DE*ATH THAT SHOCKS THE WORLD, HOW KING CHARLES XII WAS KI*LLED IN NORWAY, THE YOUNG WARRIOR.

A projectile then entered his head below the temple killing him instantly, The circumstances of Charles’s death have been disputed and led to multiple exhumations of his body 

300 years ago today in 1718, the young warrior king of Sweden, Charles XII is killed in Norway while inspecting his trenches in the siege of Fredriksten.

Charles was born in Stockholm in 1682 in an often unknown portion of European history, the Swedish Empire.

 Sweden’s military prowess propelled it to being an empire following the Thirty Years War, which devastated Europe and left millions of dead. 

The Swedish Empire controlled most of the Baltic region for decades.

 The backbone to this great power was the Caroleans, soldiers who helped modernize warfare with a reliance on flintlock muskets, pikes, rapiers, and aggressive tactics. 

Charles assumed power of the Empire at the age of 15 after a short period of a caretaker government preparing him to rule.

 Charles was a deeply religious man and took the divine right of kings seriously and governed as an autocrat.

Peter Alexeyevich, the ruler of the Tsardom of Russia had goals to westernize and direct Russia into becoming a European empire.

 He desired to have a strong port on the Baltic Sea, territory which belonged to Sweden. 

Peter estimated that Charles was too young and inexperienced to rule the empire he inherited. 

In 1700, a pack of wolves would pounce Charles’s inheritance when he turned 18 years old.

 Russia, Denmark, Saxony, and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth simultaneously invaded different parts of the Swedish Empire. 

When he learned of the news, the teenage king they thought was too young to rule the land calmly accepted his duty and personally took command of Sweden’s army, beginning The Great Northern War.

Charles wasted no time and secured a temporary maritime alliance with Britain and the Netherlands and took 8,000 men with a powerful fleet to Copenhagen, Denmark.

 In the first offensive of this conflict and what would become a common trend throughout the next 18 years of war, Charles would personally command his men from the front as they were landing on the shore under fire from the Danes.

 The monarch of Denmark, Frederick IV, also Charles’s cousin, was shocked at the size of the fleet and speed in which Charles placed 8,000 men around his capital. 

Denmark quickly capitulated and Charles then sailed his small army across the Baltic to deal with the Russian invasion in Estonia.

The city of Narva was besieged by nearly 40,000 Russian soldiers and Charles arrived on scene with barely 10,000 men in awful winter conditions.

 Charles’s generals begged the young king to not attack the Russians and settle for a winter camp but he turned them down.

 In the middle of the night on November 30th, Charles unsheathed his sword and charged through a brutal blizzard and swept over the freezing Russian positions with his Caroleans, causing a route of the entire besieging army and inflicting over 18,000 casualties.  

The siege of Narva was an utter disaster for the Russians and set back their ambitions allowing Charles to then bring his attention on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Saxony.

8 months later Charles then took a small fleet and 14,000 men to cross the Düna river and invade the Commonwealth. 

An army made up of 29,000 Poles, Russians, and Saxons waited for the Swedes across the river in entrenchments. Keeping his tradition, Charles was in the first ship to land ashore with his best soldiers. 

The Swedes employed floating artillery batteries and the gunners fired frantically to support the landing infantry and king.

 Charles and his men made it 200 steps inshore and held off attacks for several hours until reinforcements came from more ships and constructed bridges. 

After futile attempts to push the Swedes back into the river, the defenders decided to withdraw opening the door to Poland.

 Charles would install a puppet king and for the next 5 years destabilize Poland in civil war until they capitulated. 

The Swedes were always outnumbered and dealing with multiple armies during this campaign.

 After 6 years of continuous warfare, the young king remained undefeated in a battle. 

While busy in Poland, Peter of Russia implemented drastic reforms on his military and assailed the Baltic States again.

 Achieving his initial plans, Peter would capture and tear down the Swedish fortress Nyenschantz and build a fortified port that would eventually become Saint Petersburg to help westernize Russia. 

Swedish forces in the area were unable to take back the port and when Peter learned that Charles was on his way he offered generous peace terms giving up all of Russia’s gains besides Saint Petersburg.

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