Siege of Riga (1700)

Siege of Riga (1700)

Part of: Great Northern War

Siege of Riga

date	February 21, 1700 to September 19, 1700
place	Riga, capital of Swedish Livonia
output	Victory of the Swedes

Parties to the conflict
Sweden	Poland-Lithuania Russia
Commander
Erik Dahlbergh Gotthard Wilhelm von Budberg	August II. Johann von Patkul Jakob von Flemming
Troop strength
Riga: 3400 men Dünamünde: 500	18,000 men
losses
Unknown	Riga: Unknown Dünamünde: 248 dead and 435 wounded

During the siege of Riga in the Great Northern War from February 21 to September 19, 1700, the Saxon troops of King August II of Poland besieged the Swedish city of Riga without success .

Only after another siege in 1710 did the troops of the Russian tsarist conquer the city.

prehistory

The Swedish possessions in the Baltic States

Elector Friedrich August I of Saxony (1670–1733) was elected King of Poland as August II in 1697 (and thus also ruler of Lithuania, see Saxony-Poland ). Since the nobility had a great influence on the decisions in the Polish-Lithuanian dominion, August II strove to gain recognition, to shift the balance of power in his favor and to convert the kingship into a hereditary monarchy. He was advised by Johann Reinhold von Patkul (1660–1707), who had fled from Swedish Livonia . He said that the recapture of the once Polish Livonia would give August some prestige. The Livonian nobility would welcome this move and rise against Swedish rule. Under King Charles XI. of Sweden (1655–1697) it came to the so-called reductions , through which part of the land ownership of the nobility passed to the crown. This practice met with resistance from the Baltic German nobility, especially in Livonia , and their leaders then sought foreign aid.

In August 1698, Tsar Peter I and King August II met in Rawa , where they made the first arrangements for a joint attack on Sweden. At the instigation of Patkul it finally came on November 11th ^July. / November 21, 1699 ^greg. with the Treaty of Preobrazhenskoye for a formal alliance between Saxony-Poland and Russia. On November 23rd, ^Jul. / December 3rd ^greg. Another alliance between Tsar Peter I and King Frederick IV of Denmark (1671-1730) was concluded. Denmark had been allied with Saxony in a defensive alliance since March 1698.

course

Attack plan

In order to conceal the invasion plan for as long as possible, Saxon troops were sent to the Polish-Livonian border under the pretext of border security. The plan stipulated that if the rivers were frozen in winter, the regiments should cross the Daugava border and take Riga in one go. August the Strong entrusted General Patkull with the preparation and execution of the plan . The fortress and the vicinity of Riga were well known to him.

The Swedish governor general and fortress commander of Riga Erik Dahlbergh became suspicious at an early stage. The conspicuous trips of Tsar Peter I in 1697 and the movements of the Russian troops near Novgorod alarmed him. When the Saxon troop movements on the Livonian border became known, he had the fortress wall repaired and reinforced at his own expense. He also sent a letter to King Charles XII. of Sweden , in which he expressed his concerns and asked for reinforcement of his fortress garrison. The Saxons set the Christmas days of 1699 as the time of attack. They hoped to find the Swedes in a merry and carefree mood and to be able to take the fortress even more easily. But when they found out about the precautions taken by the fortress commander, they abandoned their plans and stayed in the positions assigned to them at the border. The plan of attack was postponed to February 1700 and negotiations began. The Saxon negotiator, Major General Georg Karl von Carlowitz, was supposed to make the fortress accessible to the Saxon troops as a Trojan horse .

Beginning of the siege

Blockade of the city of Riga by Polish and Saxon troops in 1700

The bombardment of Riga by Saxon troops (autumn 1700); Contemporary print

On the morning of February 11, 1700, von Carlowitz reached the Swedish cavalry outpost near the village of Olai, south of Riga, with twelve covered wagons, he was escorted by 80 dragoons . The wagons were registered as the general's personal luggage. The Swedish commander, Captain Erichson, distrusted the Saxons and had the wagons searched. There were several dozen grenadiers in the car . They were all captured and taken to Riga. In addition, scaling ladders, firearms, hand grenades and the like were found. To warn Riga, the commander shot red flares into the sky. In a brief firefight, the Saxon dragoons were attacked by 20 Swedish horsemen and put to flight. The captain Erichson died in this battle.

The Saxon plan had failed. At dawn on February 12th, the grenadiers , wrapped in frocks, were to spread among the churchgoers, attack and kill the gate guard . After that, they should open the gate and let the invading force of 12,000 infantrymen and 600 dragoons into the fortress. The next morning another field guard noticed the advance of the Saxon army under the leadership of Jakob Heinrich von Flemming . Despite the failed attempt at infiltration, the siege of Riga by the Saxon troops began. This could not be maintained, however, because the Saxon army lacked an effective artillery to bomb the city, and the infantry could not draw a complete siege ring around the city.

Conquering the Kobernschanze

The Kobernschanze was on the other side of the Daugava river across from Riga. The fort was small and had only a small number of soldiers. The commander, Major von Bildstein, reported the advance of the Saxons to the Riga commandant on February 12th and asked for additional reinforcements and instructions. Dahlberg did not want to weaken his own forces in Riga and ordered the defense of the hill with the forces available. Bildstein reported back that under the given circumstances a defense was hopeless and the Saxon infantry had already reached the hill. The next day, Bildstein reported again about his hopeless situation and the low combat strength of his 41-man crew. On the night of March 13-14, Saxon troops attacked the Kobernschanze and captured it after a short battle.

During the first siege, 350 Livonian charioteers managed to break through the siege lines of the Saxon infantry and supply the fortress with supplies. The siege had to be called off in May 1700. The Swedish relief army, led by Major General Georg Johann Maydell , landed near Riga. The 3200-strong Swedish detachment pushed the Saxons back to their starting positions behind the Daugava in the battle at Jungfernhof .

The attack on Dünamünde

The fortress around 1700

On March 14th, 1700, the small Dünamünder Schanze was taken by the Saxons. The Swedish commander von Budberg, who defended the fortress with 500 men from the Nylander Infantry Regiment, capitulated after two days of resistance. The Saxon Army Corps, consisting of three infantry regiments and one cavalry regiment , was led by Major General von Carlowitz. The losses among the Saxons were high: 248 dead and 435 wounded. The fortress was renamed Augustusburg in honor of the Polish king, although he did not attend the siege. This success was celebrated everywhere in Saxony-Poland . The fortress was recaptured by the Swedes in 1701.

Another siege of Riga

On July 5, 1700, under the leadership of August II and Johann Patkull, the Saxons' new advance to Riga began. With 18,000 men and a strong artillery under the command of General Field Marshal Adam Heinrich von Steinau , the Saxons were the first to take action against the Swedish troops on the other bank of the Daugava. General Otto Vellingk was unable to prevent the Saxon army from crossing the Daugava with his 8,000-man crew. The Swedish army was routed near Jungfernhof with heavy losses. The Swedes fled hastily and without any recognizable order to Riga or Pernau . From the beginning of August 1700, Riga was formally besieged by the Saxons. August the Strong issued a seven-day ultimatum and demanded the surrender of Riga. The bombardment of Riga began on August 28th . During one of the artillery attacks, among other things, trading offices of Dutch and English merchants were destroyed.

The fortress commander refused to surrender, he was still sure that the Saxons would not be strong enough to storm and take the fortress. Furthermore, the landing of Charles XII. known on Zealand and peace with the Danes was getting closer. Dahlbergh could now expect that Riga will be appalled with a Swedish army . After the Danes were ready for a peace treaty, the Swedish army gathered in southern Sweden to cross over to Livonia.

Time was running out for the Saxons. August II was aware that he would no longer be able to take the fortress. He broke off the siege. The Saxon troops withdrew behind the Daugava and secured the conquered territory in Livonia. The smaller Kokenhausen fortress was besieged in autumn and taken on October 17, 1700.

The consequences

The two sieges of Riga mark the beginning of the Great Northern War. This was to last over 20 years and end the supremacy of the Swedes in the Baltic Sea region .

The King of Poland found himself unable to wage war against the Swedes alone. In February 1701 he met the Tsar of Russia in the small town of Birze, on the border between Livonia and Samogitia . During these talks, which lasted several days, the Tsar secured financial and military support for the Polish king in the fight against Charles XII. to. The Polish Reichstag also said, after an intensive donation of money from Peter the Great, its support and Saxony-Poland and Russia were arming for the campaign against Sweden.

literature

• Knut Lundblad, Georg Friedrich Jenssen-Tusch: History of Karl the Twelfth, King of Sweden , Volume 1, Hamburg 1835.
• Not so Fryxell: Life story of Charles the Twelfth, King of Sweden . Volume 1, Friedrich Vieweg and Son, Braunschweig 1861.

Web links

Commons : Siege of Riga 1700  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Eckardt Opitz: Many causes, clear results - the struggle for supremacy in the Baltic Sea region in the Great Northern War 1700–1721 . In: Bernd Wegner in connection with Ernst Willi Hansen, Kerstin Rehwinkel and Matthias Reiss (eds.): How wars arise. On the historical background of conflicts between states . Paderborn 2000, pp. 89-107, here: pp. 90-94.
2. ^ Georg Piltz: August the Strong - dreams and deeds of a German prince. New Life Publishing House, Berlin (East) 1986, p. 80.
3. ↑ Anders Fryxell: Life story of Charles the Twelfth, King of Sweden. Volume 1, Section Two, Chapter 16, Friedrich Vieweg and Son, Braunschweig 1861.
4. ↑ Riksarkivet, Stockholm, M 1374 (Report of the attack on Riga written by Dahlbergh's secretary Blåman. Various reports by Bildstein are attached.)
5. ↑ Hans Feldmann , Heinz von zur Mühlen : Baltic historical local dictionary , Volume 2: Latvia (Southern Livonia and Courland) . Böhlau, Cologne 1990, p. 132.
6. ↑ Knut Lundblad, Georg Friedrich Jenssen-Tusch: History of Karl the Twelfth, King of Sweden, Volume 1, Hamburg 1835, pp. 41-55.