Charles XII and the Great Northern War Quiz

Answer: Saxony

The anti-Swedish alliance was brought together by Johann Patkul, a Livonian exile. Although Elector Augustus of Saxony was also king of Poland, Poland itself claimed to be neutral at the beginning of the war.

Answer: hunting bears

Bear hunting was a favorite sport with Swedish kings. Charles shot his first bear at 11. Later he thought the use of firearms or even steel was unfair to the animal, so from then on he only used wooden forks.

Answer: Schleswig

The Swedish navy navigated through a narrow strait that had never been sailed through before and took the Danes by surprise. There was little resistance to the landing. However, Denmark rejoined the war after Poltava and drove the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp out of Schleswig.

Answer: blizzard

The blizzard blew in the face of the Russians so they could not see how small the Swedish force was. When the battle ended the Swedes were faced with a much larger number of prisoners than their own army. Charles set free all the ordinary Russian soldiers and only retained the officers.

Answer: Dvina

The Swedes crossed the Dvina (now called Daugava) River just outside Riga to attack the combined Russian and Saxon forces. As usual Charles was one of the first to land. The battle was fought and won before the Swedish cavalry had reached the shore, thus Livonia was cleared of invading Saxons.

Answer: Machiavelli of the North

Charles XII was associated with Alexander for his military success at a young age, and with Don Quixote for his enthusiasm and obstinacy in fighting for an impossible ideal. He was also said to be a Viking born in the wrong century. An uncompromising moralist, he would be the last person to be called a Machiavellian.

Answer: Gustavus Adolphus

The great Gustavus had always been Charles's hero. When visiting Lützen he said: "I've always tried to live like him. May God grant me the grace to die in the same manner."
Charles and Sophia were not engaged. Neither ever married, and it had been suggested (rather fancifully perhaps) that they had been waiting for each other and for the war to end.

Answer: He refused to receive her

Hard as she tried, Aurora could not get an audience with the king. Finally she waylaid him on his daily ride and knelt before his horse. Charles bowed low to her in the saddle, then galloped away without a word.

Answer: Duke of Holstein

Frederick of Holstein was Charles's brother-in-law and they had been playmates when young. He was to command the left flank but was killed at the beginning of the battle.

Answer: Narva

Narva fell in 1704, followed by an indiscriminate slaughter of its residents, until Peter stopped it by cutting down Russian soldiers with his own sword. Reval (now Tallinn) and Riga fell in 1710, after the Swedish defeat at Poltava.

Answer: Alexander Sobieski

His prime minister Piper advised that he take the crown for himself, but Charles refused as it would break his promise at the beginning of the war to give Poland a native king. The son of the great king John Sobieski was the only native candidate acceptable to the Poles. Knowing this, Augustus had two Sobieski brothers, James and Constantine, kidnapped and locked up in a castle. Charles offered the crown to the remaining Sobieski, Alexander, who declined it saying he could not benefit from his brothers' misfortune.

Answer: Emperor of Austria granted religious freedom to Silesian protestants

When Charles XII passed through Silesia, the mostly Protestant residents complained to him about religious oppression by the Habsburgs. Charles took up their cause, and made Emperor Joseph I sign a treaty to guarantee religious tolerance and liberty of conscience in Silesia, to the chagrin of the Pope.

Answer: Duke of Marlborough

Marlborough went as an envoy of the allies to probe Charles XII's intentions regarding the War of Spanish Succession. He was glad to find Charles only had Russia on his mind.

Answer: Stockholm

They wanted to go home! Not their king, who smiled and said: "Not just yet."
Charles enjoyed playing pranks with his men, such as at the low point in the Russian campaign, he ordered them to march into Asia just for the sake of having been to another continent. He had a good laugh when it was taken seriously.

Answer: 600

It was not an event of significance, but a fine example of how Charles was used to bluffing his way to victory, like when he took Krakow with 300 men. When Peter found out the next day about the real size of the Swedish force, he sent 3,000 horsemen that night to sneak back to Grodno and capture Charles.

However during the melee in pitch darkness the Russians thought the Swedish force was much larger, and once again retreated.

Answer: He could not winter in Severia because the Russian "scorched earth" policy had left the region uninhabitable

Severia was not destroyed and Charles did intend to winter there. However the commander of his advance troops read the map wrongly and failed to get there before it was seized by Russians. Just one example of how everything went ridiculously wrong for the Swedes on this campaign.

Answer: Byron, Tchaikovsky

Ivan Mazeppa was also a major character in Pushkin's epic poem 'Poltava', but not the title character. After their defeat, Mazeppa fled to Turkey with Charles. Peter offered to exchanged the captured Swedish prime minister Piper for Mazeppa, which Charles refused. Mazeppa died in Turkey shortly after.

Answer: The harsh winter had the battle field frozen solid and slippery

The unusually harsh winter of 1708-09 devastated the Swedish army (and their powder), but the battle took place in the following summer so there was no problem with the field. Charles was wounded a few days before and had to give the command to Field Marshal Rehnskjold, who was not on speaking terms with Field Marshal Lewenhaupt and did not share battle plans with the latter. During the course of battle there was a lot of confusion caused by garbled orders.

Answer: chess

There was a famous chess problem called "Charles XII at Bender". Charles stayed there till 1713 when the Sultan sent an army to drive him out. Charles defended his house with his handful of companions against an army of thousands for a whole day, but was finally captured and imprisoned. This colorful incident was called the Kalabalik at Bender.

Answer: Peter Frisk

I've always wondered what Charles was thinking when he picked the name 'Peter', but that's just what he did. Charles then took up the impossible task of defending Stralsund against the anti-Swedish alliance, which now also included Prussia and Hanover. The desperate defense lasted over a year, until Stralsund fell at the end of 1715.

Answer: an octal numeral system

He believed a numeral system based on 8 would be useful for war effort because all the boxes used for materials such as gunpowder were cubic.
Charles XII created the Office of Supreme Ombudsman in 1713, the very first in Europe. It's an import from Turkey though, not his invention.

Answer: a bronze button

He was shot through the head and killed instantly. The bullet (and shooter) was never found. Since Charles had cheated death so many times, there was a legend that he could only be killed by something that belonged to him, such as a button from his coat. Some 200 years later someone dug up a button from their backyard, claimed it was The Button, and the museum accepted it.

Answer: Samuel Johnson

"His fall was destined to a barren strand,
A petty fortress, and a dubious hand;
He left the name, at which the world grew pale,
To point a moral or adorn a tale."
Replace 'dubious' with 'humble' and it fits Richard perfectly! The two warrior kings indeed had a lot in common.

Answer: Stralsund

Sweden retained part of Pomerania, including Stralsund. It was later lost in the Napoleonic wars.

Answer: stuffed cabbage

Charles lived in Turkey for five years and borrowed a lot of money. His Turkish creditors followed him back to Sweden where they lived for decades until the debts were paid off. These were the mem who taught the Swedes about this dish.