Although um if you have told me about the Great Northern War I have completely forgotten; can I have a relatively short recap?
I have not! What I've said is that having finished the War of the Spanish Succession, I would like to learn about the Great Northern War, which is how I got onto Whitworth in the first place. It's a complicated twenty-year war involving tons of countries and principalities, and shifting alliances, and I barely know anything about it, so my recap will be sketchy in both quality and quantity, but here goes.
17th century Sweden was a significant military power, dominating the Baltic on both land and sea. In 1700, their neighbors, including Peter the Great in Russia, decide to take advantage of the fact that the new king is an inexperienced 18-yo and try to get some land back. Unfortunately, that 18-yo is Charles XII, who will be a famous, if ultimately unsuccessful, general.
He wins a bunch of battles. Storms through Poland, kicks August of Saxony off the throne and installs Stanislas Leszczynski. Stanislas' first reign of Poland only lasts a few years, just like his second reign in the 1730s.
Charles XII invades Russia, but as we discussed in the War of the Spanish Succession, ends up trying to live off the land during the great winter of 1708/1709. 1709, the year of Malplaquet, is also the year of Poltava, the big battle where Peter the Great's forces kick Charles' butt, and put an end to Sweden's superpower days. Also to Stanislas' days as King of Poland.
But the war is only halfway over, and more countries get involved. Brandenburg-Prussia and Hanover both want strategically located territory. Hanover wants Bremen-Verden to connect them to the Baltic.
FW wants Swedish Pomerania and especially Stettin.
He'll end up getting the southern part of Pomerania to go with the Pomerania he already owns. Take a look at the blue area on the map that's between the orange parts. That's the part he gets. You'll see Stettin, and if you go south along the river a bit, you'll see Gartz, Fredersdorf's hometown.
If you go way up north in the blue and off the to the west, you'll see Stralsund. The siege here is where FW met and decided he liked Seckendorff and Duhan. Duhan was so brave that FW immediately decided to enlist him as tutor for Fritz (Fritz is 3 years old at this point, in 1715), causing adult Fritz to snark about how unusual it is to engage a tutor in a trench. Also, FW totally missed the mark on this one too, as usual, thinking that a good soldier can't also be a cultured man of French manners! (I see the campaign to have Eugene be his role model failed.)
Then Whitworth and Rottembourg show up in Berlin the late 1710s, trying to get FW to reach terms with Sweden and Britain so affairs can be settled in the Baltic. In the end, he gets the parts of Swedish Pomerania he most wanted, and Hanover gets Bremen-Verden.
And one day, if all goes well, you may get a more in-depth dive into this war.
Addendum re: Sweden - one big reason for it's military superpower status at the start of the 18th century lies in the Thirty-Years-War, which ended mid 17th century and which changed so much for European history. Incidentally, Mildred, I know it's not your medium, but there is a pretty good docudrama miniseries Das Eiserne Zeitalter which I've watched in recent weeks on Amazon Prime, a French-German coproduction which introduced me among other things to the fact we have the diaries of a mercenary from the Thirty Years War, Peter Altendorf. He was one of the few who could read and write, and he survived the entire war. He himself as a Lutheran but mostly served in Catholic armies. The diary won't be able to explain to you the big picture, but if you want to read something about the day to day life, then, going by the excerpts, it's ideal.
Anyway: the first Northern European country to intervene in the 30 Years War on the Protestant side was Denmark, which was soundly beaten, but then the Swedes showed up, and their King Gustav Adolf was one of those hardcore military talents who came this close to conquering his way all the way to Vienna. (Wallenstein could then distract him not by defending Vienna but by scouring Saxony (allied to Gustav Adolf), which also threatened to cut him off from his supply lines, so the Swedes had to turn back. Gustav Adolf later died in battle, undefeated unlike Charles XII later, but he died. This didn't mean the Swedes left the war, though. By the time the war had ended Sweden had gone from also ran to top European power, definitely one of the most feared military powers, with a large say so in trade. Bear in mind that Sweden itself, the territory, had seen no battle, since most of the war took place in the HRE, i.e. mostly, though not exclusively, the German speaking principalities. And it had been so brutal and devastating that a third of the population was gone, most cities were at least partly damaged and had to be rebuild. You may or may not recall the Great Elector of Brandenburg (FW's grandfather) spent years as a child in Küstrin because it was one of the few fortresses his parents deemed safe. One reason why both FW and Fritz actively advertised for settlers was that the population was still recovering, even in the next century, from the long term effects of the 30 Years War devastation. Trying to get territory from Sweden, which had immensely profitted in terms of finances, power and economy from the same war, also falls into that larger context.
we have the diaries of a mercenary from the Thirty Years War, Peter Altendorf.
Thanks, will keep this in mind if I manage to get the big picture of the Thirty Years' War *and* adequate German to be able to find the interesting parts quickly.
Meanwhile, Der Kaiser reist inkognito is perfect, and I'm about 1/3 of the way through! Slow going just because work has been so demanding lately, but exactly what I was looking for, thank you. <3
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Great Northern War
I have not! What I've said is that having finished the War of the Spanish Succession, I would like to learn about the Great Northern War, which is how I got onto Whitworth in the first place. It's a complicated twenty-year war involving tons of countries and principalities, and shifting alliances, and I barely know anything about it, so my recap will be sketchy in both quality and quantity, but here goes.
17th century Sweden was a significant military power, dominating the Baltic on both land and sea. In 1700, their neighbors, including Peter the Great in Russia, decide to take advantage of the fact that the new king is an inexperienced 18-yo and try to get some land back. Unfortunately, that 18-yo is Charles XII, who will be a famous, if ultimately unsuccessful, general.
He wins a bunch of battles. Storms through Poland, kicks August of Saxony off the throne and installs Stanislas Leszczynski. Stanislas' first reign of Poland only lasts a few years, just like his second reign in the 1730s.
Charles XII invades Russia, but as we discussed in the War of the Spanish Succession, ends up trying to live off the land during the great winter of 1708/1709. 1709, the year of Malplaquet, is also the year of Poltava, the big battle where Peter the Great's forces kick Charles' butt, and put an end to Sweden's superpower days. Also to Stanislas' days as King of Poland.
But the war is only halfway over, and more countries get involved. Brandenburg-Prussia and Hanover both want strategically located territory. Hanover wants Bremen-Verden to connect them to the Baltic.
FW wants Swedish Pomerania and especially Stettin.
He'll end up getting the southern part of Pomerania to go with the Pomerania he already owns. Take a look at the blue area on the map that's between the orange parts. That's the part he gets. You'll see Stettin, and if you go south along the river a bit, you'll see Gartz, Fredersdorf's hometown.
If you go way up north in the blue and off the to the west, you'll see Stralsund. The siege here is where FW met and decided he liked Seckendorff and Duhan. Duhan was so brave that FW immediately decided to enlist him as tutor for Fritz (Fritz is 3 years old at this point, in 1715), causing adult Fritz to snark about how unusual it is to engage a tutor in a trench. Also, FW totally missed the mark on this one too, as usual, thinking that a good soldier can't also be a cultured man of French manners! (I see the campaign to have Eugene be his role model failed.)
Then Whitworth and Rottembourg show up in Berlin the late 1710s, trying to get FW to reach terms with Sweden and Britain so affairs can be settled in the Baltic. In the end, he gets the parts of Swedish Pomerania he most wanted, and Hanover gets Bremen-Verden.
And one day, if all goes well, you may get a more in-depth dive into this war.
Re: The Great Northern War
Anyway: the first Northern European country to intervene in the 30 Years War on the Protestant side was Denmark, which was soundly beaten, but then the Swedes showed up, and their King Gustav Adolf was one of those hardcore military talents who came this close to conquering his way all the way to Vienna. (Wallenstein could then distract him not by defending Vienna but by scouring Saxony (allied to Gustav Adolf), which also threatened to cut him off from his supply lines, so the Swedes had to turn back. Gustav Adolf later died in battle, undefeated unlike Charles XII later, but he died. This didn't mean the Swedes left the war, though. By the time the war had ended Sweden had gone from also ran to top European power, definitely one of the most feared military powers, with a large say so in trade. Bear in mind that Sweden itself, the territory, had seen no battle, since most of the war took place in the HRE, i.e. mostly, though not exclusively, the German speaking principalities. And it had been so brutal and devastating that a third of the population was gone, most cities were at least partly damaged and had to be rebuild. You may or may not recall the Great Elector of Brandenburg (FW's grandfather) spent years as a child in Küstrin because it was one of the few fortresses his parents deemed safe. One reason why both FW and Fritz actively advertised for settlers was that the population was still recovering, even in the next century, from the long term effects of the 30 Years War devastation. Trying to get territory from Sweden, which had immensely profitted in terms of finances, power and economy from the same war, also falls into that larger context.
Re: The Great Northern War
Thanks, will keep this in mind if I manage to get the big picture of the Thirty Years' War *and* adequate German to be able to find the interesting parts quickly.
Meanwhile, Der Kaiser reist inkognito is perfect, and I'm about 1/3 of the way through! Slow going just because work has been so demanding lately, but exactly what I was looking for, thank you. <3