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READING HALLTHE DOORS OF WISDOM |
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ANNALS OF WAR
THE WARS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
1700 A.D..
I. A PEACE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.—2. A BRITISH FLEET
SENT TO THE BALTIC.—3. WAR BETWEEN DENMARK AND SWEDEN—TREATY AT TRAVENDAHL.—4.
WAR BETWEEN SWEDEN, POLAND, AND RUSSIA. 5. THE BATTLE OF NARVA.—6. DEATH OF
CHARLES II, KING OF SPAIN. LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE SEIZES THE SPANISH
NETHERLANDS.
1. A General Peace throughout the World.
On the 1st of January, 1700, the gates of the temple
of Janus might have been closed. Peace reigned throughout the civilized world.
The treaty of Ryswick, concluded in 1697, had established harmony between
France, Great Britain, the German Empire, Holland, Italy, and Spain. Germany
had become pacified with Turkey by the treaty of Carlovitz;
and a truce for thirty years had been concluded between the Sublime Porte and
the Czar of Russia. In the west of Asia, Aurungzebe reigned without a rival in India, and Kang-he governed in peace the vast Tartar
regions. In military reputation, France was recognized as the leading power,
and Louis XIV was in the zenith of his glory. Great Britain, having secured her
civil liberties, had reappeared upon the battlefields of Europe, under her
constitutional king, William III, who was acknowledged to be the first general
of the age. As Stadtholder of Holland, he had exalted himself to a high
influence in Europe before he obtained the crown of Britain. But his British
soldiers had displayed their ancient prowess at Steinkirk,
Landau, and Namur,—names which will live for ever in the bloodless campaigns of
Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim. Russia may be said to have entered the family of
nations on this very first of January, when the Czar Peter I having just
returned from the workshops of Holland and England, established the European
calendar of time. Her envoys had already penetrated to the Western courts, and
opened negotiations with them; but till this period she had been considered more
Asiatic than European.
1. A British Fleet sent to the Baltic.
So strong was the feeling and expectation of peace,
that the British Parliament called upon their sovereign to reduce his standing
army at the beginning of this year to 7000 men, and the sea forces to 8000.
Nevertheless, in the month of May a fleet consisting of thirty sail, English
and Dutch, was placed under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir George Rooke, and despatched to the Baltic. A confederacy had been entered
into between the Northern powers to oppress and annihilate the young King of
Sweden, and Charles XII had appealed to the sovereigns who were bound by treaty
to assist him, alleging that without any just cause the czar and the King of
Poland had made war upon him.
2. War between Denmark and Sweden.
Without any public declaration of war, 40,000 Saxons,
under General Fleming, suddenly sat down before Riga, on March 12, and summoned
the Count Von Dahlberg, who commanded in the place for the King of Sweden.
Dahlberg replied that he was prepared to defend it. As soon as Charles XII
heard of this transaction, he appealed, as has been already stated, to the
protecting powers, and on the 13th of April he issued a proclamation to his
subjects calling, on them to stand to their allegiance to him. He next equipped
a fleet of forty-two sail, manned with 14,000 men, to unite with Sir George
Rooke’s force; and also despatched 26,000 or 30,000
men under General Ferson to the succour of Riga. The
Danes, at this time, kept the sea with a power much superior to the Swedes, and
at first they thought to endeavour to hinder the
junction of the confederate squadrons: but as it was their whole strength, they
dared not risk losing it, and accordingly withdrew it into the port of
Copenhagen. On the 20th of July, Sir George Rooke arrived before that capital,
and immediately bombarded the fleet under the castle. The young king witnessed
this, his first feat of arms, from the deck of the great Swedish ship, “The
Royal Charles,” said to have been the largest vessel of war that had till then
been built, and carrying 120 guns. But it did not suit the temperament of
Charles XII to be an idle spectator of war—burning to flesh his maiden sword,
he made a descent with some of the crew on the isle of Zealand, and, with
characteristic impatience, he is said to have jumped out of the shallop that
took him towards the shore, up to his middle in the water, and placing himself,
sword in hand, at the head of his men, would have marched forthwith on
Copenhagen. But Sir George showed himself, on this occasion, to be as good a
politician as he was a warrior. He displayed the greatest firmness in enforcing
the resolution of is sovereign to procure an equitable peace for Sweden; but be
would not permit the young and impetuous monarch to make use of the power he
had brought to his aid towards his own aggrandizement; and on the 18th of
August he presented a treaty, which he made both Danes and Swedes accept at Travendahl.
4. War between Sweden, Poland, and Russia.
From Copenhagen, therefore, the King of Sweden
hastened to Riga, but he found that the King of Poland had already raised the
siege. This sovereign had come in person, on the 4th of July, and sat down
before it, but, in deference to the King of England, he now drew off his forces
and marched them away. He was, however, no party to the treaty of Travendahl, but resolved to unite with the Czar Peter, who
now openly declared war against Sweden. In the month of October, this monarch
advanced to besiege Narva, with an army of 70,000 foot, 25,000 horse, and an
immense train of artillery. The young king placed himself at the head of his
whole army, consisting of but 16,000 foot and 4000 horse, which he transported
by water, in 200 vessels, and landed at Pernau.
Thence, on the 15th of November, he pushed forward to Revel. He instantly
placed himself at the head of his cavalry and some 4000 infantry, and marched
in search of his enemy. He soon came up with an advanced guard of about 5000
Russians, strongly posted amidst the rocks of a defile, supported by a corps of
20,000 men behind it. This advanced guard no sooner saw the Swedes than it
turned about and fled, carrying disorder into the main body.
Delighted at his first success, Charles determined to
attack the 24,000 Russians before him, with all their cannon, without waiting
for his troops to come up to him. Some of his veterans remonstrated with him on
the risk of such a proceeding, but he replied, with coolness and with greater
judgment than usually marked his character, “Surely I have two advantages over
the enemy; one, that my troops are superior, and the other, that the position
they occupy is too narrow for their numbers.
The king, after resting his army a short time,
prepared to give battle, but first ordered public prayers to be offered up by
the whole of the troops. He then formed them in review order, and thus
addressed them, “Behave yourselves like brave men, and be not daunted with the
great body of the enemy; be convinced that God, the protector of right, will
not fail to strengthen us, provided we do our duty and confide in Him. I desire
no more from you than what I will do myself. I will show you the example ; you
have only to follow it.” This short exhortation had all the effect the king
desired. The soldiers cried out together, “We are ready to live and die with
“you.”
5. The Battle of Narva.
It was near midday on the 36th of November when the
King of Sweden advanced upon the Russian intrenched camp with the troops and
guns that had been brought up. A furious snow-storm blew right in the enemy’s
face, which so blinded them, that they thought the Swedish artillery, which
only consisted of ten guns, admirably placed and well served, was more numerous
than it was. The czar had the advantages of the services of the Duke de Croi, a
Frenchman, Generals Allard, Weide, and other German officers of distinction,
by whose advice and judgment he had posted his troops; but he himself was at
the moment gone back to bring up the remainder of his army. In the mean time
the Russian intrenchments were breached, and the Swedes, headed by their
intrepid king, poured in through them. For an hour and a half the Muscovite
soldiers stood firm; but they then turned and fled. Charles, at the head of the
4000 or 5000 men he had with him, pursued the whole Russian host as far as the
bridge across the river. He was always in the van, one horse had been shot
under him, and he received a spent ball in the neck, which rested in the folds
of his cravat. The bridge broke under the flying fugitives, and thousands were
drowned. All order was at an end, and General Dolgoruki refused to receive orders from the Duke de Croi and the foreign generals. The
consequence was that almost all of them delivered up their swords. The young
conqueror of eighteen years of age received them with a courtesy and politeness
that would have become a sovereign of maturer years. He returned their swords
to the Duke de Croi and the superior officers, and ordered them money for their
immediate expenses. The inferior officers and soldiers, he, more generously
than wisely, set free to rejoin their companions, after depriving them of their
arms; so that they immediately rejoined the czar’s army. Night now approached;
but the king found that there was still a considerable body of men who
maintained their position on one flank of the camp. He immediately seized the
Russian artillery he had captured, and placed them in position to dislodge this
force at break of day; whilst in the meanwhile he wrapped himself in his cloak,
and laid down to sleep. But at two in the morning, General Vede, who commanded
this corps of the enemy, sent in to solicit his Majesty to accept his
submission; and whilst it was yet dark, these troops, many thousands in number,
defiled before the king, laying down their arms and their colours,
and passing across the river. If these might be called prisoners, they were
four times more numerous than the conquering army, whose whole loss in the
battle did not exceed 1200 men, whilst of the Russians those who were killed
and drowned were estimated at 6000 men. The consequences of this victory to the
King of Sweden were immense. He had advanced without any regard to supplies;
now magazines, vessels of transport full of provisions, and a large extent of
country from whence to draw further supplies, were obtained for his army,
together with an immense amount of arms and ammunition, whilst he had at once
obtained for himself the prestige and the reputation of a first-rate general.
The czar, hastening up with his reinforcements, learned midway the result of
the battle, but he felt it would be unwise with his inexperienced troops,
however numerous, to attempt to recover his ground against an army better
disciplined than his own, and flushed with victory. He was nevertheless
unshaken under this adversity. “ I knew very well,” said he, “that these Swedes
would beat me at first; but we shall in the end learn to conquer them.”
6. Death of Charles II, King of Spain. Louis XIV
seizes the Spanish Netherlands.
On the 11th of February, this year, a treaty called
“The Second Partition Treaty,” had been signed in London, by which the French
king had renounced the succession to the Spanish crown for his children, in favour of the Archduke Charles, second son of the Emperor
Leopold. On the 1st of November the last Spanish king of the Austrian line
expired at Madrid. By his last will he declared the Duke d’Anjou,
grandson to Louis XIV, sole heir of his monarchy. The French king did not
hesitate to accept the will notwithstanding the treaty. He was already fully
aware of its provisions, and had adopted the necessary steps to take advantage
of it; so that on the 4th of December the new king, Philip, set out for Spain
to assume the government.
Under the treaty of Ryswick a great part of the Dutch
army, amounting to twenty-two battalions, had been posted in garrison in the
Spanish Netherlands. Besides other places, they occupied Luxembourg, Namur, and
Mons. The Duke of Bavaria was governor of the Netherlands for the King of
Spain. Louis XIV had won the duke over to his cause, and had arranged with him
that French troops should arrive, all on the same night, at the gates of each
of these strong places, and should be introduced into them without the
knowledge of the Dutch. By these means the French king got the start of his
enemies, in obtaining possession of all the strongest places in Spanish
Flanders. The States General were overwhelmed with consternation when they
heard of this event. They saw their own exposed situation, and reflected how
readily these troops might fall upon them before they were prepared for their
defence. They therefore resolved to acknowledge the young King of Spain, and to
take back their battalions to Holland. Indeed, at first King William was
inclined to the same course, but lie soon saw that war with France was
inevitable.
1701.
I. WAR BETWEEN THE GRAND ALLIANCE AND FRANCE. — 2. WAR
IN ITALY BETWEEN THE IMPERIALISTS AND THE FRENCH.—3. WAR IN
SCANDINAVIA. 4. NAVAL WAR. 5. DEATH OF JAMES II., KING OF ENGLAND,
AND HIS MILITARY CHARACTER.
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The Peace of Travendal was
a peace treaty concluded at the outset of the Great Northern
War on 18 August 1700 between the Swedish
Empire, Denmark–Norway and Holstein-Gottorp in Traventhal. Denmark had to return Holstein-Gottorp to
its duke, a Swedish ally, and to leave the anti-Swedish alliance. The Danes
only reentered the war after Sweden's major defeat in the Battle of
Poltava, 1709, having used the time to reform their army. The treaty was
guaranteed by France, the Holy Roman Empire, the United Provinces (Netherlands)
and Great Britain
In 1698 and 1699, Peter the
Great of Russia, Augustus II the
Strong of Saxony and Poland–Lithuania, as well
as Christian V and his successor Frederick IV of
Denmark-Norway agreed on a three-front assault on the Swedish Empire, where
minor Charles XII had ascended the throne in 1697. Holstein-Gottorp,
just south of Denmark, was tied to Sweden by the marriage of
duke Frederick IV to Hedvig Sophia, daughter of Charles XI
of Sweden, in 1698. Danish forces entered Holstein-Gottorp in March 1700
and besieged the fortress of Tönning, while
August the Strong was advancing through Swedish Livonia
In the meantime, Sweden had negotiated the
support of the Maritime Powers, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, against
Danish assaults on Holstein-Gottorp. Such assaults violated the Altona
convention of 1689, of which the Maritime Powers were the guarantors. In
addition, the Maritime Powers prepared for the emerging War of the Spanish
Succession and therefore opposed an additional war in the Baltic Sea. Aided
by the Dutch and British navies, a Swedish fleet deployed a 10,000 strong army
near Copenhagen. Caught by surprise and unable to defend his capital,
Frederik IV of Denmark-Norway had to make peace.As soon as the end of the war was in sight, the Maritime Powers withdrew their
vessels and made it clear that they preferred a peace at once and had no
interest in Sweden crushing and annexing Denmark.
In Travendal,
Denmark-Norway left the Great Northern War by obliging herself to not
engage in future armed conflicts with Sweden. In paragraph XIII, the king
of Denmark and Norway in his own name and the name of his successors promises
to neither engage in hostilities with Sweden nor ally with or in any way aid
Sweden's enemies, and adhere to all earlier Dano-Swedish treaties. The duke
of Holstein-Gottorp's sovereignty was restored, and the treaty detailed the
conditions under which armies and fortresses were to be maintained in the area It
was further agreed that Holstein-Gottorp be financially compensated by
Denmark-Norway for the war costs, resulting in the subsequent payment of
260,000 Reichstalers
Paragraph XIV mentions France,
the Holy Roman Emperor, the dukes of the Holy Roman Empire, and the
guarantors of the Altona convention as guarantors of the treaty. The
guarantees of the United Provinces and the United Kingdom for the
treaty were reconfirmed in a convention signed by the aforementioned parties
after Queen Anne's succession in Great Britain, 1702.
By the time of Travendal, Augustus
II the Strong's campaign in Swedish Livonia had not produced
satisfactory results. Though Dünamünde was
captured and renamed "Augustusburg", he
failed to take Riga or gain the support of the local nobility.
Furthermore, Russia's forces had not yet entered the Great Northern War,
as they were bound by the Russo-Turkish War until the Peace of
Constantinople set them free in the summer. Thus, August's reaction
to Travendal was to enter negotiations with France
and Brandenburg-Prussia and ask them to mediate a truce with
Sweden. Charles XII of Sweden, however, rejected the offer, refusing to
enter negotiations as long as Saxon forces were in Livonia. Peter the
Great took a more indifferent stance, and marched his troops towards
Swedish Ingria as agreed on in the Treaty of Preobrazhenskoye.
As soon as Denmark-Norway was out of the
war, Charles XII speedily embarked his armies and headed from Denmark to his
Baltic dominions. Russian forces entered Ingria and laid siege
to Narva in October, while August the Strong was preparing winter
quarters in Livonia. On 30 November, Charles XII’s army relieved
Narva before turning south sweeping August the Strong's forces out of
Livonia, pursuing and decisively defeating them at Kliszow and Fraustadt during the following years, forcing August
to drop out of the war in the Treaty of Altranstädt in
1706. The tide turned only in 1709, when Charles XII's last remaining
adversary Peter the Great was able to crush his army at Poltava exile
and the Swedish king to Bender in the Ottoman Empire. Denmark-Norway
and Saxony then abandoned Travendal and Altranstädt and entered the war again.
Frederik IV of Denmark-Norway used the
peace period to reform the Danish army. Instead of relying on mercenaries, the
army was now raised from peasants distributed by Danish landowners. The
mercenary force was kept and fought on the Maritime Powers' side in
the War of the Spanish Succession against roi soleil Louis XIV of France. Frederik also implemented civil reforms
such as the abolishment of serfdom. When he re-entered the Great Northern
War, the mercenaries were still fighting France, but were returned to
participate in the war in 1713.
PEACE OF RYSWICK
The Peace of Ryswick,
or Rijswijk, was a series of treaties signed in the Dutch city
of Rijswijk between 20 September and 30 October 1697. They ended the
1688 to 1697 Nine Years’ War between France and
the Grand Alliance, which included the Dutch Republic and
the Holy Roman Empire.
One of a series of wars fought
by Louis XIV of France between 1666 and 1714, neither side was able
to make significant territorial gains. By 1695, the huge financial costs,
coupled with widespread famine and economic dislocation, meant both sides
needed peace. Negotiations were delayed by the question of who would inherit
the Spanish Empire from the childless and terminally ill Charles
II of Spain, the closest heirs being Louis and Emperor Leopold I.
Since Louis could not impose his preferred
solution, he refused to discuss the issue, while Leopold refused to sign
without its inclusion. He finally did so with great reluctance on 30 October
1697, but the Peace was generally viewed as a truce; Charles' death in 1700 led
to the War of the Spanish Succession.
In Europe and North America, the terms
essentially restored the position prevailing before the war, though Spain
recognized French control of the island of Tortuga and the western
portion of Hispaniola (Saint-Domingue). In Europe, France evacuated
several territories it had occupied since the 1679 Treaty of Nijmegen,
including Freiburg, Breisach and the Duchy of Lorraine;
conversely, it retained Strasbourg.
Background
Charles II (1665–1700); his
inheritance overshadowed negotiations. The Nine Years' War was
financially crippling for its participants, partly because armies increased in
size from an average of 25,000 in 1648 to over 100,000 by 1697. This was
unsustainable for pre-industrial economies; the war absorbed 80% of English
state revenue in the period, while the huge manpower commitments badly affected
the economy.
The 1690s also marked the coldest point of
the so-called Little Ice Age, a period of cold and wet weather affecting
Europe in the second half of the 17th century. Harvests failed throughout
Europe in 1695, 1696, 1698 and 1699; in Scotland and parts of Northern Europe,
an estimated 5–15% of the population starved to death.
Although fighting largely ended in Europe
after 1695, the subsidiary conflict known as King William's
War continued in the Americas. A French fleet arrived in
the Caribbean in early 1697, threatening the Spanish treasure
fleet, and English possessions in the West Indies. England occupied
the French colony of Acadia, while the French repulsed attacks
on Quebec, captured York Factory, and caused substantial damage to
the New England economy.
Talks were dominated by the primary issue
of European politics for the last 30 years: the Spanish inheritance. By 1696,
it was clear Charles II of Spain would die childless, and his
potential heirs included King Louis XIV of France and Emperor
Leopold I. The Spanish Empire remained a vast global confederation;
in addition to Spain, its territories included large parts of Italy,
the Spanish Netherlands, the Philippines, and much of
the Americas. Acquisition of these territories by either France
or Austria would change the European balance of power.
Recognising he was not strong enough to impose his
preferred solution to the Spanish question, Louis wanted to prevent its
discussion, by dividing the Grand Alliance and isolating Leopold. In
the 1696 Treaty of Turin he made a separate peace with the Duchy
of Savoy. Other concessions were the return of the Duchy of
Luxemburg to Spain; considerably larger than the modern state, it was
essential to Dutch security. Louis also agreed to recognise William
III as monarch of England and Scotland, rather than the exiled James
II.
Formal discussions between the delegations
were held in the Huister Nieuwburg at
Ryswick, mediated by Swedish diplomat and soldier Baron Lilliënrot. Many members of the Empire, such
as Baden and Bavaria, sent representatives, although they were
not party to the treaties. Talks proceeded slowly; Leopold habitually
avoided making decisions until absolutely necessary, and since the terms failed
to address the inheritance question, he would only agree to a ceasefire. One of
the Spanish negotiators, Bernardo de Quiros, ignored instructions
from Madrid to make peace at any price, and agreed to support this
demand. Although the British initially preferred to continue fighting, William
became anxious to finalise peace. William and Louis
appointed the Earl of Portland and Marshal Louis-François de Boufflers as their personal representatives; they met
privately outside Brussels in June 1697, and quickly finalised terms, with de Quiros being overruled.
The peace consisted of a number of separate
agreements: on 20 September 1697, France signed Treaties of
Peace with Spain and England, a Ceasefire with the Holy Roman
Empire, and on 21 September, a Treaty of Peace and Commerce with the
Dutch Republic. When Charles fell seriously ill, Leopold used it as an
excuse to delay signing; one frustrated negotiator claimed I”t would be a shorter way to knock (Charles) on the head, rather than all Europe
be kept in suspense.” The Spanish king recovered, while William threatened
to dissolve the Alliance if Leopold did not sign before 1 November; he finally
did so on 30 October.
The treaty essentially restored the map of
Western Europe to that agreed by the 1679 Treaty of Nijmegen; France
kept Strasbourg, the strategic key to Alsace, but returned other
territories occupied or captured since then, including Freiburg, Breisach, Philippsburg and the Duchy of Lorraine to
the Holy Roman Empire. French forces also
evacuated Catalonia, Luxembourg, Mons and Kortrijk in
the Spanish Netherlands. Louis recognised William as king, withdrew support from the Jacobites,
and abandoned claims to the Electorate of Cologne, and the Electoral
Palatinate.
In North America, positions returned to
those prevailing before the war, with France regaining Acadia, although
in reality low-level conflict persisted around the boundaries. Conversely, in
the Caribbean Spain recognized French control of the western portion
of Hispaniola and the island of Tortuga; France had in fact
established its colony of Saint-Domingue years earlier. Meanwhile,
the Dutch returned the colony of Pondichéry in
India to France.
Aftermath
The Needle of Rijswijk erected
during 1792–1794
All sides interpreted Ryswick to be a
truce, and expected conflict to resume when Charles died. The war demonstrated
that France could no longer impose its objectives without allies. Louis
therefore adopted a dual approach of a diplomatic offensive to seek support,
while keeping the French Army on a war footing. The increase in
Habsburg power following victory in the Great Turkish War with the
signing of the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699
was offset by the growing independence of states like Bavaria, which looked
to Louis, rather than Leopold, for support.
The war diverted resources from both
the Dutch and French navies, and although the Dutch still
dominated the Far East trade, Ryswick marked a turning point in
England’s rise as a global maritime power. Previously focused on
the Levant, its mercantile interests began challenging Spanish and
Portuguese control of the Americas, where the French struggled to compete. The
huge debts accumulated by the Dutch weakened their economy,
while London replaced Amsterdam as the commercial centre of Europe. The Nine Years’ War, together with the
subsequent War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14), marked the end of
the Dutch Golden Age.
At the same time, the determination of
the Tory majority in Parliament to reduce costs meant that
by 1699, the English army had been reduced to less than 7,000 men. This
seriously undermined William’s ability to negotiate on equal terms with France,
and despite his intense mistrust, he co-operated with Louis in an attempt to
agree a diplomatic solution to the Spanish succession. The so-called Partition
Treaties of The Hague in 1698 and London in 1700 ultimately
failed to prevent the outbreak of war between the two kingdoms.
After the death of James II died in 1701, Louis XIV proclaimed Prince James, the former heir of James II, rightful king of England, despite the treaty.
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