Battle of Narva (1700)
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| Great Northern War |
|---|
| Narva – Kliszów – Fraustadt – Holowczyn – Lesnaya – Poltava – Gadebusch – Gangut – Dynekilen – Oesel – Grengam |
- For other Battles of Narva, see Battle of Narva (disambiguation).
The battle
On November 20, 1700 (Julian calendar) the 8,140 man strong main force under King Charles XII engaged the Russian Army that was besieging the Swedish (now Estonian) city of Narva. The main Swedish force was assisted by around 2,500 men from within the city. The Russian army had great numerical superiority, numbering about 37,000 troops. Swedish sources from the time, still quoted in some literature, claimed that the Russians numbered 80,000 to 100,000; this might be a reasonable number when including the Russian support machinery of civilians, soldiers' wives and families.
The Swedish Army was commanded by the king himself, assisted by General Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld, and the Russian Army was commanded by Charles Eugène de Croy. Tsar Peter had left the army just days before.
The Swedish Army went into action at noon, protected by a blizzard blowing into the Russians' eyes, blinding them. The Swedes broke through the Russian lines and put the entire Russian army in a panic. Russian communication was also hampered by the difficulty that the officers, most of whom were foreign, had in relaying orders to the Russian peasant soldiers.
The casualties were relatively high for both sides, but the battle was a great Swedish victory. Sweden lost only 667 men (almost 7%) and the Russian army lost about 15,000 men, many of whom fled the battlefield, only to drown in the Narva River.
The remaining Russians capitulated and were given full quarter after turning over their weapons. Over 20,000 muskets were turned over to the Swedes.
Aftermath
The Swedes had won the battle, but not the war. The great defeat was one of the reasons Peter the Great decided to pursue a crash reform program, modernising the Russian military. In just a few years, the new Russian army would be a much tougher opponent. On the other hand, this great victory was wasted by Charles, who instead of pursuing the Russians decided - against the advice of his generals, diplomats of Swedish parliament - to turn against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, even though it had been suing for peace. Over the next several years Charles would dethrone the Polish king, Augustus II of Poland, but given that breathing space, Russian Tsar Peter the Great managed to create an army that defeated the Swedes at the battle of Poltava, forever ending the dominance of the Swedish Empire, and marking the rise of the Russian Empire.
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