Historical "riddles" will become "clues" if you understand the course of world politics. Then the story will be filled with meaning, and there will be almost no "blank spots" left.
One of these historical mysteries is the amazing and strange death of the Swedish king Charles XII. The same one that in 1700 defeated the Russian army near Narva, and nine years later he himself was defeated by Peter the Great near Poltava.
Charles XII. Georg Desmarues.
Battle of Poltava.
To begin with, a few words about the personality of this warrior king, starting his military career at the age of 18, Charles, who had seemed like a fool before that, quickly became the most popular military leader in Europe.
Portrait of Charles XII as a child. David Klöcker Ehrenstral.
Broken Denmark, defeated Russian Tsar Peter, defeated Saxon elector (he is also the Polish king). Charles took turns defeating all three opponents, who united against Sweden, believing that the young king would not be able to resist them.
King of Denmark and Norway Frederick IV, Russian Tsar Peter I, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland August II the Strong.
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Charles XII was brave and even reckless. During the Narva battle, he so briskly led his soldiers into the attack that he lost his jackboots. At the time of the Battle of Poltava, Karl was carried on a stretcher, since the day before he was wounded in the leg.
Triumph near Narva. Gustav Söderström.
After a terrible defeat near Poltava, the ENTIRE Swedish army was captured, and the king himself fled to the Turks and lived in the city of Bender, which today is on the territory of Transnistria. This is the question that Russia has "occupied" everyone. Someone would like Turkish troops to be stationed on the territory of Moldova and Ukraine (and the fortress of Izmail is here!)? So tell me that you are shy …
But back to King Charles. When "visiting" the Sultan, he behaved very violently, demanded to fight with Russia. As a result, the Turks simply put the Swedish king under arrest, so as not to interfere. As a result, the head of Sweden lived on Turkish territory for five and a half years. At the same time, no one said that “he had lost legitimacy,” and the Swedish state continued to fight with Russia and its allies.
Having tasted Turkish "hospitality", Charles XII ran away from them. One day they knocked at the gates of the Swedish city of Stralsund, located in Germany. This was the Swedish king who fled from his "Turkish friends" and traveled incognito across Europe.
I must say that after returning to his kingdom, he had to decide what to do next. At that time, the strongest powers in the world were England and France. The War of the Spanish Succession has just ended, in which Spain and France lost. Remaining the world hegemon, Great Britain looked with dismay at the growth of the power of Russia and Charles's "raid" on the territory of today's Ukraine, which ended in Poltava, was caused, among other things, by the reasons of the Great World Politics. From 1700 to 1709, the Swedish king had no time to deal with the Russians. And then he was "prompted" by the British, who were solving two problems at once:
floated to the war the Swedish army, which could be lured to its side by the defeated France;
with the hands of the Swedes to push back the Russians, stop their growth.
Charles XII made the decision to go to Russia after meeting with the Duke John of Marlborough, the ancestor of Sir Winston Churchill.
Meeting of Charles XII and the Duke of Marlborough in Altranstadt. Henry Edward Dyle.
Returning from Turkey, the Swedish king decides to stop being a tool in English hands. He was offended at London because having sent him to Russia in 1708, after Poltava, the British did not lift a finger to pull him out of the "honorable captivity" in Turkey. No help was provided. He had to flee from there himself. The result for an active, ambitious king, forced from the sidelines to watch helplessly as Sweden is being torn to pieces - five and a half wasted years. Of course, the army and navy of the Swedes are not large enough to fully fight the British. But there is another option.
The fact is that a coup d'état has recently taken place in Great Britain. The army of William of Orange landed on the Island and overthrew the king. Charles approaches the exiled Stuart claimant to the English throne, James III, the son of the ousted King James II.
Wilhelm's disembarkation at Torbay.
The plans of the Swedish and Russian monarchs coincide - England begins to interfere with both of them. Peter the Great, Great Britain puts a spoke in the wheels and therefore its elimination by the hands of the Swedes is an excellent option for the king. What Peter was going to do later in reality will be repeated by Stalin: to remove one enemy with the hands of another, raised first. This is exactly what Stalin will do in 1939, when he redirects Hitler grown by the British and French to themselves. England helped and set Karl against Russia - let Karl now arrange a coup on the Island.
In the spring and summer of 1716, in The Hague and then in Amsterdam, Prince Kurakin held preliminary negotiations with the Swedes "for peace", at which a blow to Britain was discussed. It was about Charles XII in 1717 landing 12 thousand soldiers in Scotland, where the position of the Jacobites was especially strong. What assistance in organizing the rebellion and coup d'état in England, Russia was supposed to provide Sweden, is not known thoroughly today, but some researchers write about the contacts of Peter himself with James III and negotiations with representatives of Charles XII, including a very authoritative source - the classic of geopolitics Admiral A. T. Mahen.
“Alberoni tried to bolster his military power with diplomatic efforts throughout Europe. Russia and Sweden were involved in the plan to invade England in the interests of the Stuarts. (A. T. Mahen, The role of naval forces in history, M, Tsentrpoligraf, 2008).
But the British uncovered the conspiracy. And struck a preemptive blow. The Swedish envoy to London, Earl of Gillenborg, was arrested at the embassy, and the embassy's documents were seized. In a news release, London indicated that the Swedish envoy had deprived himself of the right to protection, which he should have enjoyed in accordance with international law. In the Netherlands, a new Swedish envoy, Baron Goertz, who arrived in this country, was arrested. Speaking before parliament, the British king announced that the letters from Gillenborg and Goertz contained plans for an invasion of England. Outraged parliamentarians passed a law banning trade with Sweden.
In response to the arrest of Gillenborg and Hertz, the Swedish king ordered the arrest of the British resident minister in Stockholm Jackson, and forbade the envoy of the Dutch States General in Stockholm to appear at court …
Peter I continues to build an anti-British coalition, despite the failure. On August 4 (15), 1717 in Amsterdam, Russia, France and Prussia signed a treatise "for the maintenance of general silence in Europe." In accordance with which, the three powers entered into a defensive alliance, which provided for a mutual guarantee of the security of possessions.
In May 1718, a new round of Russian-Swedish negotiations begins, in which Russia is trying not only to end the war with the Swedes, but also to direct Sweden against London again. Contacts began on the Åland Islands and went down in history as the Åland Congress. The list of members of the Swedish delegation is quite typical - Charles XII again directs Baron Goertz (head of the delegation) and Count Gillenborg. That is, the head of Sweden sends two diplomats to negotiate with Russia, who were arrested by the British and the Dutch just a year ago on charges of preparing a coup d'etat in Foggy Albion and after sitting there in prison, they “loved” England more than ever.
Peter suggested to Karl to fight with his former Danes for Norway and "ask" Hanover to return the land in Germany by armed means. And I remind you that Hanover belonged to the English king …
In response, the British acted in their own way - in 1718, an English squadron appeared in the Baltic Sea. This was putting pressure on both St. Petersburg and Stockholm. However, it had no effect. Well, except that Russia had prepared for all sorts of surprises: in case of British aggression in Kronstadt, measures were taken for protection: three large ships were prepared for sinking at the entrance to the harbor.
And what about Karl? In the fall of 1718, he again invaded Norway, which was then part of Denmark. Let us repeat the dates again: May 1718, the beginning of negotiations with the Russians, the fall of 1718, the invasion of the Swedes into Norway.
As we agreed with Peter I …
In London, it became clear that after the implementation of the first agreement "on Norway", the Russians and the Swedes could begin to implement their anti-Hanoverian - anti-British plans.
What happened next is still considered one of the historical mysteries. On November 30, 1718 (December 11, new style), the Swedish king Charles XII was killed with a single shot during the siege of the Norwegian fort of Frederikshall (now Halden). The story is very dark. Charles XII was in a trench, which was LOWER than the walls of the enemy fort. The firing range of the then smoothbore flintlock gun was 300 meters. Sniper scopes hadn't been invented yet, but snipers were already there. Because the Swedish king was killed by a sniper shot. In a moment of lull, he went into the trench to inspect the positions. And got a bullet in the head. In this case, the bullet did not hit the king's head from top to bottom, i.e. not from the fortress wall, but from the side - into the temple. This means that the "unknown sniper" was somewhere near the trench.
Who was behind the death of the Swedish king and why this murder is still "not solved", I hope, now it is clear …
Karl's assassination will dramatically change the entire geopolitical situation and at once put an end to the possibility of Russian-Swedish joint actions against Hanover (England) in Europe. The new queen, his sister Ulrika-Eleanor, having ascended the throne, breaks off negotiations with the Russians, immediately making unacceptable demands. The new queen of Sweden does not want peace, because the UK behind her is interested in continuing the war between Stockholm and St. Petersburg.
Coffin of Charles XII in Stockholm.
The war between Russia and Sweden will last for three more years, and only in 1721 the Peace of Nishtad will be concluded. The war with Sweden lasted 21 years and ended … with the purchase of territories from Stockholm. Russia paid the Swedes millions of silver thalers for the lands that were included in it (Estonia, part of Latvia, the territory of Karelia to Vyborg).
The answer to the question why the winner bought land from the defeated is simple - Sweden was the strongest power of that time, and Peter the Great considered it good to end the war.
In 1917-1918, the territories we BUY from the Swedes and then from the Duke of Courland SUDDENLY will call themselves independent states, completely violating international law …
Nikolay Starikov
