Siege of Fredriksten
Siege of Fredriksten | |||||||
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Part of the Great Northern War | |||||||
Bringing Home the Body of King Charles XII by Gustaf Cederström (1884) | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Denmark–Norway | Swedish Empire | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Barthold Landsberg | Charles XII † | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
1,800 | 21,000 [1] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
9 killed, 10 wounded, and 19 captured during the battle. 22 died of disease, 41 escaped, and 478 fell ill. | In addition to the death of the Swedish king, 200 Swedes were killed and wounded. |
The siege of Fredriksten (Norwegian: Beleiringen av Fredriksten festning) was an attack on the Norwegian fortress of Fredriksten in the city of Fredrikshald (now Halden) by King Charles XII of Sweden. While inspecting his troops' lines, Charles XII was killed by a projectile. The Swedes broke off the siege, and the Norwegians held the fortress.[2] Along with the Treaty of Nystad three years later, the death of Charles XII marked the end of the imperial era in Sweden, and the beginning of the Age of Liberty (Swedish: Frihetstiden) in that country.[3][4]
Background
King
It was at
After a brief occupation, Charles retraced his steps to the
Charles' troops attempted to take Frederiksten by storm on 4 July. His troops took the town after fierce fighting, but the citizens set fire to their own houses, forcing Charles, unable to take the fortress, to retreat and await the arrival of heavy siege guns. Unfortunately for the invading army the entire Swedish transport fleet was captured or destroyed by the Norwegian naval hero
Siege of 1718
Charles came again to besiege the fortress in autumn of 1718 with 40,000 men. He did this intending to first capture Fredriksten fortress to be able to sustain a siege of Akershus. By first taking the border areas, Charles wished to avoid a repeat of the fiasco he had suffered two years before. The 1,400-strong garrison of Frederiksten fought ferociously to hold back the invasion, but suffered a severe setback when, on 8 December the forward fortification, Gyldenløve fort, at Fredriksten fell. Encouraged by their very hard-fought success the Swedish army intensified their efforts against the main fort.[citation needed]
The Swedish trenches had almost reached the main fortification walls when on the evening of 11 December (Swedish calendar: 30 November 1718, a projectile (probably a large musket ball or grapeshot) struck Charles XII through the left temple while he inspected the trench-works and killed him. The death of the king effectively ended the attack on Fredriksten and the invasion was called off, leading to the conclusion of the war.[citation needed]
References
- ^ Lundblad (1835), p. 558
- ^ "De svenske invasjonene av Norge i 1716 og 1718". University of Oslo. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
- ^ Peter From. "Karl XII:s död - gåtans lösning". karlxii.se. Archived from the original on April 6, 2005. Retrieved November 1, 2018.
- ISBN 91-518-4106-1. Retrieved November 1, 2018
- ^ "Stora Nordiska Kriget". tacitus.nu/svenskhistoria. Retrieved November 1, 2018.
- ^ Erlend Hammer. "Akershus slott og festning". Store norske leksikon. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
- ^ "Norge i den store nordiske krig". University of Oslo. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
- ^ "1716 - Slaget om Dynekilen". Forsvarets Marinemuseet. Retrieved September 1, 2018.
Related reading
- Åberg. Alf; Göte Göransson (1976) Karoliner (Stockholm : Bokförl. Trevi) ISBN 9789171602084
- Bain, R. Nisbet (2015) Charles XII and the Collapse of the Swedish Empire (CreateSpace Independent Publishing) ISBN 978-1514632680
- Frost, Robert I. (2000) The Northern Wars, 1558-1721 (Longman Harlowd) ISBN 0-582-06429-5
- Lisk, Jill (1968) The Struggle for Supremacy in the Baltic 1600-1725 (Funk & Wagnalls)
- Lunde, Henrik O. (2014) A Warrior Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of Sweden as a Military Superpower, 1611-1721 (Casemate) ISBN 978-1612002422
- Stagg, Frank Noel (1956) East Norway and its Frontier (George Allen & Unwin, Ltd)
- Stiles, Andrina (1992) Sweden and the Baltic, 1523 - 1721 (Hodder & Stoughton) ISBN 0-340-54644-1