Definition and meaning of Great_Northern_War

Great Northern War
Part of Russo–Swedish Wars, Polish–Swedish wars and Dano-Swedish wars
Great Northern War. Clockwise from top: Battle of Poltava, Battle of Gangut, Battle of Narva, Battle of Gadebusch, Battle of Storkyro
Date February 1700–1721 Location Europe Result Coalition victory Tsardom of Russia establishes itself as a new power in Europe. Decline of Swedish Empire and Poland-Lithuania. Territorial changes Russia gained the three Swedish dominions Estonia, Livonia, and Ingria as well as parts of Kexholm and Viborg. Prussia gained part of Swedish Pomerania. Hanover gained Bremen-Verden. Holstein-Gottorp loses its part of the Duchy of Schleswig to Denmark.
Belligerents
Swedish Empire Holstein-Gottorp Poland–Lithuania (1704–09)  Ottoman Empire (1710–14) Cossack Hetmanate (1708–09)  Great Britain (1700, 1719–21)	Tsardom of Russia Kalmyk Khanate Denmark–Norway (1700, 1709–)  Electorate of Saxony (1700–06, 1709–) Poland–Lithuania (1700–04, 1709–) Cossack Hetmanate (1700–08, 1709—1721)  Prussia (1715–) Hanover (1715–)  Great Britain (1717–19)
Commanders and leaders
Charles XII † Rehnskiöld  (POW) Stenbock  (POW) Lewenhaupt  (POW) Frederick IV † Stanisław Leszczyński Ahmed III Ivan Mazepa	Peter I Aleksandr Menshikov Boris Sheremetev Frederick IV Christian Ditlev Reventlow Peter Tordenskjold Augustus II (personal union) Frederick William I George I (personal union)
Strength
77,000–393,400 77,000–135,000 Total Swedish troops across the whole country including garrisons and militia (1700 and 1707, respectively) 100,000–200,000 Ottomans (only participated in one battle, remained passive during the rest of the war) 8,000–40,000 Cossacks 16,000 Polish troops (1708)	At least 360,000 170,000 Russians (facing the Swedes, garrisons not included) +40,000 Danes/Norwegians +100,000 Poles and Saxons (at the most) around 50,000 (42 regiments) Prussians around 20,000 from Hannover[1][2][3][citation needed]
Casualties and losses
About 25,000 Swedes killed in combat, estimated total of 175,000 killed by famine, disease and exhaustion etc.[4]	Unknown. At least 75,000 Russians[citation needed], 14,000–20,000 Poles and Saxons, 8,000 Danes killed in the larger battles, 60,000 Danes in total between 1709 and 1719.[5] Russian(Soviet era)claim 30000 russian soldiers killed in action, 90000 wounded[6]

History of Scandinavia
Stone Age Bronze Age Pre-Roman Iron Age Roman Iron Age Germanic Iron Age Barbarian Invasions Viking Age Christianization Kalmar Union Great Northern War Monetary Union Defence Union Nordic Council

The Great Northern War (1700–21) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in northern Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedish alliance were Peter I the Great of Russia, Frederick IV of Denmark–Norway and August II the Strong of Saxe-Poland-Lithuania. Frederik IV and August II were forced out of the alliance in 1700 and 1706 respectively, but re-joined it in 1709. George I of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) joined the coalition in 1714 for Hanover and in 1717 for Britain, and Frederick William I of Brandenburg-Prussia joined it in 1715.

Charles XII led the Swedish army. On the Swedish side were Holstein-Gottorp, several Polish and Lithuanian magnates under Stanisław Leszczyński (1704–10) and cossacks under the Ukrainian Hetman Ivan Mazepa (1708–10). The Ottoman Empire temporarily hosted Charles XII of Sweden and intervened against Peter I.

The war started when an alliance of Denmark–Norway, Saxony, Poland-Lithuania and Russia declared war on the Swedish Empire, launching a threefold attack at Swedish Holstein-Gottorp, Swedish Livonia, and Swedish Ingria, sensing an opportunity as Sweden was ruled by the young Karl XII (Charles XII), who was eighteen years old and inexperienced at the time. Sweden parried the Danish and Russian attacks at Travendal and Narva, and in a counter-offensive pushed August II's forces through Lithuania and Poland to Saxony, dethroning August on the way and forcing him to acknowledge defeat in the Treaty of Altranstädt, which also secured the extradition and execution of Johann Reinhold Patkul, architect of the alliance seven years' earlier. Peter I had meanwhile recovered and gained ground in Sweden's Baltic provinces, where he cemented Russia's access to the Baltic Sea by founding Saint Petersburg in 1703. Charles XII moved from Saxony into Russia to confront Peter, but the campaign ended with the destruction of the main Swedish army in Poltava (now Ukraine), and Charles's exile in Ottoman Bender. The Ottoman empire defeated the Russian army in the Pruth Campaign, but the peace treaty was in the end without great consequence to Russia's position.

After Poltava, the initial anti-Swedish coalition was re-established and subsequently joined by Hanover and Prussia. The remaining Swedish forces south and east of the Baltic Sea were evicted, with the last city, Riga, falling in 1710. Most of the Swedish dominions were partitioned among the coalition members, destroying the Swedish dominium maris baltici. Sweden proper was invaded by Denmark–Norway from the West and by Russia from the East, occupying all of Finland by 1714. Though the Danish attacks were repulsed, Russia managed to occupy Finland. Charles XII opened up a Norwegian front, but was killed in Fredriksten in 1718.

The war ended with a defeat for Sweden, leaving Russia as the new major power in the Baltic Sea and an important new player in European politics. Thus began a trend of Russian expansion that would only be stopped two centuries later on the far side of Eurasia.

The formal conclusion of the war was marked by the Swedish-Hanoveranian and Swedish-Prussian Treaties of Stockholm (1719), the Dano-Swedish Treaty of Frederiksborg (1720), and the Russo-Swedish Treaty of Nystad (1721). Therein, Sweden ceded her exemption from the sound dues, lost the Baltic provinces and the northern part of Swedish Pomerania. The peace treaties also ended her alliance with Holstein-Gottorp. Hanover gained Bremen-Verden, Brandenburg-Prussia incorporated the Oder estuary, Russia secured the Baltic provinces, and Denmark strengthened her position in Schleswig-Holstein. In Sweden, the absolute monarchy had come to an end with Charles XII's death, and the Age of Liberty began.

  Background

Between 1560 and 1658, Sweden created a Baltic empire centred on the Gulf of Finland and comprising the provinces of Karelia, Ingria, Estonia, and Livonia. During the Thirty Years' War Sweden gained tracts in Germany as well, including Western Pomerania, Wismar, the Duchy of Bremen, and Verden. During the same period Sweden conquered Danish and Norwegian provinces north of the Sound (1645; 1658). These victories may be ascribed to a well-trained army, which despite its comparatively small size was far more professional than most continental armies, and also to a modernization of administration (both civilian and military) in the course of the 17th century which enabled the monarchy to harness the resources of the country and its empire in an effective way. Fighting in the field, the Swedish army was able, in particular, to make quick, sustained marches across large tracts of land and to maintain a high rate of small arms fire due to proficient military drill.

However, the Swedish state ultimately proved unable to support and maintain its army in a prolonged war. Campaigns on the continent had been proposed on the basis that the army would be financially self-supporting through plunder and taxation of newly gained land, a concept shared by most major powers of the period. The cost of the warfare proved to be much higher than the occupied countries could fund, and Sweden's coffers, and resources in manpower, were eventually drained in the course of long conflicts.

The foreign interventions in Russia during the Time of Troubles resulted in Swedish gains in the Treaty of Stolbovo (1617). The treaty deprived Russia of direct access to the Baltic Sea. Russian fortunes began to reverse in the final years of the 17th century, notably with the rise to power of Peter I (The Great), who looked to address the earlier losses and re-establish a Baltic presence. In the late 1690s, the adventurer Johann Patkul managed to ally Russia with Denmark and Saxony by the secret Treaty of Preobrazhenskoye and in 1700 the three powers attacked.

  Opposing parties

  Swedish camp

Charles XII of Sweden^{[nb 1]} succeeded Charles XI of Sweden in 1697, aged 14. From his predecessor, he took over the Swedish Empire as an absolute monarch. Charles XI had tried to keep the empire out of wars, and concentrated on inner reforms such as reduction and allotment, which had strengthened the monarch's status and the empire's military abilities. Charles XII refrained from all kinds of luxury and alcohol and usage of the French language. He preferred the life of an ordinary soldier on horseback, not that of contemporary baroque courts. He determinedly pursued his goal of dethroning his adversaries, whom he considered unworthy of their thrones due to broken promises, thereby refusing to take several chances to make peace. During the war, the most important Swedish commanders besides Charles XII were his close friend Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld, also Magnus Stenbock and Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt.

Charles Frederick, son of Frederick IV, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (a cousin of Charles XII)^{[nb 1]} and Hedvig Sophia, daughter of Charles XI of Sweden, was the Swedish heir since 1702. He claimed the throne upon Charles XII's death, but was supplanted by Ulrike Eleonora. Charles Frederick was married to a daughter of Peter I, Anna Petrovna.

Ivan Mazepa was a Ukrainian cossack hetman who fought for Russia but defected to Charles XII in 1708. Mazepa died in 1710 in Ottoman exile.

  Allied camp

  August II, The Strong (left) and Frederick William I of Prussia (right)

Peter I, The Great became Tsar in 1682 upon the death of his elder brother Feodor but did not become the actual ruler until 1689. He set forth reforming the country, turning the Russian tsardom into a modernized empire relying on trade and on a strong, professional army and navy. He greatly expanded the size of Russia during his reign while providing access to the Baltic, Black, and Caspian Seas. The most important Russian commanders besides Peter were Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov and Boris Sheremetev.

August II, The Strong, elector of Saxony and another cousin of Charles XII,^{[nb 1]} gained the Polish crown after the death of Jan Sobieski in 1696. His ambitions to transform the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth into an absolute monarchy were not realized. His meeting with Peter the Great in Prawa in September 1698, where the plans were made to attack Sweden, became legendary for its decadence.

Frederick IV of Denmark-Norway, another cousin of Charles XII,^{[nb 1]} succeeded Christian V in 1699 and continued his anti-Swedish policies. After the setbacks of 1700, he focused on transforming his state, an absolute monarchy, in a manner similar to Charles XI of Sweden. He did not achieve his main goal: to regain the former eastern Danish provinces lost to Sweden in the course of the 17th century. He was not able to keep northern Swedish Pomerania, Danish from 1715 to 1720. He did put an end to the Swedish threat south of Denmark. He ended Sweden's exemption from the Sound Dues (transit taxes/tariffs on cargo moved between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea).

Frederick William I entered the war as elector of Brandenburg and king in Prussia - the royal title had been secured in 1701. He was determined to gain the Oder estuary with its access to the Baltic Sea for the Brandenburgian core areas, which had been a state goal for centuries.

George I of the House of Hanover, elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg and since 1714 king of Great Britain and Ireland, took the opportunity to connect his land-locked German electorate to the North Sea.

  Army size

In 1700, Charles XII had a standing army of 77,000 men (based on annual training). By 1707 this number had swollen to at least 120,000 despite casualties.

Russia was able to mobilize a larger army, but could not put all of them into action simultaneously. The Russian mobilization system was ineffective and the expanding nation needed to be defended in many locations. A grand mobilization covering Russia's vast territories would have been unrealistic. Peter I tried to raise his army's morale to Swedish levels. Denmark contributed 20,000 men in their invasion of Holstein-Gottorp and more on other fronts. Poland and Saxony together could mobilize at least 100,000 men.

  1700: Denmark, Riga and Narva

Frederik IV of Denmark–Norway directed his first attack against Sweden's ally Holstein-Gottorp. In 1697, Danish forces had leveled several of Gottorp's fortresses. In March 1700, a Danish army laid siege to Tönning.^[7] Simultaneously, August II's forces advanced through Swedish Livonia, captured Dünamünde and laid siege to Riga. Earlier attempts to storm Riga had been made in December 1699.^[8]

  Frederick IV of Denmark–Norway

  Narva (1700)

Charles XII of Sweden first focused on attacking Denmark. The Swedish navy was able to outmaneuver the Danish Sound blockade and deploy an army near the Danish capital, Copenhagen. This surprise move and pressure by the Maritime Powers (Great Britain and the Dutch Republic) forced Denmark–Norway to withdraw from the war in August 1700 according to the terms of the Peace of Travendal.^[9]

Charles XII was now able to speedily deploy his army to the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea and face his remaining enemies: besides the army of Augustus II in Livonia, an army of Russian tsar Peter I was already on its way to invade Swedish Ingria,^[9] where it laid siege to Narva in October. In November, the Russian and Swedish armies met at the First Battle of Narva where the Russians suffered a crushing defeat.^[10]

After the dissolution of the first coalition through the peace of Travendal and with the victory at Narva; the Swedish chancellor, Benedict Oxenstjerna, attempted to use the bidding for the favor of Sweden by France and the Maritime Powers (then on the eve of the War of the Spanish Succession) to end the war and make Charles an arbiter of Europe.

  1701–1706: Poland-Lithuania/Saxony

Stanisław Leszczyński (left) and August the Strong (right)

Charles XII then turned south to meet his last undefeated opponent: August II, Elector of Saxony, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Charles crossed into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and decisively defeated the Saxe-Polish forces in the Battle of Kliszów in 1702. This successful invasion enabled Charles XII to dethrone August II and coerce the Polish sejm to replace him with Stanisław Leszczyński in 1704. August II resisted, still possessing control of his native Saxony, but was decisively defeated at the Battle of Fraustadt in 1706, a battle sometimes compared to the Ancient Battle of Cannae due to the Swedish forces' use of double envelopment, with a deadly result for the Saxon army. August II was forced to sign the Treaty of Altranstadt in 1706 in which he made peace with the Swedish Empire, renounced his claims to the Polish–Lithuanian crown, accepted Stanisław Leszczyński as king, and ended his alliance with Russia. Patkul was also extradited and executed by breaking on the wheel in 1707, an incident which given his diplomatic immunity, infuriated opinion against the Swedish king, who then was expected to win the war against the only hostile power remaining, Tsar Peter's Russia.^[11]

  1702–1710: Russia and the Baltic provinces

Charles XII of Sweden (left) and Peter I of Russia (right)

Peter the Great takes Nöteborg (christened Shlisselburg="key fortress")

Russian victory at Poltava

The Battle of Narva proved a grave setback for Peter the Great, but the shift of Charles XII's army to the Polish-Saxon threat soon afterwards, instead of pursuing Peter, provided the latter with an opportunity to recover and gain ground in the Baltic provinces. Russian victories at Erastfer and Nöteborg (Shlisselburg) provided access to Ingria in 1703, and here Peter began building his new capital, Saint Petersburg.^[10] on the site of the earlier Swedish fortress Nyen. Already before the launching of the war, Peter had decided to build a navy and a modern-style army, based primarily on infantry drilled in the use of firearms. Due to the efforts of general Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt, who fended the Russians off with smaller forces in the battles of Gemäuerthof and Jakobstadt, most of the Baltic provinces held by Sweden remained under her control.

Charles spent the years 1702-06 in a protracted struggle with August the Strong; he had already inflicted defeat on him at Riga in June 1701 and took Warsaw the following year, but trying to force a decisive defeat proved elusive. Charles wanted not just to defeat the army but to depose August (see above), whom he regarded as especially treasonous, and have him replaced with someone who would be a Swedish ally, and this goal proved hard to achieve. After years of marches and fighting around Poland he finally had to invade August's hereditary Saxony to bring him out of the war. In the treaty of Altranstädt (1706), August was indeed forced to step down from the Polish throne, but Charles had lost a valuable time advantage over his main enemy in the East, Peter I, who had had the time to recover and build up a new and better army.

At this point, in 1707, Peter offered to retrocede everything he had so far occupied (essentially Ingria) except Saint Petersburg and the line of the Neva, to avoid a full-scale war, but Charles XII refused. Instead he initiated a march from Saxony to invade Russia. Though his primary goal was Moscow, the strength of his forces was sapped by the cold weather (the winter of 1708/09 being one of the most severe in modern European history) and Peter's use of scorched earth tactics. When the main army turned south to recover in Ukraine, the second army with supplies and reinforcements was intercepted and routed in Lesnaya - so were the supplies and reinforcements of Swedish ally Ivan Mazepa in Baturyn. Charles was crushingly defeated by a larger Russian force under Peter in the Battle of Poltava and fled to the Ottoman Empire while the remains of his army surrendered at Perevolochna.^[12]

This shattering defeat did not end the war, although it decided it. Denmark and Saxony joined the war again and Augustus the Strong, through the politics of Boris Kurakin, regained the Polish throne. Peter continued his campaigns in the Baltics, and eventually he built up a powerful navy. In 1710 the Russian forces captured Riga, at the time the most populated city in the Swedish realm, and Tallinn, evicting the Swedes from the Baltic provinces, now integrated in the Russian Empire by the capitulation of Estonia and Livonia.

  Formation of a new anti-Swedish alliance

After Poltava, Peter the Great and Augustus the Strong allied again in the Treaty of Thorn (1709); Frederik IV of Denmark–Norway with Augustus the Strong in the Treaty of Dresden (1709); and Russia with Denmark–Norway in the subsequent Treaty of Copenhagen. In the Treaty of Hanover (1710), Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) whose elector was to become George I of Great Britain allied with Russia. In 1713, Brandenburg-Prussia allied with Russia in the Treaty of Schwedt. George I of Great Britain and Hanover concluded three alliances in 1715: the Treaty of Berlin with Denmark–Norway, the Treaty of Stettin with Brandenburg-Prussia, and the Treaty of Greifswald with Russia.

  1709–1714: Ottoman Empire

When his army surrendered, Charles XII of Sweden and a few soldiers escaped to Ottoman territory, founding a colony in front of Bender, Moldova. Peter I demanded Charles's eviction, and when the sultan refused, Peter decided to force it by invading the Ottoman Empire. Peter's army was trapped by an Ottoman army at the Pruth river. Peter managed to negotiate a retreat, making a few territorial concessions and promising to withdraw his forces from the Holy Roman Empire as well as allowing Charles's return to Sweden. These terms were laid out in the Treaty of Adrianople (1713). Charles showed no interest in returning, established a provisional court in his colony, and sought to persuade the sultan to engage in an Ottoman-Swedish assault on Russia. The sultan put an end to the generous hospitality granted and had the king arrested in what became known as the "kalabalik" in 1713. Charles was then confined at Timurtash and Demotika; later he abandoned his hopes for an Ottoman front and returned to Sweden in a 14-day ride.^[13]

  1710–1716: Northern Germany

  Danish Altona burned down during Stenbock's campaign (1713). Russian forces retaliated by burning down Swedish Wolgast (same year)

In 1710, the Swedish army in Poland retreated to Swedish Pomerania, pursued by the coalition. In 1711, siege was laid to Stralsund. Yet the town could not be taken due to the arrival of a Swedish relief army, which secured the Pomeranian pocket before turning west to defeat an allied army in the Battle of Gadebusch. Pursued by coalition forces, the Swedish army was trapped and surrendered in the Siege of Tönning.^[14]

In 1714, Charles XII returned from the Ottoman Empire, arriving in Stralsund in November. In nearby Greifswald, already lost to Sweden, Russian tsar Peter the Great and British king George I, in his position as Elector of Hanover, had just signed an alliance on 17 (OS)/28 (NS) October.^[15] Previously a formally neutral party in the Pomeranian campaigns, Brandenburg-Prussia openly joined the coalition by declaring war on Sweden in the summer of 1715.^[16] Charles was then at war with much of Northern Europe, and Stralsund was doomed. Charles remained there until December 1715, escaping only days before Stralsund fell. When Wismar surrendered in 1716, all of Sweden’s Baltic and German possessions were lost.^[17]

  1716–1718: Norway

  Charles XII of Sweden, shot dead during the siege of Fredriksten in 1718.

After Charles XII had returned from the Ottoman Empire and resumed personal control of the war effort, he initiated two Norwegian Campaigns, starting in February 1716, to force Denmark–Norway into a separate peace treaty. Furthermore, he attempted to bar Great Britain access to the Baltic Sea. In search for allies, Charles XII also negotiated with the British Jacobite party. This resulted in Great Britain declaring war on Sweden in 1717. The Norwegian campaigns were halted and the army withdrawn when Charles XII was shot dead while besieging Norwegian Fredriksten on 30 November 1718 (OS). He was succeeded by his sister, Ulrika Eleonora.^[18]

  1713–1721: Finland

  Battle of Gangut (Hanko)^[19]

In 1714, Peter's galley navy managed to capture a small detachment of the Swedish navy in the first Russian naval victory near Hanko peninsula. The Russian army occupied Finland mostly in 1713-1714, Viborg had been captured already in 1710. The last stand of the Finnish troops was in the battle of Storkyro in early 1714 in Isokyrö, Ostrobothnia. The occupation period of Finland in 1714-1721 is known as the Greater Wrath (Finnish: isoviha).

  1719-1721: Sweden

After the death of Charles XII, Sweden still refused to make peace with Russia on Peter's terms. In 1719 the Russian galley fleet raided the Swedish east coast. Several cities were attacked and almost all buildings in the archipelago of Stockholm were burned. A smaller Russian force advanced on the Swedish capital, but was stopped at the battle of Stäket on August 13. The Russians returned again in 1720 and 1721 although the presence of a British naval squadron limited the extent of the raids (after making peace with Sweden in 1719, the British had switched over to an anti-Russian policy in the Baltic).

  Peace

Campaigns and territorial changes 1700-1709 (left) and 1709-1721 (right)

By the time of Charles XII's death, the anti-Swedish allies became increasingly divided on how to fill the power gap left behind by the defeated and retreating Swedish armies. George I and Frederik IV both coveted hegemony in northern Germany, while August the Strong was concerned about Frederick William I's ambitions on the southeastern Baltic coast. Peter the Great, whose forces were spread all around the Baltic Sea, envisioned hegemony in East Central Europe and sought to establish naval bases as far west as Mecklenburg. In January 1719, George I, August II and emperor Charles VI concluded a treaty in Vienna aimed at the reduction of Russia's frontiers to the pre-war limits.^[18]

Hanover-Great Britain and Brandenburg-Prussia thereupon negotiated separate peace treaties with Sweden, the treaties of Stockholm in 1719 and early 1720, which partitioned Sweden's northern German dominions among the parties. The negotiations were mediated by French diplomats, who sought to prevent a complete collapse of Sweden's position on the southern Baltic coast and achieved that Sweden was to retain Wismar and northern Swedish Pomerania. Hanover gained Swedish Bremen-Verden, Brandenburg-Prussia incorporated southern Swedish Pomerania.^[20]

In addition to the rivalries in the anti-Swedish coalition, there was an inner-Swedish rivalry between Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, and Frederick I of Hesse-Cassel for the Swedish throne. The Gottorp party succumbed and Ulrike Eleonora, wife of Frederick I, transferred power to her husband in May 1720. When peace was concluded with Denmark, the anti-Swedish coalition had already fallen apart, and Denmark was not in a military position to negotiate a return of her former eastern provinces across the sound. Frederick I was however willing to cede the Swedish support for his rival in Holstein-Gottorp, which came under Danish control and the northern part annexed, and furthermore cede the Swedish privilege of exemption from the sound dues. A respective treaty was concluded in Frederiksborg in June 1720.^[20]

When Sweden finally was at peace with Hanover, Great Britain, Brandenburg-Prussia and Denmark–Norway, she hoped that the anti-Russian sentiments of the Vienna parties and France would culminate in an alliance which would restore to her her Russian-occupied eastern provinces. Yet, primarily due to internal conflicts in Great Britain and France, that did not happen. Therefore, the war was finally concluded by the Treaty of Nystad between Russia and Sweden in Uusikaupunki (Nystad) on 30 August 1721 (OS). Finland was returned to Sweden, while Swedish Estonia, Livonia, Ingria, Kexholm and the bulk of Karelia were ceded to Russia. Sweden's dissatisfaction with the result led to fruitless attempts at recovering the lost territories in the course of the following century, such as Hats' Russian War, and Gustav III's Russian War.^[20]

Saxe-Poland-Lithuania and Sweden did not conclude a formal peace treaty, instead, they renewed the Peace of Oliva that had ended the Second Northern War in 1660.^[21]

Sweden had lost almost all of its "overseas" holdings gained in the 17th century, and ceased to be a major power. Russia gained its Baltic territories, and became the greatest power in Eastern Europe.

  Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Charles XII of Sweden, Frederick IV of Holstein-Gottorp, August II and Frederik IV of Denmark–Norway were all grandsons of Frederik III of Denmark–Norway

  Sources

  References

  Bibliography