Cold Open

It’s 2 P.M. on November 30th, 1700, near Narva, an Estonian town in the Swedish Empire.

King Charles XII of Sweden hunches deeper into his greatcoat and urges his horse forward as the wind howls at his back. Through the driving snow, he can just make out the blue coats of his elite cavalry advancing beside him. And he’s pleased to see his men are holding their line, despite the blizzard conditions.

Charles is just 18 years old and eager to prove himself as a battlefield commander.

Ten months ago, his kingdom was thrust into an unwanted war. Sweden had dominated the Baltic region for generations. But when the young and inexperienced Charles became king, several neighboring powers saw a chance to break the Swedish stranglehold. A Russian-led coalition attacked on multiple fronts. But they faltered in the first battles, and the Swedes quickly struck back. First, Denmark was forced out of the war, and now, Charles has personally joined his men in an attack on a Russian army besieging Narva —and with a blizzard concealing the Swedish advance, Charles senses an opportunity for a great victory.

Up ahead, there are flashes of light, and then Charles hears shouts and the muffled crack of musket fire. The attack has begun.

Charles kicks his horse on toward the Russian lines, because he doesn’t want to miss out on the glory.

As his cavalry nears the Russian earthworks, Charles sees that the Swedish infantry has already broken through the enemy line. And Russian troops are fleeing toward the river beyond.

But not all the enemy soldiers have abandoned their posts.

Musket balls still whistle overhead.

And suddenly, Charles is jerked back in his saddle. For a moment, he reels and almost falls, and then he realizes he is unharmed. Miraculously, the bullet that he thought would take his life has only caught in the thick, wet material of his coat.

So grinning wildly, Charles raises his sword and roars at his men to charge.

King Charles XII takes his survival after this close call as a sign that God is watching over him. And his faith appears justified. His army wins a stunning victory at the Battle of Narva, defeating a Russian force several times its size. But this one success will not be enough to end the Great Northern War. This conflict will go on for more than two decades, until Sweden and Russia finally sign a peace treaty on September 10th, 1721.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is September 10th, 1721: The End of the Great Northern War.

Act One

It’s 8 A.M. on June 20th, 1709, outside the city of Poltava in modern-day Ukraine, almost nine years after the Battle of Narva.

32-year-old nobleman Stanislaw Poniatowski rides along a riverbank, inspecting the Swedish army’s defensive pickets. Everything seems to be in order, so he turns to see whether his riding companion is ready to head back. But 27-year-old King Charles XII of Sweden gestures for him to keep going. The king wants to check every last outpost.

Sweden has been at war for nearly a decade. After defeating a Russian army at the Battle of Narva, Charles invaded Poland, another member of the anti-Swedish coalition. Then he used its territory as a springboard for an invasion of his last remaining enemy—Russia.

But Russia's ruler, Tsar Peter I, had no intention of meeting the formidable Swedish army on its own terms. Instead, he ordered his troops to withdraw, burning fields and stores as they retreated. The Swedish army was able to advance deep into Russian territory. But there was nothing left for the men to eat, and Charles’s soldiers soon began to starve. Then came one of the coldest European winters in living memory. So, with his army freezing and increasingly short on supplies, Charles was forced to abandon his plan to march on Moscow. Instead, he turned south and laid siege to the walled city of Poltava.

Now, though, almost two months have passed, and Poltava is still holding out. Making matters worse, an 80,000-man-strong Russian army has just arrived to relieve the city. It’s currently camped two miles away, waiting for Charles to make the first move.

So the nobleman Stanislaw Poniatowski suppresses a sigh. He realizes that he won’t get to enjoy his breakfast until Charles has inspected every Swedish position. So he turns his horse to follow Charles along the path. But just as he digs his heels into the horse’s sides, a distant gunshot rings out. He ducks instinctively, because there must be Russian snipers across the river.

He tells Charles that they should turn around. But Charles just trots on. And as he does, Stanislaw spots a trickle of blood dripping from the king’s boot. Charles has been hit. Stanislaw implores him to turn back so the doctors in camp can inspect the wound. But Charles silences him with a sharp rebuke. They’re not going back until he’s inspected the line.

Over the next three hours, Charles examines every Swedish position and shows no obvious signs of discomfort. But when he and Stanislaw arrive back at camp and dismount their horses, Charles is only able to take a few steps before he collapses to the ground.

The royal surgeon rushes to the king’s side. He cuts away the boot, revealing an ugly, bloody wound. Still, Charles refuses help. He pushes the surgeon away and tries to search for the musket ball himself. Only when he fails to find it does he allow the surgeon to examine the injury properly. After a few minutes, the doctor concludes that the ball has torn right through the sole of the foot. He dresses the wound and implores the king to rest.

Charles finally withdraws to his tent, but the wound is already becoming infected. And over the next few days, he develops a raging fever, drifting in and out of consciousness. With his life hanging in the balance, the Swedish commanders don’t dare order an attack on the Russian army.

But eventually, Charles’s fever breaks, and he immediately sets about preparing for battle. But while he has been confined to his sickbed, the Russians have been busy. They've built a series of earth-and-timber fortifications to slow the Swedes down.

And when the Swedish assault finally begins, several battalions become trapped attacking these fortifications and are cut off. That leaves the other Swedish troops badly outnumbered in their fight against the main Russian force. The enemy’s artillery and infantry fire shatter their advance, and the Swedish line collapses.

Charles has been observing the battle from a stretcher, but as his army falls apart, he must be helped onto horseback for a painful ride to safety. He leaves behind thousands of his men—killed, injured, or taken prisoner.

In the end, the Battle of Poltava is a catastrophe that Charles will not recover from. Although he will escape from the battlefield, momentum in the Great Northern War will shift decisively toward Russia. Charles has already had to give up his dream of taking Moscow. And soon, he will be at risk of losing much, much more.

Act Two

It’s the night of December 11th, 1718, outside a fortress overlooking the town of Frederikshald in Norway, nine years after the Battle of Poltava.

A Swedish officer ducks as he hurries along a trench, followed closely by King Charles XII. This is a dangerous place to be. Because at any moment, a musket ball or cannon shot could tear through the darkness. But Charles has never given much thought to his personal safety. He wants to supervise the construction of his siege lines in person—whatever the risks.

But very little has gone right for Charles since the Battle of Poltava. In the aftermath of that defeat, he escaped south into the territories of the Ottoman Empire. But he found himself essentially in exile. The Ottomans were unwilling to form a lasting alliance with him against the Russians, and his path back to Sweden was blocked by hostile forces.

And while Charles was forced to lick his wounds, his enemy advanced. A Russian army moved into Swedish-controlled Finland; Denmark re-entered the war on Russia’s side; and a pro-Russian ruler seized the throne of Poland. The situation deteriorated so rapidly that several Swedish nobles began to make their own peace overtures toward Russian Tsar Peter I.

But Charles himself refused to consider an armistice. Instead, he made the risky decision to return home without his army. Under a false name and disguised as an ordinary traveler, Charles rode across Europe and covered more than a thousand miles in just 15 days.

But after five years away, the Sweden he returned to was a shadow of what it once was. Realizing that he no longer had the resources to confront Russia directly, Charles decided to focus his attention on Denmark instead. He quickly raised an army of 7,000 men and invaded Danish-controlled Norway. But he didn’t have the manpower to remain there for long. So, he retreated and gathered his strength for a second attempt. Two years later, in the fall of 1718, he returned at the head of 40,000 men. And his first target was the heavily defended border town of Frederikshald.

Now, after weeks of fighting, the Swedish siege lines are creeping closer to the fortress overlooking the city. Charles’s soldiers work through the darkness, digging trenches, building earthworks, and dragging heavy guns into position. Every yard brings them closer to the enemy.

And Charles insists on overseeing the work personally. So now, as torches flicker, throwing long shadows across the earthworks, the king steps over to the edge of the trench. He raises his head slightly above the parapet for a better view. And for a moment, the king is standing directly in front of one of the torches, his head perfectly silhouetted against the light.

The officer with him calls out a warning, but it's too late. As Charles turns, a gunshot echoes through the night.

Charles slumps forward over the parapet. The officer grabs the king by the shoulders and tries to pull him to safety. But Charles just slides backward and drops into the mud at the bottom of the trench. Lifting a torch, the officer kneels beside him. But quickly sees there’s nothing he can do. A bullet has struck Charles just above the temple, and he’s already dead.

The officer covers Charles’s body with a blanket, and stretcher-bearers soon come to carry the dead king away.

The generals try to keep news of Charles’s death a secret for as long as possible. But there were too many people in the trench with him, and word soon spreads through the Swedish army.

And without their commander, the invasion unravels. Morale among the troops plummets. And soon, the generals decide the siege must be abandoned; they withdraw their troops across the border. And for the second time in three years, a Swedish invasion of Danish-controlled Norway has ended in failure.

But Charles’s death is more than the climax of a failed military campaign. It marks the end of an era. Because for decades, Charles XII refused to make peace with his enemies. He kept going, through unexpected triumphs and catastrophic defeats, always believing that a decisive victory was just one more throw of the dice away.

But now Charles has lost his final gamble. He leaves behind a kingdom weakened by years of fighting, and his successors will soon have no choice but to open negotiations with Sweden’s enemies—and finally bring the Great Northern War to an end.

Act Three

It’s September 10th, 1721, in the Swedish town of Nystad, three years after the death of King Charles XII.

Sitting at a lavishly decorated table, Baron Otto Reinhold Strömfelt dips his pen into an inkwell and signs the document that has been carefully laid out in front of him.

It’s a peace treaty with Russia, and Strömfelt is one of two Swedish noblemen authorized to sign it.

Across the table, two representatives of the Russian Tsar Peter I sign their names to another copy. Then the officials swap the documents over, and Baron Strömfelt dips his pen into the inkwell once again.

After the death of Charles XII, the crown passed to his sister, Ulrike Eleonora, and then to her husband Frederick. But unlike Charles, they prioritized ending the war, even if that meant accepting painful territorial losses. They signed peace treaties with Hanover, Prussia, and Denmark. And now, with the Treaty of Nystad, the Great Northern War is officially over.

Still, it’s obvious which side has dictated the terms.

Tsar Peter himself demanded the treaty be signed here in Nystad, which may technically be a Swedish town. But it’s occupied by Russian troops, and much of it lies in ruins. The symbolism isn’t lost on Baron Strömfelt. And as if that humiliation wasn’t bad enough, what’s on the page in front of him is even worse.

According to the treaty, Russia gets to keep the vast lands it’s conquered in the eastern Baltic. This will secure its position around St. Petersburg, the new capital that Peter has built on former Swedish territory. In exchange, Russia has agreed to return territories in Finland, which its forces occupied during the war.

But even with Finland back under Sweden’s control, the treaty marks the end of Swedish domination of northern Europe. It will never again be a great continental power.

But for Russia, the outcome is almost the exact opposite. Its imperial ambitions are only just getting started. And weeks after this treaty is signed, Peter is formally proclaimed as the first Emperor of Russia and given the title “Peter the Great.”

After decades of fighting, the political map of Northern Europe has already been radically reshaped. But now, a new age of Russian dominance in the eastern Baltic will begin after the Treaty of Nystad brought the Great Northern War to an end on September 10th, 1721.

Outro

Next on History Daily. September 11th, 1792. Amid the turmoil of Revolutionary Paris, the French crown jewels are stolen from the Royal Treasury.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammed Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Angus Gavan McHarg.

Edited by Scott Reeves.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.