King Charles XII of Sweden was compared by contemporaries to Alexander the Great. This monarch, just like the great king of antiquity, already at a young age achieved the glory of a great commander, he was just as unpretentious in campaigns (according to the Saxon general Schulenberg, “he dressed like a simple dragoon and just dined just as easily”), as well personally participated in battles, risking his life and getting injured.
However, in my opinion, he is much more like Richard the Lionheart - the king-knight, who was looking for "the most sophisticated dangers" in war.
And Karl, too, according to the testimony of many memoirists, did not hide his joy at the sight of the enemy and even clapped his hands, addressing those around him: "They are coming, they are coming!"
And he came in a bad mood if the enemy suddenly retreated without a fight, or did not offer strong resistance.
Richard often returned after the battle "prickly, like a hedgehog, from arrows stuck in his shell."
And Charles XII played with fate, constantly getting involved in unnecessary battles and skirmishes in the most unfavorable conditions. In 1701, it suddenly occurred to him to make a raid on the territory of Lithuania: taking only 2 thousand people with him, he disappeared for a month, surrounded by Oginsky's troops, reached Kovno, and returned to his camp with only 50 cavalrymen.
During the siege of Thorn, Karl set up his tent so close to the walls that bullets and cannon balls of the Saxons constantly flew to it - several officers from his retinue were killed. Count Pieper tried to protect the king, at least by placing a haystack in front of the tent - Karl ordered to remove it.
In 1708, at Grodno, on the bridge over the Neman, the king personally killed two officers of the enemy army. In the same year, he, at the head of the Ostgotland cavalry regiment, attacked the superior forces of the Russian cavalry. As a result, this regiment was surrounded, a horse was killed under Karl, and he fought on foot, until other Swedish units approached.
In Norway, in the battle at Golandskoy manor, during a night attack by the Danes, Karl defended the camp gates, killing five enemy soldiers, and even engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the commander of the attackers, Colonel Kruse - this is really an episode worthy of any "Royal Saga" …
Richard was captured in Austria, and Karl spent several years in the Ottoman Empire.
Charles XII had better starting conditions (and even he was born "in a shirt") - Sweden, at the time of his accession to the throne, was the second largest state in Europe in size (second only to Russia). The kingdom included Finland, Karelia, Livonia, Ingermanlandia, Estonia, most of Norway, part of Pomerania, Bremen, Verden and Wismar. And the Swedish army was the best in the world. By 1709, she had already suffered losses, and her quality had deteriorated, but the Saxon general Schulenberg wrote about the army that went to Poltava:
“The infantry impressed with order, discipline and piety. Although it consisted of different nations, deserters were unknown in it."
Having started well, Richard and Karl ended up alike, practically ruining their respective states and leaving them in a state of deep crisis.
And the death of these monarchs was equally inglorious. Richard was mortally wounded during the siege of the castle of Viscount Ademar V, Charles was killed during the siege of the fortress of Fredriksten, becoming the last monarch of Europe to fall on the battlefield.
Charles XII himself understood that his behavior did not correspond to the royal rank, but he said: "It is better to call me crazy than a coward."
But after the Battle of Poltava, Charles XII was no longer compared with Alexander the Great, but with Don Quixote (because he got into an unnecessary skirmish with the Russians on the eve of the most important battle) and with Achilles (because during this ridiculous collision he was wounded in the heel):
No worse than a Russian shooter
Sneak into the night to become the enemy;
Dump like a Cossack today
And exchange a wound for a wound, - wrote about this A. S. Pushkin.
Charles XII after Poltava
It is with the defeat of the Swedes at Poltava that we begin our main story. Then Charles XII, yielding to the requests of those close to him, left the army and crossed the Dnieper, heading for Ochakov. The next day, his entire army (according to Swedish data, 18,367 people), left on the other side, surrendered to the 9,000th cavalry detachment of Alexander Menshikov.
The Zaporozhye Cossacks were not included in this number, since they were considered not prisoners of war, but traitors. General Levengaupt, whom Karl left in command, bargained for quite decent conditions for the surrender of the Swedish soldiers and (especially) officers, but did not bother for the "Untermensch", willingly betraying the unlucky allies. He dined with gusto with Menshikov, watching the Zaporozhian people “driven away like cattle,” killing on the spot those who showed the slightest disobedience.
Charles XII was accompanied on his way by about 2800 people - Swedish soldiers and officers, as well as part of Mazepa's Cossacks. These Cossacks were extremely hostile to the hetman, and only the Swedes then protected him from reprisals. Some of the Cossacks left the retreating altogether - and this turned out to be an extremely wise decision.
At the Bug, the detachments of Karl and Mazepa were forced to stay due to the fact that the Ochakov commandant Mehmet Pasha, embarrassed and even frightened by so many armed people who wanted to move to the territory under his control, allowed only the king and his retinue to cross. The rest were forced to remain on the opposite bank, waiting for permission from the Sultan, or from higher authorities, to which the commandant sent messengers with a notice of the situation that arose near the borders of the empire. Having received a bribe, he nevertheless gave permission to transport the detachments of Karl and Mazepa to his own shore, but it was too late: detachments of Russian cavalry appeared at the Bug. 600 people managed to get to the Turkish coast, the rest were killed or drowned in the river, 300 Swedes were captured.
According to some reports, Karl sent a complaint to Sultan Ahmet III about the actions of Mehmet Pasha, as a result of which he received a silk lace, which meant an unspoken order to hang himself.
Karl XII and Mazepa in Bender
On August 1, 1709, Karl XII and Hetman Mazepa arrived in the city of Bender, which is now part of the Transnistrian Republic. Here the king was received with all kinds of honor by the seraskir Yusuf Pasha, who greeted him with a salute from artillery pieces and even presented him with the keys to the city. Since Karl decided to settle outside the city, a house was built for him in the camp, and then houses for officers and barracks for soldiers: it turned out to be something like a military town.
But seraskir reacted to Mazepa with contempt - when he complained that he was not given premises in Bendery, he said: if the hetman was not satisfied with the magnificent palaces that Peter I gave him, then he, moreover, could not find him a decent room.
On September 21 (October 2), 1709, an unfortunate traitor and the current hero of Ukraine died in Bender.
On March 11, 1710, Peter I, at the request of the new hetman (Skoropadsky), issued a manifesto prohibiting insulting the Little Russian people, reproaching him for betraying Mazepa. The attitude of the Little Russians themselves to Mazepa is characterized by rumors that spread among them that the hetman did not die, but, having accepted the schema, took refuge in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in order to atone for the sin of betrayal.
And in vain there is a sad stranger
I would look for the hetman's grave:
Forgotten Mazepa for a long time!
Only in a triumphant shrine
Once a year anathema to this day
Thundering, the cathedral thunders about him.
(A. S. Pushkin.)
King's strange behavior
Meanwhile, in Bendery, events began to develop according to an absolutely incredible and phantasmagoric scenario. France and the Netherlands offered to help Charles, offering ships that would take him to Stockholm. Austria promised him free passage through Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire. Moreover, Peter I and August the Strong issued a statement that they would not interfere with the return of their opponent to Sweden. Charles XII for some reason refused to return to his homeland. He entered into correspondence with Sultan Akhmet III, was engaged in horse riding, drilled soldiers, played chess. By the way, his manner of playing was distinguished by a rare originality: more often than any other pieces, he moved the king, so he lost all games.
The Sultan ordered the supply of provisions to Charles XII's camp free of charge, and the Swedes liked the local cuisine very much. When they returned home, the "caroliners" (sometimes also called "carolines") brought with them some recipes. Familiar to many tourists who have visited Turkey, kyufta turned into Swedish meatballs, and dolma turned into stuffed cabbage rolls (since grapes do not grow in Sweden, minced meat began to be wrapped in scalded cabbage leaves). November 30 - the day of the death of Charles XII, the Day of Cabbage Rolls is now celebrated in Sweden.
In addition to the funds allocated for the maintenance of the detachment that arrived with the king, Charles XII was paid 500 ecu per day from the Sultan's treasury. Financial assistance to the king was also provided by France, and he himself borrowed money from the merchants of Constantinople. Karl sent part of these funds to the capital to bribe the sultan's associates, wishing to incite Turkey into a war against Russia. The king thoughtlessly spent the remaining money on gifts to his officers and the janissaries who guarded him, thanks to which he became very popular both among them and among the townspeople.
Kept behind the king and his favorite - Baron Grottgusen, appointed to the post of treasurer. It is said that, once, reporting to Karl about the spent 60,000 thalers, he said:
"Ten thousand have been issued to the Swedes and the Janissaries by order of your Majesty, and the rest have been spent by me for my own needs."
The king's reaction is simply amazing: smiling, he said that he liked such a short and clear answer - not like the former treasurer Müllern, who forced him to read multi-page reports on spending for each thaler. An elderly officer told Karl that Grottern was simply robbing them all, and he heard the answer: "I only give money to those who know how to use it."
Charles's popularity grew and soon people from all over the province began to come to Bendery to look at the strange but generous overseas king.
Meanwhile, the position of Sweden was getting worse every day. Russian troops took Vyborg (which Peter I called "a strong pillow to Petersburg"), Riga, Revel. In Finland, the Russian army approached Abo. Expelled by Karl from Poland, August II the Strong captured Warsaw.
Prussia laid claim to Swedish Pomerania, Mecklenburg announced claims to Wismar. The Danes were preparing to seize the Duchy of Bremen and Holstein, in February 1710 their army even landed in Scania, but was defeated.
Charles XII's relationship with the Turkish authorities
The Sultan still could not decide what to do with this uninvited, but, in the literal sense, very "dear" guest. The presence of Charles XII on Turkish territory aggravated relations with Russia, and the local "hawks" (including even the mother of Akhmet III) and French diplomats, who assured the Sultan that, having finished with the Swedes, the Russians would go against the Ottoman Empire, immediately took advantage of this. But the Russian ambassador P. Tolstoy (whose servants were now the Swedes captured at Poltava - and this made an impression both on the Sultan and on the Ottoman nobles), generously spending the trophy Swedish gold, obtained from Akhmet III a letter confirming the Peace Treaty of Constantinople in 1700.
It seemed that the fate of the annoying Karl was decided: under the protection of a detachment of 500 Janissaries, he had to go through Poland to Sweden “only with his people” (that is, without the Cossacks and Poles). As a parting gift (and compensation), 25 Arab horses were sent to Karl on behalf of the Sultan, one of which was ridden by the Sultan himself - her saddle and saddle cloth were decorated with precious stones, and the stirrups were made of gold.
And the grand vizier Köprülü sent 800 purses with gold to the king (each contained 500 coins) and in the letter attached to the gift advised him to return to Sweden through Germany or France. Karl took the horses and money, but refused to leave the hospitable Bender. The sultan could not afford to violate the laws of hospitality, and forcibly expel the king from the country. Together with the vizier, he entered into negotiations with Charles, and went to meet him, agreeing to allocate an army of 50,000 to accompany the Swedish king through Poland, which was occupied by Russian troops. But Peter I said that he would let Charles through only on the condition that the number of his escort would not exceed 3 thousand people. Karl no longer agreed to this, who was clearly trying to provoke a conflict between Russia and the Ottoman Empire.
Russo-Turkish war
And in Port at that time a certain Baltaji Mehmet Pasha became the grand vizier - a native of a family whose men traditionally engaged in the preparation of firewood ("balta" - "ax"), who turned out to be a "hawk" and an ardent Russophobe. He summoned the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey to the capital: together they managed to persuade the Sultan to declare war on Russia. On November 20, 1710, Russian P. Tolstoy and his subordinates were arrested and imprisoned in the Seven-Tower Castle. French Ambassador Desalier boasted that "he contributed most of all to this, since he conducted the whole matter with his own advice."
It was during this unfortunate war for Russia that the so-called Prut catastrophe occurred: underestimating the enemy's forces, Peter I accepted the offer of the Moldovan ruler Dmitry Cantemir to meet the Turks. Kantemir vowed to provide the Russian army with everything necessary - and, of course, did not fulfill his promise.
So at the Prut River, Peter I was in the role of Charles XII, and Kantemir - in the role of Mazepa. It all ended with the bribery of the former woodcutter Baltaji Mehmet Pasha and some of his subordinates and the signing of a shameful peace, among the conditions of which was even the obligation to resume the payment of tribute to the Crimean Khan.
Karl XII, having learned about the encirclement of the Russian army, rushed to the camp of the Turks, having driven 120 miles without stopping, but was late: the Russian troops had already left their camp. With reproaches, he managed to anger Mehmet Pasha, who mockingly said:
“And who would run the state in his (Peter's) absence? It is not proper that all the kings of the giaur were not at home."
Furious, Karl allowed himself an unheard-of insolence - with a sharp blow of his spur, he tore the half of the vizier's robe and left his tent.
In Bendery, he found his camp flooded by the flooded Dniester, but out of stubbornness he remained in it for a long time. Nevertheless, the camp had to be moved to the village of Varnitsa, where a new "military town" was built for it, called Karlopolis. It had three stone houses (for the king, his retinue and the treasurer Grottgusen) and wooden barracks for the soldiers. The largest building (36 meters in length) was named "Charles House", the other, in which the king received guests - "Great Hall".
And the angry Mehmet Pasha now demanded the expulsion of Karl from the country, and the Austrian emperor agreed to let him through his possessions. The king said that he would leave only after the punishment of the vizier and accompanied by a hundred thousandth army. Mehmet Pasha, in response, ordered to reduce the "taim" for him - the content that was given to foreign guests and diplomats. Upon learning of this, Karl reacted in a very peculiar way, saying to the butler: “Until now, they have been given to eat twice a day; from tomorrow I order to give food four times."
To fulfill the king's order, he had to borrow money from usurers at high interest rates. 4 thousand crowns were given by the British ambassador Cook.
Sultan Ahmet, dissatisfied with the outcome of the war, nevertheless deposed Mehmet Pasha, sending him into exile on the island of Lemnos. The new vizier was Yusuf Pasha, who at the age of 6 was captured on the territory of southern Russia by the Janissaries. As for Charles, the Sultan, tired of his quirks and antics, sent him a letter that said:
“You must prepare to leave under the auspices of Providence, with an honorary escort next winter, in order to return to your state, taking care to travel in a friendly manner through Poland. Everything you need for your journey will be delivered to you by the High Port, both money and people, horses and carts. We especially exhort you and advise you to order in the most positive and clear manner all Swedes and others who are with you not to make any disturbances and any actions that, directly or indirectly, may lead to a violation of this peace and friendship."
Karl, in response, "made a complaint" to the Sultan about the non-observance of the conditions of the Prut Treaty by the Russians, which provoked a new crisis in Russian-Turkish relations. P. Tolstoy was again sent to the Seven-Tower Castle, but the Sultan's entourage no longer wanted war, a compromise was reached, according to which Russian troops were withdrawn from Poland, and Karl had to go to Sweden.
But the king declared that he could not leave without paying the debts, and asked for this purpose 1000 purses of gold (about 600,000 thalers). Akhmet III ordered to give him 1200 purses, having received which, the Swedish king, without batting an eye, demanded another thousand.
The pissed off sultan gathered the Divan of the Sublime Port, on which he asked the question:
"Will it be a violation of the laws of hospitality to expel this sovereign (Charles), and will foreign powers be able to accuse me of violence and injustice if I am forced to expel him by force?"
The divan sided with the Sultan, and the Grand Mufti said that "hospitality is not prescribed to Muslims in relation to the infidels, and even more so to the ungrateful."
War of the "Vikings" with the Janissaries
At the end of December 1712, the Sultan's decree and the mufti's fatwa approving him were read to Charles. Completely out of touch with reality, the king said in response: "We will prepare for everything and force will fight back by force."
The Swedes were no longer given money for maintenance, and the Poles and Cossacks kept it, leaving the royal camp. Charles XII responded in his own unique style, ordering the killing of 25 Arabian horses donated by the Sultan.
Now the king has 300 people left at his disposal - only the Swedish "caroliners".
He ordered to surround his camp with trenches and barricades, and he himself had fun, periodically attacking the Ottoman pickets. Janissaries and Tatars, fearing to injure him, did not join the battle and drove away.
At the end of January 1713, the commandant of Bender Ismail Pasha received a new decree from the Sultan, which ordered the capture of Charles XII and send him to Thessaloniki, from where he was to be sent by sea to France. The decree stated that in the event of Karl's death, no Muslim would be declared guilty of his death, and the Supreme Mufti sent a fatwa, according to which the faithful were saying goodbye for the possible murder of the Swedes.
But Karl was popular among the Janissaries, who, although they nicknamed him for his stubbornness "demirbash" ("iron head"), still did not want him dead. They sent delegates who begged the king to surrender and vouch for his safety - both in Bendery and on the way. Karl, of course, refused.
For the assault on the Swedish camp (in which, we recall, there were only 300 people left), the Turks gathered up to 14 thousand soldiers with 12 guns. The forces were clearly unequal, and, after the first shots, Grottgusen again tried to enter into negotiations, arguing (again) that the king was not against leaving, but he needed time to prepare, but the Turks no longer believed these words. But after Karl's direct appeal to the Janissaries, they rebelled and refused to go to the assault. At night, the instigators of this revolt were drowned in the Dniester, but, unsure of the loyalty of those who remained, the seraskir in the morning suggested that the Janissary leaders themselves enter into negotiations with the crowned madman. Karl, seeing them, said:
“If they don’t leave, I will tell them to burn their beards. Now it's time to fight, not chat."
Now the Janissaries were already indignant. On February 1, they attacked the Carlopolis. On this day, Drabant Axel Erik Ros saved the life of his king three times. But most of the Swedes, realizing the futility of resistance, immediately surrendered. Slightly wounded Karl, at the head of twenty drabants and ten servants, took refuge in a stone house, where there were 12 more soldiers. Barricaded in one of the rooms, he made a sortie into a hall filled with marauding janissaries. Here, the king personally killed two of them, wounded the third, but was captured by the fourth, who was let down by the desire to take Charles alive - as a result, he was shot by the royal chef. Karl then killed two more Janissaries who were in his bedroom. Forcing the Turks to retreat, the Swedes took up positions at the windows and opened fire. It is said that up to 200 janissaries were killed and wounded during this assault. The Swedes killed 15 people, were seriously wounded 12. The leaders of the Turks ordered to start shelling the house from cannons, and the Swedes were forced to move away from the windows, and the Janissaries, surrounding the house with logs and hay, set them on fire. The Swedes decided to fill the fire with the contents of barrels found in the attic - it turned out that they were filled with strong wine. Trying to support and encourage his people, Karl shouted: "There is no danger yet, until the dresses are on fire" - and at that moment a piece of the roof fell on his head. Having come to his senses, the king continued to shoot at the Turks, killing another of them, and then, making sure that it was completely impossible to be in a burning house, agreed to try to break into another, in the neighborhood. On the street, the Janissaries surrounded and captured all the Swedes, including the king. “If they (the Swedes) had defended themselves as their duty commanded them, they would not have taken us in ten days,” he said, standing in front of the seraskir.
The events of this day in Turkey are called "kalabalyk" - literally translated as "playing with a lion", but in modern Turkish it means "quarrel". This word entered the Swedish language with the meaning of "turmoil".
A. S. Pushkin, who visited Bender, dedicated the following lines to this event:
In a country where mills are winged
Peaceful fence surrounded
Bender desert rumblings
Where the horned buffaloes roam
Around warlike graves, -
The remains of a ruined canopy
Three recessed in the ground
And the moss-covered steps
They talk about the Swedish king.
The insane hero reflected from them, Alone in the crowd of domestic servants, Turkish rati noisy attack
And he threw the sword under the bunchuk.
Continuation of the "Turkish tour" of Charles XII
Despite the apparent inappropriate behavior of the king and the losses suffered by the Ottomans during the assault, Charles was still well treated. At first, he was taken to the seraskir's house and spent the night in the room and on the owner's bed, then he was transported to Adrianople. It is difficult to say what the Sultan would have done with Charles - no longer a guest, but a prisoner. But the king was helped by General Magnus Stenbock, who just at that time won his last victory over the Danes - at Gadebusch in Pomerania.
Upon learning of this, the Sultan ordered to transfer Charles to the small town of Demirtashe near Adrianople and left him alone. And Karl now changed his tactics: from February 6, 1713 to October 1, 1714, he enthusiastically played Carlson (who lives on the roof), pretending to be seriously ill and not getting out of bed. The Turks only rejoiced at the transition of the “guest's” psychosis from the manic to the depressive phase and did not pay special attention to his “suffering”.
Meanwhile, in May 1713, the army of the last successful Swedish commander, Magnus Stenbock, surrendered in Holstein. Almost all of Finland was occupied by Russia, Peter I wrote then: "We do not need this country at all, but we need to occupy it so that in the world there would be something to yield to the Swedes."
To the letter of his sister Ulrika, to whom the Senate offered the regency, Karl replied with a promise to send his boot to Stockholm, from which the senators would have to ask permission for everything.
But it was pointless to stay on the territory of the Port further, Karl himself already understood this, who began to get ready to go home. Grand Vizier Kyomurcu said to Grottgusen, who applied for the next batch of gold:
“The Sultan knows how to give when he wants, but it is beneath his dignity to lend. Your king will be supplied with everything you need. Perhaps the High Porta will give him gold, but there is nothing to count on for sure."
Kamurcu Ali Pasha was the son of a coal miner, and became the vizier and son-in-law of the Sultan. If you remember that one of his recent predecessors was from a family of woodcutters, and the other was in Porto as a prisoner at the age of 6, then we have to admit that the "social elevators" in the Ottoman Empire in those years were in perfect order.
Return of the King
On October 1, Akhmet III nevertheless presented to Karl, who was finally going to leave, a scarlet tent embroidered with gold, a saber, the handle of which was decorated with gems, and 8 Arab horses. And for the Swedish convoy, on his order, 300 horses and 60 carts with supplies were allocated.
The Sultan even ordered to pay the debts of the "guest", but without interest, since usury is prohibited by the Koran. Karl was once again offended and suggested that creditors come to Sweden for debts. Oddly enough, many of them actually made it to Stockholm, where they received the required amounts.
On October 27, Karl left his wagon train and then went light - under a false name and with a few "Caroliners". On November 21, 1714, Charles XII, who had left his retinue, arrived at the Pomeranian fortress of Stralsund, which belonged to Sweden. And the very next day, the king "rested" at the Turkish "resorts", signed a decree on the resumption of hostilities against Russia and its allies.
His war will end at the Fredriksten fortress on November 30, 1718. Many historians are sure that he was killed by one of his entourage, who understood that the king was ready to fight for a very long time - until the last surviving Swede. And he helped Karl go to Valhalla, from which this king, who looks like a berserker, apparently fled - through an oversight of the Valkyries.
