Age of Liberty - The Great Northern War

The Great Northern War

Charles XI of Sweden had carefully provided against the contingency of his successor's minority; and the five regents appointed by him, if not great statesmen, were at least practical politicians who had not been trained in his austere school in vain. At home the "Reduction" was cautiously pursued, while abroad the successful conclusion of the great peace congress at Ryswick was justly regarded as a signal triumph of Sweden's peaceful diplomacy. The young king was full of promise, and had he been permitted gradually to gain experience and develop his naturally great talents under the guidance of his guardians, as his father had intended, all might have been well for Sweden. Unfortunately, the sudden, noiseless revolution of 6 November 1697 which made Charles XII of Sweden absolute master of his country's fate in his fifteenth year, and the league of Denmark, Saxony and Russia, formed two years later to partition Sweden, precipitated Sweden into a sea of troubles in which she was finally submerged.

From the very beginning of the Great Northern War, Sweden suffered from the inability of Charles XII to view the situation from anything but a purely personal point of view. (This view is not shared by all historians. There are others who claim that the young king did what was best under the circumstances.) Great determination to avenge himself on enemies overpowered every other consideration. Again and again during these eighteen years of warfare it was in his power to dictate an advantageous peace. After the dissipation of the first coalition against him by the Treaty of Travendal on 18 August 1700 and the victory at the Battle of Narva on 20 November 1700 the Swedish Chancellor, Bengt Oxenstierna, rightly regarded the universal bidding for the favour of Sweden by France and the maritime powers, then on the eve of the War of the Spanish Succession, as a golden opportunity of "ending this present lean war and making his majesty the arbiter of Europe." But Charles, intent on dethroning Augustus II of Poland, held haughtily aloof. Subsequently in 1701 he rejected a personal appeal from William III of England to conclude peace on his own terms. Five years later on September 24, 1706 he did, indeed, conclude the Polish War by the Treaty of Altranstädt, but as this treaty brought no advantage to Sweden, not even compensation for the expenses of six years of warfare, it was politically condemnable.

Moreover, two of Sweden's Baltic provinces, Estonia and Ingria, had been seized by the tsar, and a third, Livonia, had been well-nigh ruined. Yet even now Charles, by a stroke of the pen, could have recovered nearly everything he had lost. In 1707 Peter was ready to retrocede everything except Saint Petersburg and the line of the Neva, and again Charles preferred risking the whole to saving the greater part of his Baltic possessions. When at last, after the catastrophe of Poltava in June 1709 and the flight into Turkey, he condescended to use diplomatic methods, it was solely to prolong, not to terminate, the war. Even now he could have made honourable terms with his numerous enemies. The resources of Sweden were still very far from being exhausted, and during 1710 - 1711 the gallant Magnus Stenbock upheld her military supremacy in the north. But all the efforts of the Swedish government were wrecked on the determination of Charles XII to surrender nothing. Thus he rejected advantageous offers of mediation and alliance made to him, during 1712, by the maritime powers and by Prussia; and in 1714 he scorned the friendly overtures of Louis XIV of France and the emperor, so that when peace was finally concluded between France and the Empire, at the Congress of Baden, Swedish affairs were, by common consent, left out of consideration. When, on September 14, 1714, he suddenly returned to his dominions, Stralsund and Wismar were all that remained to him of his continental possessions; while by the end of 1715 Sweden, now fast approaching the last stage of exhaustion, was at open war with Great Britain, Hanover, Russia, Prussia, Saxony and Denmark, who had formed a coalition to partition her continental territory between them. Nevertheless, at this the eleventh hour of her opportunities, Sweden might still have saved something from the wreck of her empire if Charles had behaved like a reasonable being; but he would consent only to play off Russia against England, and his sudden death before Fredriksten, at Fredrikshald on 11 December 1718 left Sweden practically at the end of her resources and at the mercy of her enemies. At the beginning of 1719 pacific overtures were made to England, Hanover, Prussia and Denmark. By the Treaties of Stockholm on February 20, 1719 and February 1, 1720 Hanover and obtained the Duchies of Bremen and Verden for herself and Southern Swedish Pomerania with Stettin for her confederate Brandenburg-Prussia. Northern Swedish Pomerania with Rügen, which during the War came under Danish rule, was retained by Sweden.

By the Treaty of Frederiksborg or Copenhagen on 3 July 1720 peace was also signed between Denmark and Sweden, Denmark retroceding Rügen, Further Pomerania as far as the Peene, and Wismar to Sweden, in exchange for an indemnity of 600,000 Riksdaler, while Sweden relinquished her exemption from the Sound tolls and her protectorate over Holstein-Gottorp. The prospect of coercing Russia by means of the British fleet had alone induced Sweden to consent to such sacrifices; but when the last demands of Britain and her allies had been complied with, Sweden was left to come to terms as best she could with the tsar. Negotiations were reopened with Russia at Nystad, in May 1720, but peace was not concluded till August 30, 1721 and then only under the direst pressure. By the Treaty of Nystad Sweden ceded to Russia Ingria and Estonia, Livonia, the Finnish province of Kexholm and Viborg Castle. Finland west of Viborg and north of Käkisalmi was restored to Sweden. She also received an indemnity of two million Riksdaler and a solemn undertaking of non-interference in her domestic affairs. It was not the least of Sweden's misfortunes after the Great Northern War that the new constitution, which was to compensate her for all her past sacrifices, should contain within it the elements of many of her future calamities.