Charles (of Sweden) XII - Campaigns, Death

King of Sweden (1697–1718), born in Stockholm, Sweden, the son of Charles XI. Following an alliance against him by Denmark, Poland, and Russia, he attacked Denmark (1699), and compelled the Danes to sue for peace. He then defeated the Russians at Narva (1700), and dethroned Augustus II of Poland (1704). He invaded Russia again in 1707, and was at first victorious, but when Cossack help failed to arrive, he was defeated at Poltava (1709). He escaped to Turkey, where he stayed until 1714. He then formed another army and attacked Norway, but was killed at the siege of Halden. After his death, Sweden, exhausted by his wars, ceased to be numbered among the great powers.

Swedish Royalty   House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken Charles X Gustav Children    Charles XI Charles XI Children    Hedvig Sophia, Duchess of Holstein-Gottorp]]    Charles XII    Ulrika Eleonora Charles XII Ulrika Eleonora

Carl XII, Karl XII or Carolus Rex, (June 17, 1682 – November 30, 1718), the Alexander of the North, nicknamed in Turkish as Demirbaş Şarl (Charles the Habitué), was a King of Sweden from 1697 until his death in 1718. Charles XII turned out to be more astute than the other powers had imagined, a great tactician, defeating all of the opponents.

Campaigns

Charles's first campaign was against Denmark, ruled by his cousin Frederick IV of Denmark, which threatened a Swedish ally, Frederick IV of Holstein-Gottorp (another cousin of Charles XII, and married to his sister Hedvig Sophia). Denmark's defeat, however, and Sweden's ensuing rise to prominence in the Baltic region was viewed suspiciously by two other powerful neighbors, King August II of Poland (cousin to both Charles XII and Frederick IV of Denmark) and Peter the Great of Russia. Charles countered this by attacking the Russian garrison at the Battle of Narva. Still, Charles attacked under cover of a blizzard, and effectively split the Russian army in two.

Charles, disregarding his advisors, didn't pursue the Russian army. Charles defeated the Polish king Augustus II and his Saxon allies at the Battle of Kliszow in 1702 and captured many important cities of the Commonwealth. After the deposition of the king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Charles XII filled the void with his own man, Stanisław Leszczynski .

Meanwhile, while Charles enjoyed easy victories in the Commonwealth, the Russian Tsar Peter the Great embarked on a giant military reform plan that soon begun to bear fruit. This prompted Charles to make the fatal decision to attack the Russian heartland with an assault on Moscow, allying himself with Ivan Mazepa, Hetman of the Ukrainian Cossacks. Peter the Great managed to cripple Swedish forces near the Baltic coast before Charles could combine his forces, and Charles' Polish ally, Stanislaw Leszczynski, was facing internal problems of his own. Charles expected the support of a massive Cossack rebellion led by Mazepa in Ukraine but the Russians destroyed the rebel army before they could aid the Swedes. By the time of the decisive Battle of Poltava, Charles had been wounded, one-third of his infantry was dead, and his vulnerable supply train destroyed. The battle was a disaster, and Charles fled south to the Ottoman Empire, where he set up camp at Bender with about 1000 men who were called Caroleans ("Karoliner" in Swedish). The Poltava Swedish disaster marked both the end of the Swedish Empire and the rise of Russian Empire.

The Turks initially welcomed the Swedish king, who managed to incite a war between the Ottomans and the Russians.

Death

Seeing his very kingdom threatened, Charles fled the Ottoman Empire and rode across Europe in just fifteen days to return to Swedish Pomerania after the sultan's forces arrived at his doorstep.

Preceded by: Charles XI	King of Sweden 1697–1718	Succeeded by: Ulrika Eleonora Queen of Sweden
	Duke of Zweibrücken 1697–1718	Succeeded by: Gustav Samuel Leopold