rejected all peace proposals from Denmark.
Reluctantly, the Danish King Frederik 4. assembled an army and advanced from Norway into Bohuslän. In this context, Vice Admiral Tordenskjold was ordered to attack and capture the Swedish naval base, including the ships, on the island of Marstrand, located about 20 km north of Gothenburg, where it was protected by the formidable Karlsten Fortress under the command of Heinrich Dankwart.
The Swedish military was in a wretched state. The fortress's soldiers were primarily Polish and Saxon prisoners of war, who had been persuaded to enter Swedish military service, and Commander Dankwart did not trust them.
The ships could not set sail because there were no sailors to man them. Soldiers, craftsmen and officers were dissatisfied because they had not been paid their wages for a very long time.
There is strong evidence that Marstrand s commander was in a state of deep depression. He could no longer see how he could fulfill his duties with the resources at his disposal. It likely seemed to him that his situation was fundamentally unfair and that the war was meaningless.
According to a surviving letter, Tordenskjold offered the commander of the Carlsten fortress "to inspect the preparations made for the attack," and he accepted the offer.
According to legend, Tordenskjold then led his soldiers from street to street, ensuring that the intoxicated Swedish officers were shown the same troops repeatedly. This led them to believe that Tordenskjold commanded far more men than the 200 300 he actually had. This gave rise to the expression "Tordenskjold's soldiers", used, for instance, to describe an association where the same people show up to every event time and time again.
It is not known whether Tordenskjold actually shouted, "What the hell are you hesitating for?" when he personally appeared at the fortress to urge the reluctant commander to accept the offer of capitulation in exchange for a free march out. But the fact that he ventured right up to the fortress walls is certain.
In the subsequent martial court case following the ignominious capitulation, the Swedish officers were sentenced to death because they had failed to seize this obvious opportunity to neutralize the dreaded enemy.
The impatient Tordenskjold addresses a humble Danckwardt in Marstrand: "What the devil are you hesitating for?" Painting by Otto Bache, "Manly Courage and Royal Favor." The original is in the Funen Art Museum, Odense. Foto Wikimedia Commons.
However, as might have been expected, the Danish army did not advance far into Bohuslän before the English king intervened, threatening to declare war on Denmark-Norway if it did not come to the negotiating table. It had become a mantra among the European powers that the same power must not control both sides of the vital strait, Øresund. Furthermore, the English were afraid of the Russian advance in the Baltic Sea.
Under the Treaty of Frederiksborg of 14 July 1720, brokered with the assistance of Great Britain and France, Denmark gained no territory other than the Gottorp part of Slesvig-Holsten, even though, at the end of the war, it held possession of Bohuslän, Marstrand, Stralsund, Wismar, Rügen, and parts of Western Pomerania.
However, Denmark received a cash payment for the conquered Swedish territories and increased revenue from the Sound Dues, as Swedish ships were henceforth also required to pay the fee.
On July 4, 1721, Frederik 4. had himself acclaimed as hereditary ruler of Slesvig and Holsten by an assembly of estates in the Duchies of Slesvig and Holsten, thereby taking over the ducal portions of the old Danish fief Slesvig.
To celebrate the peace, Frederik 4. had a palace built by Lake Esrum in North Zealand, which he named Fredensborg.
