Siege of Frederikshald

Siege of Frederikshald

Part of: Great Northern War

Model of the Fredriksten Fortress

date	November 20 to December 14, 1718
place	Fredrikshald , Fredriksten Fortress - Norway
output	Danish-Norwegian victory

Parties to the conflict
Sweden	Denmark
Commander
Charles XII. †	Barthold Landsberg
Troop strength
12,600 infantry 8,400 cavalry 18 cannons 20 mortars	1,800 men
losses
200 dead	31 dead, 10 wounded, 19 prisoners

The siege of Fredrikshald and its fortress Fredriksten from November 20 to December 14, 1718 in the Great Northern War was the second unsuccessful Swedish attempt to conquer the fortress.

The Swedish king began the second Norwegian campaign in 1718 , during which he besieged the well-fortified Fredriksten fortress for the second time after 1716. The siege ended unsuccessfully for Sweden because King Charles XII. was fatally wounded by a shot in the head and the siege was subsequently called off.

In advance

Siege of Frederikshald

Location of the battlefield

In the 18th year of the Great Northern War, Sweden was put on the defensive by a much stronger alliance and after the turn of the war in 1709, it gradually lost its possessions, which were outside of the Swedish core area. This affected Swedish Livonia, which fell to Russia until 1710 , Ingermanland had been in Russian hands since 1703, Bremen-Verden was lost to Denmark in 1712, Finland was conquered by Russia until the end of 1713 and the last possession outside Sweden, Swedish Pomerania went to Lost in early 1716. Still, King Charles XII thought. did not surrender his utterly exhausted country and carried on the war with no realistic chance of victory. He concentrated the remaining armed forces on the Swedish arch-rivals Denmark-Norway, while in the east in the war against Russia basically no resources were available for operations and only static defensive battles were possible.

After the successful defense of Strömstad , preparations began for a second campaign to Norway. To reinforce the Swedish border defense, another fourteen watchtowers were built. In spring 1718 the Swedish army again comprised 37 infantry and 17 cavalry regiments . The recruitment of new recruits went very well and the Swedish regiments had grown back to their old troop strength.

Karl supervised the preparation of the campaign together with the Hereditary Prince Friedrich von Hessen-Kassel in the small town Kristinehamn , not far from the Swedish-Norwegian border. In April the Swedish army began forays into the Norwegian border area. Preparations for the invasion continued under the command of General Dücker.

Charles XII's plan of conquest included the capture of the southern forts of Fredrikshald and Christiansand . Furthermore, Karl wanted to move along the coast to the Hanseatic city of Bergen and then to Trondheim . The old capital of Norway was to be attacked in parallel. While the king was marching on Fredrikshald, General Carl Gustaf Armfelt was to attack Trondheim from the north with about 10,000 men. This would give him all the important trading centers in Norway under his control. All fortresses in the border area with Sweden were to be razed and an effective defense of the coast set up through artillery positions. Norway should according to the plans of Charles XII. be completely incorporated into the Swedish Empire. In addition, all Danes and residents of Danish descent should be expelled.

In order to have enough artillery pieces for the siege , several flotillas with ammunition, artillery and men were moved to the coast of Strömstad. The Danish fleet tried to stop these supplies. On several occasions the Danes succeeded in causing the flotilla significant losses in ships and crews. With these attacks, the Danes managed to delay the attack by four months.

Karl XII advanced with 12,600 infantry and 8,400 cavalry. In early November 1718 in Norway. This last Carolinian army moved in three columns from the provinces of Bohuslän , Dalsland and Värmland , on November 7th and 8th in the direction of Fredrikshald.

The supreme command of Norwegian troops had the General Wedel. Fredriksten Fortress and its garrison were commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Landsberg. Despite reinforcements from Denmark and the tried and tested population of Fredrikshald, the lieutenant colonel was only able to occupy the border passes to Sweden and defend the fortress with sufficient resistance. The overwhelming strength of the Swedish troops was overwhelming, so that the top priority in the defense of the fortress was to weaken the Swedish army as much as possible in order to prevent a quick conquest of Norway.

The siege

Sketch of the siege of Fredrikshald and Fredriksten

After the city and its fortress were completely enclosed from the land side, the siege began on November 20th. The Danish-Norwegian army, under the command of General Sponeck, withdrew against the Glommen. Here the 10,000-strong army remained and watched the siege and its progress.

The mountain fortress Fredriksten had three outbuildings . First, the Gyldenlöve Vorwerk was attacked by the Swedish troops. After the avant-garde of the fortress troops had been pushed back into the fortress, the Swedes began building four artillery positions in the immediate vicinity of this fortress. Despite heavy fire, the fortress artillery could not prevent the construction of the positions, which were only about 600 paces away. The Swedish king immediately went to these positions to check the progress of the expansion. He had commissioned two engineer officers, Colonel Maigret and Adjutant General Siquier, with the management. Charles XII. was often in the foremost positions and helped with expansion wherever he could. Often a board served as a bed for him at night and his coat was his only blanket.

After the trenches had been opened, the first batteries of twelve and eighteen pounder guns were brought into position on December 6th . From these positions the fire against the Vorwerk Gyldenlöve was opened and the cannons were switched off that same evening. The fortress itself was hardly hit by cannon balls, these went over the fortress and landed in the city. Two Norwegian musketeers died in this indirect fire . On December 7th, the artillery fire of the Swedes increased and the fortress garrison cleared the Vorwerk. Since there was hardly any hope of being able to defend the Vorwerk, all cannons were made unusable. On December 8th, a small breach was shot in the Vorwerk and Karl XII. decided to take this in the course of the evening. When the second onslaught on the breach was repulsed, the Swedish king sat at the head of 200 grenadiers . He himself put a hand to lean the scaling ladders against the wall. He climbed this second after Colonel Bosquet, who led the attack. The wall was taken down, the crew withdrew to the defense tower . This was subsequently also taken and several Norwegians fell into the hands of the Swedes. The attack on this breach cost many Swedes their lives.

In the days that followed, workers began building new trenches in a meadow between the first outer wall and the fortress. This work was mainly carried out at night. In the following two days, December 10th and 11th, work was continued on days in the protective cover of the ditches. On December 11th, they had already approached 210 feet of the glacis , an earth wall built towards the fortress. After the service , on the occasion of the first Sunday in Advent , work on the trenches continued; the king did not stay in a hut behind the trenches as he had in the last two days, but instead constantly checked the work. He was concerned that the siege might fail.

Death of Charles XII. and the retreat to Sweden

Map of the fortress with marking of the place of death of Charles XII.

The Norwegian soldiers continued to fire artillery at the Swedish workers. On December 11th, the commandant had the parapet equipped with lanterns and pitch torches. In addition, flares were fired from the fortress towards Swedish positions throughout the night. Under this battlefield lighting, cannons, mortars, howitzers and rifles were constantly being shot at the besiegers. Despite this threat, the king remained in the finished areas of the trenches. As a result, he was within rifle bullet range. He ran incessantly back and forth between the trenches, chatting with his crews and workers about the progress of the work.

Around nine o'clock in the evening the king was found lying on the ground alone on a slope of the parapet with his head on the crown. A bullet had penetrated the right eye and emerged from the left temple. There are very different reports about the exact course of death.

The body of Charles XII. is transferred to
G. Cederström Krusenberg, 1884

Word of the death of the Swedish king got around inside the trenches on the evening of December 11th. The commandant of the fortress was also told of the death of the king by defectors. After half an hour, the king's body was moved from the trench to the rear of the camp.

As a result of the power vacuum at the head of the army, the siege was broken off by the convened council of war. As a result, a power struggle broke out between the supporters of the House of Holstein-Gottorf and the supporters of Crown Prince Friedrich von Hessen-Kassel. Due to personal connections to the two camps, the army leadership was also divided. During this time everyone was thinking of their own future.

The march back began on December 14th. He was rushed and uncoordinated. The soldiers had neither clear routes nor food. Another problem was the weather. The persistent rain of the past few weeks had turned into snow and it was also very cold. Many Swedes died of hunger and cold during the return march. The Swedish Guard counted at the beginning of the campaign, 2,500 men in January 1719 there were only 500 men left. The second Army Corps under Armfeld also entered after the death of Karl XII became known. to march back. This went down in history as the Carolinian death march . As the army crossed the Öyfjell , a snowstorm so severe that 3,700 of the 5,800-strong army froze to death.

The consequences

The body of Karl XII. was buried on February 26, 1719 in the Carolinian burial chapel next to the Riddarholm Church. He was next to Charles XI. buried in a black marble sarcophagus adorned with a gold lion head, scepter, crown and sword. Andreas Fryxell writes in his chronicle about the life of Karl XII. That around 2000 standards and flags, which the king had captured during his campaigns, were still flying in the church long after his death.

• 

  Riddarholmskirche final resting place of Charles XII.

• 

  Urika Eleonora

• 

  Friedrich of Hessen-Kassel

After the death of Charles XII. His sister Ulrika Eleonore was elected queen on January 23, 1719 and crowned in Uppsala on March 17 . With their takeover of the throne, however, a government reform was connected, which transferred the center of power into the hands of the Reichstag. On February 29, 1720 Ulrika Eleanor finally abdicated in favor of her husband, who as Frederick I was the only Hessian on the Swedish throne. Ulrika's abdication was linked to the condition that she should become queen again if her husband died before her.

literature

• Not so Fryxell: The life story of Karl the Twelfth, King of Sweden Volume 2, Braunschweig 1861
• Knut Lundblad, Georg Friedrich Jenssen-Tusch: History of Karl the Twelfth, King of Sweden , Volume 2, Hamburg 1835

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lundblad, p. 547
2. ^ Lundblad, p. 550
3. ^ Lundblad, p. 558
4. ↑ ^{a b} Lundblad, p. 561
5. ^ Lundblad, p. 563
6. ^ Lundblad, p. 585
7. ↑ Fryxell, p. 437

Coordinates: 59 ° 7 ′ 11.3 "  N , 11 ° 23 ′ 46.7"  E