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cahnAnd in this post:
-luzula is going to tell us about the Jacobites and the '45!
-I'm going to finish reading Nancy Goldstone's book about Maria Theresia and (some of) her children Maria Christina, Maria Carolina, and Marie Antoinette, In the Shadow of the Empress, andselenak is going to tell us all the things wrong with the last four chapters (spoiler: in the first twenty chapters there have been many, MANY things wrong)!
-mildred_of_midgard is going to tell us about Charles XII of Sweden and the Great Northern War
(seriously, how did I get so lucky to have all these people Telling Me Things, this is AWESOME)
-oh, and also there will be Yuletide signups :D
-
luzula is going to tell us about the Jacobites and the '45!-I'm going to finish reading Nancy Goldstone's book about Maria Theresia and (some of) her children Maria Christina, Maria Carolina, and Marie Antoinette, In the Shadow of the Empress, and
selenak is going to tell us all the things wrong with the last four chapters (spoiler: in the first twenty chapters there have been many, MANY things wrong)!-
mildred_of_midgard is going to tell us about Charles XII of Sweden and the Great Northern War(seriously, how did I get so lucky to have all these people Telling Me Things, this is AWESOME)
-oh, and also there will be Yuletide signups :D
Re: The Great Northern War: Charles in Saxony
Date: 2021-11-04 10:05 pm (UTC)As noted, Charles found it impossible to deliver a final defeat to Augustus as long as Augustus could draw on his power center of Saxony. Charles really really wanted to invade Saxony. But the British and Dutch wouldn't let him.
Now why are the British and Dutch (hence forth the Maritime Powers, as they're usually called in my reading) such an obstacle?
Well, the War of the Spanish Succession is going on. The Maritime Powers are allied with the current Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph I (MT's dad's older brother). He is trying to put MT's dad, future Charles VI, on the throne of Spain. If Charles attacks Saxony, the Austrians will be forced to defend it. Any resources they spend defending Saxony are resources they can't spend fighting Louis XIV. The Maritime Powers really, really want Louis XIV's butt kicked.
Why doesn't Charles decide he can take on the Austrians and the Maritime Powers on top of everyone else? Aside from the fact that he's not *that* much of an idiot, he needs the Maritime Powers for one specific thing.
What one specific thing? Our old friend Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp.
Remember that back at the beginning of the war, Denmark, one of the first three allies to gang up on Sweden and decide to partition its empire, made the first move by occupying Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp. And remember that Charles knocked Denmark out of the war in a few weeks. Part of this was his coolness, but a big part was that the Maritime Powers were the guarantors of the treaty that Denmark had violated. So they showed up with a navy to help Charles out, and said that if Denmark tried that again, they'd find themselves facing the British and Dutch navies again. This is that "Dutch Republic (1700), England (1700), Scotland (1700), Ireland (1700)" in the chart of "who's who" I gave at the top of the thread. William III and everywhere he was leader of through personal union intervened just long enough to help keep the peace in Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, then went back to planning their own war.
So now it's 1701-1706, and if Charles invades Saxony, Leopold has to divert troops from the war in which he's allied to the Maritime Powers against Louis, the Maritime Powers get mad, Denmark invades Schleswig-Holstein again, and Charles is up one enemy and down one ally in this war (plus the new enemies of Austria, and Maritime Powers). This is why I said you have to know the War of the Spanish Succession if you want to understand the Great Northern War. There will be more overlap later.
As noted, it's not until 1706, after Marlborough and Eugene have won some striking victories, that everyone's okay with Charles attacking Saxony. In fact, Louis was like, "You should come join me! Fight Marlborough and Eugene! We can divide up Germany together!"
Charles: "I have my priorities, sir. And I am staying neutral in your war. Maritime Powers, I will refrain from invading Saxony if you can get Augustus to abdicate."
Maritime Powers: *try*
Maritime Powers: *fail*
So Charles marches through Silesia, where he is hailed as a liberator by the Protestants. He tells Emperor Joseph that he'd better stop oppressing the Protestants and had better guarantee their religious liberties. Joseph does so.
In the words of Massie,
By a threat to march against Vienna, Charles did win for the Silesians the right to reopen their Lutheran churches; indeed, the Emperor Joseph said that he was lucky that the King of Sweden had not demanded that he become a Lutheran himself.
Mildred: That sounds as implausible as it is hilarious. Even leaving religious commitment aside, I would hope the Holy Roman Emperor would have more pride than that! Primary sources or it didn't happen.
One of Mildred's later, more reliable books: "According to Voltaire, Joseph said..."
Mildred: OH. That explains why it's hilarious and snarky and implausible! That is such a vintage Voltaire dig against a Catholic monarch on behalf of Voltaire's pre-Fritz problematic fave. Mystery solved.
Marlborough, meeting up with Charles in person: "So, Anne and I really loving your championing of the Protestant cause in Europe! If she weren't a female, she'd come here herself to fangirl you in person! But we're kind of teamed up with a Catholic monarch right now, against a much, MUCH more dangerous Catholic monarch, known as Louis the Expansionist Bastard, so can you try not to disrupt the balance of power in Central Europe until we're done?"
Charles: "Look. I have no interest in your war. But I'm gonna do what I came here to do."
Marlborough, to Anne, afterward: "I think we're safe. I think he's way more interested in Russia after he finishes Saxony. Also, I'm not sure about that whole 'travel light, live off the land' thing he's got going. The lack of supply lines might backfire on him eventually."
The reader who knows how his invasion of Russia went: "AHAHAHA you called it, Marlborough."
Charles, to his advisors, afterward: "A man worthy of respect. But kind of overdressed for a soldier, don't you think?"
So Charles is hanging out in Saxony, where everyone remembers the Swedes from the Thirty Years War and has fled in terror. He takes all the cities without any resistance. He keeps his men from looting. He impresses everyone with his simplicity and piety in contrast to La Saxe Galante. His army makes itself loved by the Saxons, who are sorry to see him go. (I bet they really missed him when Fritz showed up.)
Augustus isn't there. He's off east with the Russians, trying to get support for his war against the Swedes.
So while Augustus is prosecuting a war against Charles in Poland, Charles is in Saxony making the ministers sign a treaty according to which Augustus has to break off his alliance with the Tsar of Russia and stop fighting Charles. The treaty is signed. Augustus learns of it. He manages to keep the Russians from finding out right away, but he's in a super awkward position.
Then, right as the large Russian force is closing on the small Swedish force, Augustus sends the Swedish commander a secret message telling him about the treaty and urging him to retreat without fighting.
Here, Augustus’ reputation finally caught up with him. The King was so well known for duplicity and chicanery that Mardefelt assumed the message was only another of Augustus’ tricks and ignored it.
(This is why I want that bio of Augustus.)
In the ensuing battle, the Swedes were crushed by the Russians, who outnumbered them 2-1. (This was a huge deal that showed that the Russian army had greatly improved under Peter, since previously, 2-1 was no big deal for the Swedes.)
Augustus, embarrassed by this Russian victory, scrambled desperately to adjust himself to his new position between Peter and Charles. He wrote to Charles apologizing for the battle and offering excuses for his inability to prevent its occurrence.
On November 30, Augustus arrived in Saxony and visited Charles...He apologized personally for what had happened...and Charles accepted his explanation, but insisted that Augustus confirm his abdication by writing Stanislaus to congratulate him on his accession to the throne of Poland. Being completely within Charles’ power, Augustus swallowed even this bitter pill. As Charles had written discreetly but serenely in a letter to Stockholm, “For the present, it is I who am Elector of Saxony.”
Then the secret incognito visit to Dresden happens, and then Charles pulls out and heads for the inglorious invasion of Russia.
Re: The Great Northern War: Charles in Saxony
Date: 2021-11-05 05:01 am (UTC)Heeeee! Voltaire! It just amuses me every time he trolls everyone, and it happens SO MUCH.
Marlborough, to Anne, afterward: "I think we're safe. I think he's way more interested in Russia after he finishes Saxony. Also, I'm not sure about that whole 'travel light, live off the land' thing he's got going. The lack of supply lines might backfire on him eventually."
The reader who knows how his invasion of Russia went: "AHAHAHA you called it, Marlborough."
Welp Marlborough!
Here, Augustus’ reputation finally caught up with him. The King was so well known for duplicity and chicanery that Mardefelt assumed the message was only another of Augustus’ tricks and ignored it.
I gotta say I find this hilariously fascinating, and will be excited when someone reads that bio! :)
Re: The Great Northern War: Charles in Saxony
Date: 2021-11-05 11:58 am (UTC)Re: The Great Northern War: Charles in Saxony
Date: 2021-11-05 11:59 am (UTC)One of Mildred's later, more reliable books: "According to Voltaire, Joseph said..."
Mildred: OH. That explains why it's hilarious and snarky and implausible! That is such a vintage Voltaire dig against a Catholic monarch on behalf of Voltaire's pre-Fritz problematic fave. Mystery solved.
Hehe. Mystery solved indeed. Say, is Voltaire also the source for the Saxons loving Charles? Because while I can see them comparing him positively with August in the religious department (given August had became a Catholic to get the Polish crown and Saxony still was 90% Protestant), but even the opening sequence of the entertaining 80s tv series aside, the whole "Swedes were perfect gentlemen in Saxony, everyone loved Charles and hated August" sounds distinctly not how the whole thing is presented in any German take I've come across in passing. (Including German wiki, whose take on this part of the Great Northern war is "Das Land wurde rigoros ausgebeutet", i.e. "the land got ruthlessly exploited".
(Not that August didn't exploit Saxony too, but as its liege lord, that was par the course.
Re: The Great Northern War: Charles in Saxony
Date: 2021-11-05 02:57 pm (UTC)I don't know the source, but I was actually going to comment today that "the Saxons loved Charles" is another one of those things that my pro-Charles sources say but that is strikingly like *other* Fritzian claims I've encountered, so it's another thing I'm reporting without necessarily believing.