(Bonus points if you get the pop culture reference of the title.) Charles In Charge The Northern Theatre In early March, 1700, Frederick IV, King of Denmark, Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, and Tsar Peter of Russia decide that it was time to carry out their secret treaty to partition the Swedish empire amongst themselves. Because Sweden's king, Charles XII, was only 17 they expect no major problems to stand in their way. Denmark lays siege to Tönning in Holstein-Gottorp, and ally of the Swedes while simultaneously a Saxon army marches through Poland and lays siege to Riga in Swedish Livonia. To the surprise of Frederick IV, Charles XII deploys his army directly to Copenhagen and with the help of the British and Dutch fleets bombards the city for 6 days in late July. This surprise attack pushes the Danes out of the anti-Sweden entente with Saxony and Russia as they are made to repudiate the agreement in a treaty signed at Traventhal. Charles XII then rushes an army to the other side of the Baltic Sea to deal with Augustus II, but by the time he has sufficient forces in the area the Saxe-Polish army has gone to winter quarters south of the Düna river and the Russian Army, about to lay siege to the city of Narva farther east, is the more immediate threat. As a blizzard envelopes the area, Charles XII executes a daring pincer attack on the Russian army which outnumbers his own by four to one. The poorly trained Russian recruits are demoralised by the attack and the chaotic stampede in retreat results in more losses for the Russian army than actual combat. The Swedish troops capture all of the enemy cannons as well as the bulk of their supplies leaving the remaining Russian army virtually defenseless without equipment. Charles XII learns that Tsar Peter had only left the siege a day or two previously to head back to Moscow, and he now faces a choice. Does he forgo the retreating Russians in order to deal with Saxe-Polish threat to Riga? Or, as his generals advocate, does he push after Peter in order to remove him as a threat entirely? Charles XII, never one to give up easily, chooses to take his general’s advice and follows Peter’s severely weakened army into Russia. Swedish troops catch up with the Russians and Peter twelve days later at Veliky Novgorod. The battle does not go well for Peter and he is killed trying to escape to Tver. The court of the Russian nobility, known as the Duma of the Boyars, hastily sets up a regency for the 10 year old Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich. The regency is forced, under threat of an invasion of Moscow, to turn over the Principality of Pskov to Sweden, pay an indemnity for attacking Narva, and to repudiate any alliance with Saxony and withdraw Russian forces from the siege of Riga where Peter had been helping Augustus II of Saxony. With the Russian threat neutralised, Charles turns his attention to Saxony and lifts the Siege of Riga in July 1701 with a brilliantly executed attack on Saxon forces across the Duna River. Augustus II had been prosecuting the war against Sweden from his position as Elector of Saxony and Poland-Lithuania was formally neutral, but Charles XII decided to pursue his opponent into Poland just as he had given chase to Peter the Great into Russia. After numerous successful battles over the next few years against the Saxons, Charles XII is able to force the Polish-Lithuanian Sejm to remove Augustus II as King and Grand Duke and install his puppet, Stanisław Leszczyński, in October of 1704. The crowning of Stanisław I leads to civil war in Poland-Lithuiania with the nobility dividing into the Sandomierz Confederation supporting Augustus II and the Warsaw Confederacy supporting Swedish-backed Stanisław I. The decisive victory of Charles XII and Stanisław I over Augustus II comes at the Battle of Fraustadt in February of 1706. When the Treaty of Altranstädt is signed that October, Augustus II gives up all claim to the Polish-Lithuanian crown, repudiates his alliance the Sandomierz Confederation, and formally recognises Stanisław I as King and Grand Duke. The same month that treaty is signed, however, Russian Boyars from Veliky Novgorod attack Swedish Pskov and eastern Poland-Lithuania with help from the remnants of the Sandomierz Confederation and Cossacks from the south. The Tsarevich Alexei was now 16 and the infighting amongst the Russian Boyars that had commenced with his father’s death was now taking a violent turn. The Novgorod Boyars were attempting to increase the power of their faction in the Russian Duma. The Novgorodians are repelled from the city of Pskov by Swedish forces from Narva and Riga, and when Charles XII arrives from Altranstädt in November he pursues them to Smolensk where he meets Polish forces under Stanisław I who are chasing the Sandomierz rebels. Before the combined Polish and Swedish forces manage to sync up and envelope Smolensk, the army of the Novgorodian Boyars makes a break for Veliky Novgorod. Charles XII pursues them, leaving Stanisław I to take care of the Polish rebels. When Veliky Novgorod falls to a Swedish siege and the Boyar leaders escape under the cover of winter yet again, Charles XII returns to Smolensk to help Stanisław I end the siege there, after which both armies push on to Tver which is easily captured. However, because Moscow is better defended, Charles XII decides to wait out the winter putting an end to the final Sandomierz militia remnants once and for all. In March of 1707, before the Boyars can fully resupply their armies but after three months of steady deliveries from Warsaw and Stockholm, Charles XII’s fully equipped army starts its march on Moscow. After a month long siege, Tsarevich Alexei, feeling that he has become merely a pawn in the machinations of the Boyars and attempts to flee with his retinue to Siberia in the middle of the night through the city sewers and escape via the Moskva river. During the siege, Ivan Mazepa, leader of the Cossack Hetmanate is convinced to abandon the Russian side and join the Poles and Swedes. Mazepa, who has long chafed against the Russian requirements that the Cossacks fight in Russian wars and for the defense of the tsars without any promises to help the Cossacks defend their own lands against the Poles and Tatars, is heartened by the promise autonomy and mutual defense pacts offered by Charles XII and Stanisław I. It is Cossack soldiers who discover the fleeing Tsarevich and bring him to the Swedish command site. Alexei Petrovich is sent to Riga and eventually Stockholm under arrest, and and five weeks later the Cossack forces assist in breaking the siege of Moscow and ravaging the city. The Boyar Duma, already weakened after eight years of infighting since the death of peter the Great are out-classed, out-fought, and facing a rebellion of their own people from starvation. They are forced to sign a treaty nominally on behalf of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich’s regency wherein they are required to give up any claim to Cossack lands to the south, to nullify any treaties with those people, and to recognize the Cossack Hetmanate as a sovereign nation. The Russian Tsardom is also required cede the area around Veliky Novgorod, the title of the prince of Novgorod, and the territories of Russian Karelia and the Kola peninsula to Sweden, as well as return Smolensk and associated territories taken from Poland Lithuania by the Treaty of Andrusovno. As part of the deal, Sweden also cedes to Poland-Lithuania parts of southern Pskov that had also been part of the Andrusovno agreement. With victory assured, Charles XII returns through Riga to Stockholm after eight years away. When news reaches Stockholm early the next year of the full extent civil war that had erupted in Russia after the retreat of the occupying forces, Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich feels vincated in his fear that he would not have survived very long in Moscow if the wrong faction had gained the upper hand. Even though he is no longer under house arrest, the Tsarevich petitions Charles XII to be allowed stay in Stockholm and is granted a pension by the monarch.
Charles In Charge The Southern Theatre When Joseph, Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of the Habsburg lands, heard of Augustus II of Saxony’s surrender to Charles XII of Sweden at Altranstädt, he realised this meant that Charles was now free to meddle in the affairs of the Silesian Lutherans as he had been threatening for several years. The war over the succession of the Spanish crown, started by his father, Leopold, had not been going well. While the Habsburgs had been able to gain superiority in Italy, with Joseph’s brother, another Charles and the contestant for the throne of Spain, being named King of Naples, the fighting in Spain had not been going well. The Bourbon armies under the Duke of Orléans released by the end of fighting in the Italian peninsula had gone to the Iberian peninsula where they combined with the forces of the Duke of Berwick. In a few short months they had managed to undo the gains of the British, Dutch and Portuguese armies which had been making significant gains against Philip of Anjou, currently king of Spain. Recognising that the only way to win in Spain was to get the armies of Berwick and Orléans to leave, Joseph knew he finally had to commit to the Maritime Power’s desire to launch a major attack in southern France. To do that, however, he needed to make sure that Charles XII would not expand his interest beyond Silesia and also decide to help the Hungarian rebels, many of whom were Protestants. Joseph decided to play on Austria and Poland’s mutual enmity with the Ottoman Empire and proposed mutual defense pact when the Turks decided to try and regain their lost territories. In return, Sweden and Poland would help with the renewed assault on France. Stanisław of Poland, seeing war with the Ottomans as imminent due to conflict between the Crimean Khanate and the Cossack Hetmanate, urged Charles XII to accept this offer. Charles XII, however, had been away at war for almost eight years now and was eager to return home after taking care of Russia and start the process of integrating his new dominions into the Swedish Empire. Because Dutch designs on the Spanish Netherlands conflicted with British and Habsburg economic and strategic interests, Joseph was able to convince the Maritime Powers that trade to the Baltic through Sweden would allow them to evade the Danish Sound Tolls. The lesser tolls would still be welcomed by the Swedish treasury, and the Dutch would not need as many economic concessions in the Spanish Netherlands. By October of 1707, Polish and Cossack cavalry have joined Savoyard and Austrian armies in an attack on southern France. The Duchy of Savoy and Nice are regained from French control and the summer’s failed attack on Toulon is repeated, this time successfully, and the armies advance steadily toward the Rhône. The Duke of Orléans and his armies are also called back from Spain to counter this new offensive and this allows British, Dutch and new Austrian troops to once again retake the Aragonese territories they had lost to the Duke of Orléans. The Duke of Berwick, whose armies had been recalled from the Iberian peninsula to help the Elector of Bavaria fight along the Rhine after the initial defeat of Allied forces in Aragon, end up fighting in Flanders under the Duke of Vendôme as more and more Swedish regiments were showing up to help the British and Dutch armies. The tactical and strategic lessons learned from defeating the numerically superior Russians and Saxons even in the harsh northern winters are put to good use by the Swedish commander in the Low Countries, Georg Lydecker. In spite of uprisings in Ghent and Bruges which tried to switch sides, the whole of the Spanish Netherlands are under Allied control by December of 1708 and new attempts to invade France directly via the Moselle and from the Rhine were bearing fruit, especially when joined by Austrian, Polish and Cossack forces marching from the Duchy of Savoy up the Rhône. In March of 1709, Louis XIV sends Pierre Rouillé to negotiate with the Alliance at Moerdijk, and offers up a partition of Spanish lands. While the Dutch are willing to accept the offer, Habsburg dynastic intransigence and British support dooms any deal and the talks collapse with no result at the end of April. France had suffered a particularly harsh winter with widespread crop failures and famines exacerbated by the British naval blockade of grain imports, so in May, Louis XIV sends his foreign minister the Marquis of Torcy to the negotiators in The Hague, hoping to reduce the demands given to Rouillé. On the 27th of May, the Allies presented Torcy with 41 demands which included an entire transfer of the Spanish realms from Philip V to Charles, the brother of the Holy Roman Emperor, who would be crowned Charles III. Louis XIV was willing to accede to all of the demands except for those regarding Philip and Spain so he publicly rejected the demands. What the allies do not realize is that Louis XIV no longer holds and control over his grandson and would not have been able to induce him into giving up the Spanish throne in any case. Believing that Louis XIV is merely stalling for time, the British command prepares for renewed activity on all French fronts to try and bring them back to the negotiating table. Due to the harshness of the previous winter and the scarcity of stores and provisions, Marlborough had initially recoiled from a full-scale invasion of France in preference to a conservative policy of siege warfare, but the outstanding success of the Swedish tactics in Flanders and Alsace had convinced him otherwise. In short order the Allied force takes Tournai, Ypres, Mons and Lille in the north of France and Strasbourg in Alsace. On September the 11th, the Allied armies attack the main French army at Malplaquet, believing that it’s destruction will force Louis XIV to surrender. Villars has been given a freehand to do what he wants and the French defense is vigorous and losses were significant on both sides but the combination of the new Swedish tactics and the addition of a second army that had been ravaging the French Southeast for a year meant that the French could only lose. Louis XIV is forced to recognise the Habsburg Archduke Charles as King Charles II, legitimate rule of the Spanish territories and calls for Philip to step down and return to France by Christmas. Philip, of course, refuses to do so in spite of his increasingly dire situation. The Dutch insist that Louis XIV take responsibility for driving Philp from Spain, but that is flatly refused. Louis XIV had already recalled much of his army from Spain to promote the peace process, and he was even willing to pay a large subsidy to assist the Allied campaign in the peninsula. But he would not send French troops to depose his grandson while his enemies watched from afar. Without French military support over the last year and a half, British, Dutch, Austrian and Portuguese armies have gotten ever closer to Madrid, and Charles III enters the city on the 20th of December, 1709 and is officially crowned on Christmas Day.
What would be great is if i could get comments on the disposition of territories after this. Do you think Charles would be allowed to keep Naples, Sicily, Sardinia and the Spanish Netherlands? Does Portugal get Galicia and parts of Extremadura as promised in 1703? What are the final dispositions of Liège, Cologne and Bavaria?What will happen in a couple years at the death of Joseph I, HRE from smallpox? Does France lose Alsace because of the Allied eastern gains with Swedish help in the final year of the war?