Karl 12 Swedish king description. How Charles XII agreed with Peter I and what came of it

Series "100 Great": One Hundred Great Secrets

Nikolay Nikolaevich Nepomniachtchi

Andrey Yurievich Nizovsky

SECRETS OF HISTORY

WHO KILLED CARL XII?

In 1874, King Oscar II of Sweden came to Russia. He visited St. Petersburg, examined the Hermitage, in Moscow he visited the Kremlin, the Armory, where with undisguised interest he examined the trophies taken by Russian soldiers at Poltava, Charles XII's stretcher, his cocked hat and glove. The conversation, of course, could not but touch upon this remarkable person, and King Oscar said that he had long been interested in the mysterious and unexpected death of Charles XII, which followed on the evening of November 30, 1718, under the walls of the Norwegian city of Frederiksgall.

While still an heir, in 1859, Oscar, together with his father, King Charles XV of Sweden, attended the opening of the sarcophagus of King Charles XII. The sarcophagus with the coffin of Charles XII stood on a pedestal in a depression near the altar. King Karl lay in a badly faded, half-decayed jacket and over-the-knee boots with fallen off soles. A burial crown made of sheet gold sparkled on the head. Due to the constant temperature and humidity, the body was well preserved. Even the hair on the temples, once fiery red, and the skin on the face darkened to olive color, were preserved.But everyone present involuntarily shuddered when they saw a terrible through wound in the skull, covered with a cotton swab. deep cracks (the bullet was fired from a short distance and had great destructive power). Instead of the left eye, there was a huge wound, where three fingers freely entered ...

After carefully examining the wound, the autopsy professor Frixel gave his conclusion, and his words were immediately recorded in the protocol: "His Majesty was killed by a shot in the head from a flintlock." This conclusion was sensational. The fact is that in all history textbooks it was stated that King Charles fell, struck by a cannonball. "But who fired this tragic shot?" Karl XV asked.

“I'm afraid this is a great secret that will not be revealed soon. It is quite possible that the death of His Majesty is the result of a carefully prepared murder ... "1 How did this happen? In October 1718, Charles set out to conquer Norway. His troops approached the walls of the well-fortified fortress of Friedrich Gaul, located at the mouth of the Tistendal River, near the Danish Strait. The army was ordered to begin the siege, but the soldiers, numb from the cold, could hardly dig the frozen ground in the trenches with pickaxes. This is how Voltaire described further events: “On November 30 (December 1 to present) on St. Andrew's Day at 9 pm Karl went to inspect the trenches and, not finding the expected success in the work, seemed very dissatisfied. Mefe, the French engineer in charge of the work, began to assure him that the fortress would be taken within eight days. “We’ll see,” said the king and continued to bypass the work. Then he stopped in a corner, at a break in the trench and, resting his knees on the inner slope of the trench, leaned against the parapet, continuing to look at the soldiers at work, who labored by the light of the stars. The king leaned out from behind the parapet almost to the waist, thus representing a goal ... At that moment there were only two Frenchmen next to him: one - his personal secretary Sigur, an intelligent and efficient person who entered his service in Turkey and who was especially betrayed; the other is Megre, engineer ...

I found a few steps away from them; Xia Count Schwerin, head of the trench, who gave orders to Count Posse and Adjutant General Kaulbars. Suddenly Sigur and Megre saw the king fall on the parapet, letting out a deep sigh. They approached him, but he was already dead: a half-pound buckshot hit his right temple and punched a hole in which three fingers could be put; his head threw back, his right eye went inside, and the left one completely jumped out of orbit ... Falling, he found the strength to put his right hand on the hilt of the sword by a natural movement and died in this position. At the sight of the dead king Megre, an original and cold man, he could not find anything else but to say: "The comedy is over, let's go to supper." Sigur ran to Count Schwerin to tell him what had happened. They decided to hide the news of the death of the king from the army until the Prince of Hesse was notified. The body was wrapped in a gray cloak. Sigur put his wig and hat on the head of Charles XII so that the soldiers would not recognize the king in the slain. The Prince of Hesse immediately ordered that no one should dare to leave the camp, and ordered to guard all the roads leading to Sweden. He needed time to take measures to ensure that the crown passed to his wife, and to prevent the claims to the crown of the Duke of Holstein. So died at the age of 36, Charles XII, King of Sweden, who experienced greatest successes and the most cruel vicissitudes of fate ... "

Voltaire's story was recorded from the words of eyewitnesses who were still alive in his time. However, Voltaire says that Karl was killed by "half a pound buckshot". But forensic research proved incontestably that the king was killed by a bullet. Professor Frixel, who conducted the autopsy, naturally, could not answer the question: was this the handiwork of a sent assassin or was it a sniper shot from the walls of the fortress? The Russian public did not remain indifferent to the results of the investigation in Stockholm. The most unexpected thing was that the weapon from which the Swedish king Karl was killed was suddenly found in Estland, in the Kaulbars family estate. The 50-year-old Baron Nikolai Kaulbars told about this in his notes in 1891. The fitting itself, like a family heirloom, has been passed down from generation to generation for 170 years. About the death of the king, Nikolai Kaulbars reported several interesting details. In particular, he wrote: “Consideration of the circumstances under which this happened excludes any possibility of being hit by an enemy bullet, and at present there is no doubt that the king was killed by his personal secretary, the French Siquier. much time has been written about the mysterious death of the king ...

During my time as a military agent in Austria, once in a conversation with the Swedish envoy, Mr. Ackermann, we raised the question of the mysterious death of the Swedish king Charles XII; Moreover, I learned, not without surprise, that even until very recently, the most contradictory opinions on this issue were circulating in Sweden and even expressed in the press - and that this issue is still considered not fully clarified. I immediately told him that the chronicle of our family contains data from which it is clear that Karl XII was killed in the trenches near Friedrichshall by his personal secretary, the Frenchman Sigur, and that the fitting, which served as the instrument of the king's death, is still stored in the RODOM our estate Madders, Estland province, Vesenberg district. " Further Kaulbars wrote that after the king was found killed in the trench, Sigyur disappeared without a trace. The mentioned fitting was found in his apartment, blackened with only one shot. And many years later, lying on his deathbed, Sigur declared that he was the assassin of King Charles XII.

Kaulbars's version was not new, and Voltaire had denied Sigur's involvement in the murder of Charles, moreover, when Sigur was alive and was on his estate in the south of France. Voltaire managed to talk twice with the old man before he went to another world. “I cannot pass over in silence one slander,” wrote Voltaire. “At that time a rumor spread in Germany that Sigur had killed the king of Sweden. This brave officer was desperate for this slander. Once, telling me about this, he said: "I could have killed the Swedish king, but I was filled with such respect for this hero that if I even wanted something like that, I would not dare!" I know that Sigur himself gave rise to such an accusation, which part of Sweden still believes. He told me that while in Stockholm, in a fit of delirium tremens, he muttered that he had killed the king, and, deliriously opening the window, asked forgiveness from the people for this regicide. When, after his recovery, he found out about this, he almost died of grief. I saw him shortly before his death and I can assure you that he not only did not kill Karl, but he himself would have allowed himself to be killed a thousand times for him. If he was guilty of this crime, it would, of course, be with the aim of rendering a service to some state that would reward him well. But he died in poverty in France and needed the help of friends. "

Kaulbars sent to Stockholm two photographs of the fitting and a wax cast from one bullet, which he preserved with him. This bullet was compared to holes in the skull, and it turned out that they "did not correspond to it either in their outer outline or in size." In addition, it turned out that the entrance hole in the skull was located slightly higher than the exit, that is, the king was hit by a shell flying in a downward trajectory, and therefore by a bullet fired by the enemy from the fortress. But the king was out of the reach of gunfire! The Kaulbars carbine from which Karl was allegedly killed belongs to the 17th century flint-type threaded fittings. A short, faceted outside and very thick barrel, small caliber, inside contains straight and fairly frequent rifling. The following inscriptions are engraved on the outer edges of the barrel: Adreas de Hudowycz. Herrmann Wrangel v Ellestfer - 1669. It has been suggested that the lower inscription is the name of the gunsmith who made the fitting, and the upper one is one of the owners, before the fitting was passed into the hands of Baron Johann Friedrich Kaulbars, the ancestor of Nicholas. SECRETS OF HISTORY 401 The following are the engraved names of the persons who made up the closest retinue of King Charles XII at Friedrichshall: Reinhold loh v. Vietinghoff.Bogislaus V. D. Pahlen. Hans Heinrich Fersen. Gustaw Magnus Rehbinden. lonannFndrichv.Kaulbars. 1718.

The information provided by Kaulbars prompted Swedish forensic experts to conduct a new investigation. In 1917, the sarcophagus was reopened, and an authoritative commission made up of historians and criminologists took a hit. Experimental shots were fired at the dummy, angles were measured, ballistics were calculated, and the results were carefully processed and published. But the commission could not come to a final conclusion. The examination showed that, being in the trench, Charles XII, due to the great distance, was practically invulnerable to rifle fire from the walls of Friedrichshall. But for an ambush, the conditions were ideal. When Karl appeared in a break in the trench and, leaning out from behind the parapet, looked at the walls of the fortress, he was perfectly visible against the background of white snow.

It was not difficult to make an aimed shot at such a target. An excellent sniper was shooting: the bullet hit right in the temple. The shooter was at the back at an angle of 12-15 degrees, slightly rising, which is determined by the inlet and outlet holes in Karl's skull. The latter circumstance suggests that the position was not chosen by chance: upon hearing the sound of a shot, the people accompanying Karl involuntarily turned their eyes towards the enemy, towards the walls of Friedrichshall, while the shooter disappeared in the meantime. Who shot the Swedish king? Recently, a romantic hypothesis was put forward that the killer's name was allegedly engraved on the barrel of the choke, among other names - Adreas de Hudowycz (Andreas Gudovich), who was allegedly a Serb named Adrij Gudovich, and the Serbs allegedly had special reasons for killing the Swedish king.

“He was of Serbian origin and was in the service of the Polish king Augustus. In 1719, he received a diploma from his hands, confirming, in addition to Serbian, and his Polish count's dignity for special merits ... In the same year he left for Russia, enlisting in the Russian army as an officer, where his son Vasily Gudovich was born (1719-1764). But further this surname was not lost among the Russian noble families, "etc., etc. Judging by this passage, under an unknown Serb named Andria (not Adrii - there is no such name in Serbia) Gudovich, obviously, I mean Andrei Pavlovich Gudovich, who at the beginning of the 18th century, together with his brother Stepan, moved to Little Russia and served in the Ukrainian military regiments. , field marshal of the Russian army, in 1797 was granted the title of count Russian Empire

The fact that allegedly someone from the Gudovichi in 1719 received from the Polish king Augustus "a diploma confirming, in addition to the Serbian, and his Polish county dignity", in the annals of history has not yet been information. As for the "Serbian" origin of the Gudovichi , then about him, too, until now nothing was known Gudovich - an old Polish noble family The ancestor - Stanislav, nobleman of the coat of arms of Odrowonzh, in 1567 received a letter from the king on the Gudayce estate, which is why the surname Gudovich originated. His direct descendant (great-grandson) descended from the younger the son of Stanislav, Ivan, and Andrei Pavlovich Gudovich was.However, there was another Andrei Gudovich - the grandson of AP Gudovich, a friend and closest associate of Emperor Peter III

In 1762, he was sent to Courland to prepare for the election of the uncle of the emperor, Prince George (Georges) of Holstein, as Duke of Courland. Wasn't it then that his name appeared on the notorious fitting of Kaulbars? And in general - what is the origin of the "Kaulbars choke", what is its history? How authentic is it? Was King Charles really killed from him, after all, the examination did not seem to confirm this? King Charles had many enemies and without any mythical Serbs

It has long been debated that the king could have been killed by English agents or Swedes - oppositionists, supporters of the Prince of Hesse Most likely, the latter - after all, after the death of Charles, the “Hessian party” prevailed in the internal political struggle and the protege of the “Hessians” Ulrika Eleanor of the Official Investigation ascended to the throne there was no death of Karl

It was announced to the people of Sweden that their king had been killed by a cannonball, and the absence of a left eye and a huge wound on the head did not raise much doubt about this.

In the fall of 1718, the Swedish king Charles XII led his army against the Danes. The offensive was carried out in the direction of the city of Fredrikshald - an important strategic point in the defense of the whole of southern Norway. Norway and Denmark at that time were a personal union (that is, the union of two independent and independent states with one head).

But the approaches to Fredrikshald were covered by the mountain castle Fredriksten, a powerful fortress with several external fortifications. The Swedes came under the walls of Fredriksten on November 1, locking up a garrison of 1,400 soldiers and officers under siege. Seized with a fighting fervor, the king personally supervised all siege work. During the assault on the outer castle fortification of Gyullenlev, which began on December 7, His Majesty himself led two hundred grenadiers into battle and fought in a desperate hand-to-hand combat until all the defenders of the redoubt died. Less than 700 paces remained from the Swedes' forward trenches to the Fredriksten Walls. Three large-caliber Swedish siege batteries, six guns each, methodically fired at the castle from different positions. The staff officers assured Karl that there was a week left before the fall of the fortress. Nevertheless, the sapper work on the front line continued, despite the continuous shelling of the Danes. As always, disregarding danger, the monarch did not leave the battlefield, day or night. On the night of December 18, Karl wished to personally inspect the progress of earthworks. He was accompanied by his personal adjutant - Italian captain Marchetti, General Knut Posse, cavalry major general von Schwerin, sapper captain Schulz, lieutenant engineer Karlberg, as well as a team of foreign military engineers - two Germans and four Frenchmen. In the trenches, a French officer, adjutant and personal secretary to Generalissimo Friedrich of Hesse-Kassel, husband of His Majesty's sister, Princess Ulrike-Eleanor, joined the king's retinue. His name was André Secre, and he had no obvious reason to be present at that hour and in that place.

At about nine o'clock in the evening, Karl once again climbed the parapet and, with the flashes of illuminating flares launched from the castle, looked at the progress of work through a telescope. In the trench next to him stood the French Colonel Engineer Megre, to whom the king was giving orders. After another remark, the king was silent for a long time. The pause was too long even for His Majesty, who was not distinguished by his verbosity. When the officers called out to him from the trench, Karl did not respond. Then the adjutants climbed the parapet and, in the light of another Danish rocket launched into the night sky, saw that the king was lying on his face, with his nose buried in the ground. When he was turned over and examined, it turned out that Charles XII was dead - he was shot in the head.

The body of the deceased monarch was carried on a stretcher from the forward positions and taken to the tent of the main headquarters, giving it to the physician-in-chief and personal friend of the deceased, Dr. Melchior Neumann, who began to prepare everything needed for embalming.

The very next day, the military council gathered in the Swedish camp in connection with the death of the king decided to lift the siege and stop this campaign altogether. Due to the hasty retreat, as well as due to the hustle and bustle of the change of government, no investigation into the death of Charles XII was carried out in hot pursuit. An official report on the circumstances of his death was not even drawn up. All those involved in this story were completely satisfied with the version, according to which the king's head was hit with buckshot the size of a pigeon's egg, fired through the trenches of the Swedes from the fortress cannon. Thus, the main culprit in the death of Charles XII was declared a military accident, sparing neither kings nor commoners.

However, in addition to the official version, almost immediately after Karl's death, another one arose - the German archivist Friedrich Ernst von Fabritze writes about this in the work "The True Story of the Life of Charles XII", published in 1759 in Hamburg. Many of the king's associates assumed that the conspirators killed him at Fredriksten. This suspicion was not born out of nowhere: there were enough people in the royal army who wanted to send Charles to the forefathers.

The last conquistador

In 1700, the king went to war with Russia, spent almost 14 years in a foreign land. After the military luck betrayed him near Poltava, he took refuge in the possessions of the Turkish Sultan. He ruled his kingdom from a camp at the village of Varnitsa near the Moldovan city of Bender, driving couriers to Stockholm across the continent. The king dreamed of military revenge and intrigued in every possible way at the Sultan's court, trying to unleash a war with the Russians. Over time, he was pretty tired of the government of the Ottoman Empire and several times received delicate offers to go home.

In the end, he was placed with great honor in a castle near Adrianople, where he was given complete freedom. This was a cunning tactic - Karl was not forced to leave, but simply deprived of his ability to act (couriers were not allowed in). The calculation turned out to be accurate - after lying on the sofas for three months, the fidget king, prone to impulsive actions, announced his desire not to burden the Sublime Porto with his presence anymore and ordered the courtiers to get ready for the journey. By the fall of 1714, everything was ready, and the Swedish caravan, accompanied by an honorary Turkish escort, set out on a long journey.

On the border with Transylvania, the king released the Turkish convoy and announced to his subjects that he would go further accompanied by only one officer. Having ordered the convoy to go to Stralsund - a fortress in Swedish Pomerania - and be there no later than a month later, Karl with forged documents addressed to Captain Frisk in a furious race crossed Transylvania, Hungary, Austria, Bavaria, passed Württemberg, Hesse, Frankfurt and Hanover, reaching to Stralsund in two weeks.

The king had reasons to hasten to return. While he was enjoying military adventures and political intrigue in distant lands, things were going very badly in his own kingdom. On the lands conquered from the Swedes at the mouth of the Neva, the Russians managed to lay a new capital, in the Baltic states they took Revel and Riga, in Finland the Russian flag fluttered over Kexholm, Vyborg, Helsingfors and Turku. Allies of Emperor Peter crushed the Swedes in Pomerania, Bremen, Stetten, Hanover and Brandenburg fell under their onslaught. Soon after his return, Stralsund fell, too, which the king left under fire from enemy artillery in a small rowing ship, fleeing capture.

The economy of Sweden was completely ruined, but all the talk that the continuation of the war would turn into a complete economic catastrophe did not frighten the knight king at all, who believed that if he himself was content with one uniform and one change of linen, he eats from a soldier's cauldron, then his subjects can be patient until he defeats all the enemies of the kingdom and the Lutheran faith. Von Fabritze writes that in Stralsund, the former Holstein minister, Baron Georg von Goertz, who was looking for service, presented himself to the king, promising the king a decision of all financial and political issues... Having received carte blanche from the king, Herr Görz quickly turned around the reform-scam, equating by decree the silver Swedish daler with a copper coin called "notdaler". On the reverse of the notdalers the head of Hermes was minted, and the Swedes called him “God of Hertz”, and the coins themselves were “money of need”. These unsecured coins were minted 20 million pieces, which aggravated the economic crisis of the kingdom, but still made it possible to prepare for a new military campaign.

By order of Charles, the regiments were replenished with recruits, the cannons were again cast, the preparations for fodder and food were made, the headquarters developed plans for new campaigns. Everyone knew that the king would still not agree to end the war, even if only out of simple stubbornness, for which he was famous from an early age. However, the opponents of the war were also not going to sit idly by. The king placed his headquarters in Lund, announcing that only the victor would return to the capital of the kingdom, and news came from Stockholm one more alarming than the other. In 1714, when the king was still "visiting" the sultan, the Swedish nobility gathered the Riksdag, which decided to persuade the monarch to seek peace. Karl ignored this decree and did not conclude peace, but he and his supporters had an opposition - an aristocratic party, the head of which was considered the Duke of Hesse Friedrich, who in 1715 was legally married to Princess Ulrika-Eleanor, Karl's only sister and heiress to the Swedish throne. Members of this organization became the first suspects in the preparation of the murder of their crowned relative.

The revelations of Baron Cronstedt

The death of Charles brought Ulrike-Eleanor, the wife of Friedrich of Hesse-Kassel, the royal crown, and as Roman lawyers taught, Is fecit cui prodest - "He made who benefits." In the spring of 1718, before setting off on the Norwegian campaign, Duke Frederick instructed the court councilor Hein to draw up a special memorandum for Ulrika-Eleanor, in which she described in detail her actions in the event that King Charles died, and her husband was absent at that time. in the capital. And the mysterious appearance at the scene of the murder of the king's adjutant Prince Frederick, Andre Secre, whom the close officers initially believed to be the direct executor of the conspirators' orders, looks absolutely ominous.

However, if you wish, you can interpret these facts in a completely different way. The drafting of a memorandum for Ulrika-Eleanor is fully explained by the fact that her husband and brother did not go to the ball, but to the war, where anything could happen. Realizing that his wife, not distinguished by special abilities, is likely to be confused in a crisis situation, Friedrich could well attend to the issue of safety net. Adjutant Secre had a firm alibi: on the night of the death of Charles XII, there were several other people in the trench next to Secre in the trench, who showed that none of those present had fired. In addition, Secre stood so close to the king that, if he had shot, traces of gunpowder would have remained in and around the wound - but they were not.

Foreigners from the king's retinue also fell under suspicion. As the German historian Knut Lundblad writes in the book "The History of Charles XII", published in 1835 in Kristianstad, the engineer Megre was ready to be named as the murderers of the Swedish king, who supposedly could take a sin on his soul in the name of the interests of the French crown. As a matter of fact, they took turns suspecting everyone who was in the trench that night, but no reliable evidence was ever found against anyone. However, talk that King Charles was killed by conspirators did not subside for many years, thereby questioning the legitimacy of Charles's successors to the Swedish throne. Unable to refute this rumor in any other way, the authorities, 28 years after the death of Charles XII, announced the beginning of an official investigation into the murder.

In 1746, by the highest order, the crypt in the Riddarholm Church of Stockholm, where the king's remains were buried, was opened, and the corpse was subjected to a detailed examination. At one time, the conscientious doctor Neumann embalmed Karl's body so thoroughly that decay hardly touched him. The wound on the head of the late king was carefully examined, and experts - doctors and the military - concluded that it was not a round cannon grape-shot, as previously thought, but a conical rifle bullet fired from the side of the fortress.

Calculations, writes Lundblad, showed that the bullet would have flown to the place of Karl's death from where the enemy could have shot him, but its destructive power was no longer enough to pierce through the head and knock out the temple, as it turned out during the examination. Fired from the nearest Danish position, the bullet should have remained in the skull or even stuck in the wound itself. This means that someone shot at the king from a much closer range. But who?

Four years later, says Lundblad, in December 1750, the pastor of the Stockholm Church of St. James, the famous preacher Tolstadius, was urgently called to the bed of the dying Major General Baron Karl Kronstedt, who asked him to take his last confession. Clutching the pastor's hand, Mister Baron implored him to immediately go to Colonel Stierneroos and demand from him in the name of the Lord the same confession that he himself, tormented by conscience, was going to repent of: they were both guilty of the death of the King of Swedes.

General Kronstedt in the Swedish army was in charge of fire training and was known as the inventor of high-speed shooting methods. A brilliant shooter himself, the baron trained many officers who would be called snipers today. One of his students was Magnus Stierneros, who was promoted to lieutenant in 1705. Two years later, the young officer was enrolled in a detachment of drabants - the personal bodyguards of King Charles. Together with them, he visited all the alterations with which the biography of the warlike monarch abounded. What the general said on his deathbed did not at all fit with the reputation of a loyal and valiant campaigner, which Stierneroos enjoyed. However, fulfilling the will of the dying man, the pastor went to the colonel's house and conveyed to him the words of Kronstedt. As expected, Mr. Colonel only expressed regret that his good friend and teacher, before his death, fell into madness, began to talk, and in his delirium he was talking sheer nonsense. After hearing this answer from Stierneroos, communicated to him by the pastor, Mr. Baron again sent Tolstadius to him, ordering him to say: "So that the colonel does not think that I am talking, tell him that he did" this "from the carbine, which was the third hanging on the armory wall of his office." ... The second message from the Baron drove Stierneroos into indescribable rage, and he drove the respected pastor out. Bound by a secret confession, the Monk Tolstadius remained silent, having fulfilled his priestly duty in an exemplary manner.

Only after his death, which followed in 1759, among the papers of Tolstadius, was the account of the story of General Kronstedt found, from which it followed that, on the instructions of the conspirators, he picked up the shooter, offering this role to Magnus Stierneroos. Secretly, unnoticed by anyone, the general made his way into the trenches after the king's retinue. Drabant Sterneroos followed at this time as part of a team of bodyguards who accompanied Karl everywhere. In the night confusion of intertwining trenches, Sterneroos imperceptibly broke away from the general group, and the baron himself loaded the carbine and handed it to his student with the words: "Now it's time to get down to business!"

The lieutenant got out of the trench, took up a position between the castle and the advanced fortifications of the Swedes. After waiting for the moment when the king rose to the waist above the parapet and was well lit by another rocket fired from the fortress, the lieutenant shot Charles in the head, and then managed to return to the Swedish trenches unnoticed. He later received 500 gold awards for this murder.

After the king's death, the Swedes lifted the siege from the castle, and the generals divided the military treasury, which consisted of 100,000 daler. Von Fabrice writes that the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp received six thousand, field marshals Renskold and Mörner took twelve each, someone received four, someone three. All major generals were given 800 dalers each, senior officers - 600 each. Kronstedt got 4000 dalers "for special merits." The general assured that he himself gave Magnus Sterneroos 500 coins from the amount that was due to him.

The testimony recorded by Tolstadius is accepted by many as a true indication of the perpetrators of the assassination attempt, but it did not in the least affect the career of Sterneroos, who rose to the rank of cavalry general. The late pastor's notes on the content of Baron Cronstedt's deathbed confession were not enough for a formal accusation.

Click to enlarge

Siege of Fredrikshald, during which Karl XII was killed

1. Fort Gyullenlev, taken by the Swedes on December 8, 1718
2, 3, 4. Swedish siege artillery and sectors of its shelling
5. Swedish trenches erected during the siege of Güllenlev
6. House where Charles XII lived after the capture of the fort
7. New assault trench of the Swedes
8. Front assault trench and the place where Charles XII was killed on December 17
9 Fredriksten Fortress
10, 11, 12. Sector shelling of Danish fortress artillery and artillery of auxiliary forts
13, 14, 15 Swedish troops blocking the Danes' escape routes
16 Swedish camp

Fortress gun

Already quite at the end of the eighteenth century, in 1789, the Swedish king Gustav III, in a conversation with the French envoy, convincingly called Kronstedt and Stierneroos the direct perpetrators of the assassination of Charles XII. In his opinion, King George I of England was an interested party in this incident. Closer to the end of the Northern War (1700–1721), a complex multi-step intrigue ensued, in which Charles XII and his army played an important role. There was an agreement, writes Lundblad, between the Swedish king and the supporters of the son of King James II, who claimed the English throne, according to which, after the capture of Fredriksten, the Swedish expeditionary force of 20,000 bayonets was to go from the coast of Norway to the British Isles to support the Jacobites (Catholics, supporters of Jacob - Ed.), Who fought with the army of the reigning George I. Baron Hertz, whom Karl fully trusted, agreed with the plan. Mr. Baron was looking for money for the king, and the English Jacobites promised to pay well for the Swedish support.

But here, too, there is reason to doubt. The secret correspondence between the Swedes and the Jacobites was intercepted, the fleet intended for the transfer of the Swedish army to the English theater of operations was defeated by the Danes. After that, if there was still a threat of the Swedes entering the English civil strife, it was only speculative, which did not require an immediate attempt on the life of Charles XII. Lundblad says that the inconsistency and lack of evidence of the death of Charles XII at the hands of the conspirators has led some scholars to assume that the king's death was the result of an accident. A stray bullet hit him. Researchers cite practical experience and accurate calculations... In particular, they claim that the king was hit in the head by a bullet fired from a so-called fortress gun. It was a type of handgun of greater power and caliber than conventional handguns. A shot from them was fired from a stationary stand, and they hit farther than the usual rifles of the infantrymen, making it possible for the besieged to fire at the besiegers on the distant approaches to the fortifications.

A Swedish doctor, Dr. Nyström, one of the researchers interested in the history of Karl's death, in 1907 decided to check the version with a shot from a fortress gun. He himself was a staunch supporter of the version of the atrocity of the conspirators and believed that an aimed shot would desired distance from the fortress to the trench in those days was impossible. Having a scientific mind, the doctor was going to experimentally prove the fallacy of the statements of his opponents. By his order, an exact copy of a fortress gun of the early 18th century was made. This weapon was loaded with gunpowder - an analogue of the one used in the siege of Fredrikshald, and exactly the same bullets that were used at the beginning of the 18th century.

Everything has been reproduced down to the smallest detail. At the place where Karl XII was found dead, a target was set up, at which Nyström himself fired 24 bullets from the castle wall from a reconstructed fortress gun. The result of the experiment was amazing: 23 bullets hit the target, entering it horizontally, piercing the target through and through! So, proving the impossibility of this scenario, the doctor confirmed its full possibility.

The vibrant life of King Charles is a treasure trove of plots for novelists and film screenwriters. But nothing has been established for sure so far.

Karl XII; June 17 (27), 1682 - November 30 (December 11) 1718) - King of Sweden in 1697-1718, a commander who spent most of his reign on prolonged wars in Europe. Charles XII ascended the throne after the death of his father Charles XI at the age of 15 and after 3 years left the country for a long time, embarking on numerous military campaigns stretching for 18 years in order to finally make Sweden the dominant power in Northern Europe. Karl XII

King of Sweden, Goths and Wends

Motto: Med Guds hjälp ( With God's help)

Successor: Ulrika Eleanor

Dynasty: Palatinate-Zweibruecken

Father: Karl XI

Mother: Ulrika Eleanor Danish

His youthful adventurous policy gave rise to other countries to launch military operations in the Swedish Baltic in 1700. Poland with Saxony, Denmark with Norway and Russia formed a coalition against Sweden on the eve of the Northern War. But 18-year-old Charles XII was more discerning than his older rival monarchs might have guessed.

Charles's first military campaign was directed against Denmark, whose king was at that time his cousin Frederick IV of Denmark, who in the summer of 1700 attacked the Swedish ally of Frederick IV of Holstein-Gottorp (another cousin of Charles XII, married to his sister Hedwig Sophia). Charles with an expeditionary corps unexpectedly landed at Copenhagen, and Denmark asked for peace, but the rise of Sweden in the Baltic caused discontent among two large neighbors: the Polish king Augustus II (he was a cousin of both Charles XII and Frederick IV of Denmark; back in February 1700 his Saxon troops besieged the center of the Swedish Baltic - the fortified city of Riga, but the news of the defeat of Denmark forced August II to retreat), as well as from the Russian Tsar Peter I.

Having invaded the Swedish Baltic in the summer of 1700, the Russian troops under the command of Peter I laid siege to the fortresses of Narva and Ivangorod standing nearby with a single garrison. In response to this, the Swedish expeditionary corps led by Karl, who had successfully withdrawn Denmark from the war, crossed by sea to Pärnu (Pernov) and moved to help the besieged. On November 30, Karl decisively attacked the Russian army with Peter I left in command of Field Marshal de Croix under Narva. In this stubborn battle Russian army almost three times surpassed the Swedish army (9-12 thousand with 37 guns from the Swedes against 32-35 thousand Russians with 184 guns). Coming under the cover of a snowstorm, the Swedes came close to the Russian positions, which stretched out in a thin line in front of the walls of Narva, and with short blows broke through them in several places. Commander de Croix and many foreign officers immediately surrendered to the Swedes. The central part of the Russian troops began an indiscriminate retreat to their right flank, where the only bridge over the Narova River was located. The bridge could not withstand the masses of retreating and collapsed. On the left flank, Sheremetev's 5,000 cavalry, seeing the flight of other units, succumbed to general panic and rushed across the river by swimming. Despite the fact that the Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky regiments standing on the right flank were able to repel the attacks of the Swedes, the infantry on the left flank also resisted, the battle ended with the surrender of the Russian troops due to their complete defeat. The losses in killed, drowned in the river and wounded amounted to about 7000 people (against 677 killed and 1247 wounded among the Swedes). All artillery was lost (179 guns), 700 people were taken prisoner, including 56 officers and 10 generals. Under the terms of surrender (Russian units, except for those who surrendered during the battle, were allowed to cross to their own, but without weapons, banners and convoy), the Swedes got 20 thousand muskets and the royal treasury of 32 thousand rubles, as well as 210 banners.

Then Charles XII turned his army against Poland, defeating August II and his Saxon army (Augustus the Strong, being elected Polish king, remained the hereditary elector of Saxony) at the Battle of Klissov in 1702. After August II was deposed from the Polish throne, Charles replaced him with his protege Stanislav Leszczynski ...

Meanwhile, Peter I recaptured part of the Baltic lands from Charles and founded a new fortress, St. Petersburg, on the conquered lands. This forced Karl to make the fatal decision to seize the Russian capital of Moscow. During the campaign, he decided to lead his army to Ukraine, the hetman of which - Mazepa - went over to Karl's side, but was not supported by the bulk of the Ukrainian Cossacks. Levengaupt's corps, which went to help Karl, was defeated by the Russians in a battle near the village of Lesnoy. By the time the Swedish troops approached Poltava, Karl had lost up to a third of his army. After a three-month siege of Poltava, unsuccessful for the Swedes, a battle took place with the main forces of the Russian army, as a result of which the Swedish army suffered a crushing defeat. Karl fled south to the Ottoman Empire, where he set up a camp in Bender.

The Turks initially welcomed the Swedish king, who encouraged them to start a war with the Russians. However, the Sultan, ultimately tired of Charles' ambitions, showed treachery and ordered his arrest. The old enemies of the king, Russia and Poland, took advantage of his absence to restore the lost lands and even expand the territory. England, an ally of Sweden, reneged on allied obligations, while Prussia seized Swedish capital in Germany (which should be understood as Swedish possessions in Germany, temporarily ceded to Prussia under a sequestration agreement). Russia captured part of Finland, and August II returned to the Polish throne. In 1713, under pressure from Russia and the European powers, the Sultan ordered to force Charles out of Bender, during which there was an armed clash between the Swedes and the Janissaries, the so-called. "Kalabalyk", and Karl himself was wounded, having lost the tip of his nose.

The situation in the kingdom itself was threatening, so Karl fled the Ottoman Empire and spent only 15 days to cross Europe and return to the Swedish-controlled Stralsund in Pomerania, and then to Sweden itself. His attempts to restore the lost power and influence failed (in the capital - Stockholm - he never visited, thus leaving the city forever in 1700). Shortly before his death, Karl tried to end the Northern War with Russia by the Aland Congress. In November 1718, Karl, during his last campaign in Norway (which was then under the rule of Denmark), during the siege of the Fredriksten fortress, was in the forward trench and was killed by a stray bullet (button). According to another version, he became a victim of a conspiracy of the Swedish ruling circles, dissatisfied with the ruin of the country by endless wars, and was killed as a result of an attempt on his life (the circumstances of the king's death are still the cause of fierce disputes). Charles XII became the last monarch of Europe to die on the battlefield. After Charles, the Swedish throne was succeeded by his sister Ulrika Eleanor, but soon the throne passed to her husband Frederick (Frederick I) of Hesse-Kassel. After an unsuccessful attempt to continue the war, Fredrik I concluded the Treaty of Nystadt with Russia in 1721.

Charles XII considered by most historians to be a brilliant general, but a very bad king. Dispensing with alcohol and women, he felt great on the campaign and on the battlefield. According to his contemporaries, he very courageously endured pain and hardship and knew how to restrain his emotions. The king led Sweden to the pinnacle of power, securing immense prestige for the country through his brilliant military campaigns. However, his ambition for a victorious continuation of the war with Russia, which was supported by the restored anti-Swedish coalition, eventually brought defeat to Sweden and deprived it of its status as a great power.

Charles 12 (born June 17 (27), 1682 - death November 30 (December 11) 1718) Swedish king (1697) and commander, participant in the Northern and conquest wars against Russia. Defeated near Poltava (1709).

Charles 12 was perhaps one of the most extraordinary personalities of his era. It is difficult to find ordinary affairs and events in his life - all the feelings, views and actions of the monarch aroused genuine admiration, surprise, and sometimes shocked friends and enemies. It was said about the king that he was not afraid of anything and had no weaknesses, and he brought his virtues to such an excess that they often border on vices. In fact, the firmness of a commander in most cases turned into stubbornness, justice - into tyranny, and generosity - into incredible extravagance.

Childhood, young years

Swedish King Karl 12 was born in 1682 in Stockholm. The marriage of his father, the Swedish king Karl 11, and his mother, the Danish princess Ulrika Eleanor, was an alliance of completely different people. The despotic ruler instilled fear in his subjects, while the queen tried in every possible way to alleviate their fate, often giving the unfortunate her jewelry and dresses.

Unable to withstand the abuse of her husband, she died in 1693, when her son-heir was only 11 years old. He grew up strong, physically and spiritually developed, he knew German and Latin perfectly. But even then the stubborn character and immoderate disposition of the prince began to appear. To get the boy to learn something, it was necessary to hurt his pride and honor. From childhood, he was the favorite hero of the future king, the young man admired him and wanted to be like the legendary commander in everything.

Ascent to the throne

Charles 11 died, leaving his 15-year-old son a respected throne in Europe, a good army and prosperous finances. According to Swedish law, Karl 12 could immediately take the throne, but his father, before his death, stipulated a delay until the age of majority - 18 years and appointed his mother, Hedwig Eleanor, regent of the state. She was a very ambitious person who did her best to alienate her grandson from business.

The young king, as a rule, amused himself with hunting and military parades. But more and more often he thought about the fact that he was already quite capable of running the state. Once Karl shared his thoughts on this matter with State Counselor Pieper, and he enthusiastically took up the enthronement of the young ruler, seeing in this an excellent opportunity to make his career. A few days later, the queen's power fell.

During the coronation, Charles 12 took the crown from the hands of the Archbishop of Uppsala, when he was about to place it on the head of the sovereign, and crowned himself. The people welcomed the young king and admired him sincerely.

The first years of the reign

In the early years of his reign, Charles 12 established himself as an impatient, careless and arrogant king who was not very interested in the affairs of the state, and in the Council he sat with a bored look, his legs crossed on the table. His true nature has not yet begun to manifest itself.

Meanwhile, storm clouds were gathering over the monarch's head. A coalition of four powerful powers - Denmark, Saxony, Poland and Muscovy - wanted to limit Swedish domination in the Baltic. 1700 - these states unleashed the Northern War against Charles 12 and his state.

Considering the current situation threatening, many of the advisers offered to negotiate with the enemies, but the monarch rejected all their arguments and said: “Gentlemen, I made a decision never to wage an unjust war, but raising my arms in order to punish the violators of the laws, not to lay them down, until all my enemies are gone. I will attack the first one who will rise up against me, and, I hope, by defeating him, I will instill fear in everyone else. " This warlike speech amazed the statesmen and became a turning point in the life of the ruler.

Preparing for war

Having ordered to prepare for war, Karl 12 changed dramatically: he gave up all pleasures and entertainment, began to dress like a simple soldier, and eat the same way. In addition, he forever said goodbye to wine and women, not wanting the latter to influence his decisions. On May 8, the monarch left Stockholm at the head of the army. Karl could not even think that he would never return here ...

Before leaving, the king put things in order in the country and organized a defense council, which was supposed to deal with everything related to the army.

First victories

Karl won his first victory in Denmark. He laid siege to Copenhagen and later a short time possessed him. 1700, August 28 - a peace treaty was concluded between the two states. It should be noted that the Swedish army was very strong and well-organized, therefore a bright future was predicted for it. Strict discipline reigned in it, which the young monarch tightened even more. So, being under the walls of Copenhagen, the Swedish soldiers regularly paid for the food that the Danish peasants supplied them, and, while negotiations for peace were underway, did not leave the camp. Such strictness of Charles 12 in relation to the army contributed to its numerous victories.

The next success awaited the Swedes near Narva. Charles 12 was extremely outraged by the behavior of Peter 1, who invaded there. The fact is that the Muscovite ambassadors more than once assured the Swedish king of an inviolable peace between the two powers. Karl could not understand how he could break his promises. Filled with righteous anger, he entered the battle with the Russian troops, having several times fewer people than. "Do you doubt that with my eight thousand brave men I will defeat eighty thousand Muscovites?" - Karl 12 angrily asked one of his generals, who tried to prove the complexity of this enterprise.

War with Poland

Charles defeated the Russian army, and this was one of his brilliant victories. He carried out no less successful actions in Poland and Saxony. During 1701-1706. he conquered these countries and occupied their capitals, and in addition made sure that the Polish king August 2 signed the Altranstadt peace treaty and abdicated the throne. In this place, the Swedish king put the young Stanislav Leshchinsky, who made a favorable impression on him and later became a loyal friend.

Peter I was well aware of the threat posed by the Swedish army, led by a talented and courageous monarch. Therefore, he sought to conclude a peace treaty, but Karl stubbornly rejected all proposals, saying that they would discuss everything when the Swedish army entered Moscow.

Later he had to regret this act of his. In the meantime, Karl 12 considered himself an invulnerable chosen one of fate. They said that bullets didn't take him. He himself believed in his own invincibility. And there were many reasons for this: dozens of battles won during the Northern War, ingratiations on the part of England and France, as well as the actions of Peter I, dictated by fear of Swedish power.

War with Russia

So, Karl 12 decided to go to war against Russia. 1708, February - he captured Grodno and waited for the onset of warm days near Minsk. The Russians have not yet undertaken serious sorties against the Swedes, exhausting their forces in small battles and destroying food, fodder - everything that could be useful to the enemy army.

1709 - the winter was so severe that it killed a significant part of the Swedish army: hunger and cold exhausted it more than the Russians. Of the once magnificent troops, 24,000 emaciated soldiers remained. However, Karl 12, and in this situation, remained dignified and calm. At this time, he received news from Stockholm, which reported the death of his beloved sister, the Duchess of Holstein. This heavy loss was a serious blow to the monarch, but did not break him: he did not abandon his intention to go to Moscow. There was no help for everything from Sweden, and the help of the Ukrainian hetman Mazepa turned out to be weak.

Poltava campaign

At the end of May 1709, Karl laid siege to Poltava, which, according to Mazepa, had a large supply of food. The latter referred to allegedly intercepted information about this. The Swedes spent a lot of time storming the fortress, which in reality had nothing, and found themselves surrounded by Russian troops.

On June 16, Karl 12 was wounded in the heel by a shot from a carbine. This injury refuted the legend of his invulnerability and led to serious consequences - the actions of the army during Battle of Poltava the monarch ruled from a hastily constructed stretcher.

Battle and defeat at Poltava

The battle near Poltava took place on June 27 (July 8) 1709. The surprise, which, as usual, Karl was counting on, did not work: Menshikov's cavalry discovered Swedish columns that were moving in the silence of the night. The battle ended with the complete defeat of the Swedes. Only Karl 12, Mazepa and several hundred soldiers managed to escape.

The Poltava defeat destroyed not only the Swedish army, but also the Swedish great power. It seemed that everything was lost, but Karl was not going to give up. He fled to the Turks and received a dignified welcome there. But although the sultan showered the king with honors, expensive gifts, he was just a prisoner. The Swedish monarch did a lot to ensure that the Ottoman Porta declared war on Russia, but the Turkish government did not share Charles's views and was in no hurry to quarrel with the king.

Bendery seat

Karl 12 lived in Bendery in luxury. As soon as he recovered from his wound and was able to sit in the saddle, he immediately began his usual activities: he rode a lot, taught soldiers and played chess. The money he received from Porta was spent by the monarch on intrigue, bribery and gifts to the janissaries who guarded him.

Karl continued to hope that he could force Turkey to fight, and did not agree to return home. He, with the help of his agents, desperately intrigued and removed the viziers. In the end, he managed to provoke the Turks to war with Russia. But a short war ended with the signing of a peace treaty on August 1, 1711 and did not cause much harm to Peter 1. The Swedish king was furious and reproached the grand vizier for signing a peace treaty. In response, he strongly advised the monarch to leave Turkey and eventually return home.

Karl refused and spent several more years in Turkey, despite the fact that the sultan and the government openly told him about the need to return to Sweden. It seems that Porta is already tired of the annoying guest and his adventures, in which the Swedish king embarked on every step, achieving his goal.

Return and death

1714 - realizing the futility of staying in Turkey, the Swedish king Charles 12, left its borders and returned to his homeland, torn apart by enemies. Therefore, the monarch immediately set about reorganizing the army and ... not having solved all the state problems, in March 1716 he went to war with his enemies in Norway.

During the siege of the Frederikshall fortress, when the indefatigable monarch personally examined the trenches, he was overtaken by a stray bullet. On December 11, 1718, the life of one of the great warriors and kings of Europe ended. The throne was succeeded by Ulrika's sister Eleanor, who after some time abandoned it in favor of her husband.

Karl 12 - a person in history

King Charles remained in history as the greatest conqueror and the great stubborn man. He was not like other monarchs, he fought not for the sake of strengthening his position, but for the sake of glory, he loved to give out crowns. His stubbornness, unwillingness to really assess the superiority of the enemy led to the defeat of the Swedish army and deprived Sweden of its position as the leading power in Europe.

However, at the same time, King Charles always remained an interesting person, which attracted many loyal friends to his side. He never boasted of victories, but he also did not know how to suffer from defeats for a long time. The king hid grief deep within himself and rarely gave vent to emotions. There were legends about his composure and equanimity in all cases of life.

Voltaire wrote: “Once, when Karl was dictating a letter to the secretary to Sweden, a bomb hit the house and, breaking through the roof, exploded in the next room and blew the ceiling to pieces. shard. During the explosion, when it seemed that the whole house was crumbling, the pen fell from the hands of the secretary. ""What's the matter? The king asked. - Why aren't you writing? - "Sovereign, bomb!" “But what does the bomb have to do with it? Your business is to write a letter. Continue. ”

Such was the Swedish king Karl 12: fearless, intelligent, brave, who "valued the lives of his subjects as little as his own."

A. Ziolkovskaya

Historical "riddles" will become "clues" if you understand the course of world politics. Then the story will be filled with meaning, and there will be almost no "blank spots" left.

One of these historical mysteries is the amazing and strange death of the Swedish king Charles XII. The same one that in 1700, and nine years later he was defeated by Peter the Great near Poltava.

Charles XII
Georg Desmarues

Battle of Poltava

To begin with, a few words about the personality of this warrior king, starting his military career at the age of 18, Charles, who had seemed like a fool before that, quickly became the most popular military leader in Europe.

Portrait of Charles XII as a child
David Klöcker Ehrenstral

Broken Denmark, defeated Russian Tsar Peter, defeated Saxon elector (he is also the Polish king). Charles took turns defeating all three opponents, who united against Sweden, believing that the young king would not be able to resist them.

King of Denmark and Norway Frederick IV, Russian Tsar Peter I,
Elector of Saxony and King of Poland August II the Strong

Charles XII was brave and even reckless. During the Narva battle, he so briskly led his soldiers into the attack that he lost his jackboots. At the time of the Battle of Poltava, Karl was carried on a stretcher, since the day before he was wounded in the leg.

Triumph near Narva
Gustav Söderström

After a terrible defeat near Poltava, the ENTIRE Swedish army was captured, and the king himself fled to the Turks and lived in the city of Bender, which today is on the territory of Transnistria. This is the question that Russia has "occupied" everyone. Someone would like Turkish troops to be stationed on the territory of Moldova and Ukraine (and the fortress of Izmail is here!)? So tell me that you are shy ...

But back to King Charles. When he was "visiting" the Sultan, he behaved very violently, demanded to fight with Russia. As a result, the Turks simply imprisoned the Swedish king so as not to interfere. As a result, the head of Sweden lived on Turkish territory for five and a half years. At the same time, no one said that “he had lost legitimacy,” and the Swedish state continued to fight with Russia and its allies.

Having tasted Turkish "hospitality", Charles XII ran away from them. One day they knocked at the gates of the Swedish city of Stralsund, located in Germany. This was the Swedish king who fled from his "Turkish friends" and traveled incognito across all of Europe.

I must say that after returning to his kingdom, he had to decide what to do next. At that moment, the strongest powers in the world were England and France. The War of the Spanish Succession has just ended, in which Spain and France were defeated. Remaining the world hegemon, Great Britain looked with dismay at the growth of the power of Russia and Charles's "raid" on the territory of today's Ukraine, which ended in Poltava, was caused, among other things, by the reasons of the Great World Politics. From 1700 to 1709, the Swedish king had no time to deal with the Russians. And then he was "prompted" by the British, who were solving two problems at once:

• floated to the war the Swedish army, which could be lured to its side by the defeated France;
• with the hands of the Swedes to push back the Russians, stop their growth.

Meeting of Charles XII and the Duke of Marlborough in Altranstadt
Henry Edward Dyle

Returning from Turkey, the Swedish king decides to stop being a tool in English hands. He was offended at London because, having sent him to Russia in 1708, after Poltava, the British did not lift a finger to pull him out of the "honorable captivity" in Turkey. Didn't give any help. He had to escape from there himself. The result for an active, ambitious king, forced from the outside to watch helplessly as Sweden is being torn to pieces - five and a half wasted years. Of course, the army and navy of the Swedes are not large enough to fully fight the British. But there is another option.

The fact is that a coup d'état has recently taken place in Great Britain. William of Orange's army landed on the Island and overthrew the king. Charles approaches the exiled Stuart claimant to the English throne, James III, the son of the ousted King James II.

Disembarkation of Wilhelm at Torbay

The plans of the Swedish and Russian monarchs coincide - England begins to interfere with both of them. Peter the Great, Great Britain puts a spoke in the wheels and therefore its elimination by the hands of the Swedes is an excellent option for the king. What Peter was going to do later in reality will be repeated by Stalin: to remove one enemy with the hands of another, raised first. This is exactly what Stalin will do in 1939, when he redirects Hitler grown by the British and French to themselves. England helped and set Karl against Russia - now let Karl arrange a coup on the Island.

In the spring and summer of 1716, in The Hague and then in Amsterdam, Prince Kurakin held preliminary negotiations with the Swedes "for peace", at which a blow to Britain was discussed. It was about Charles XII in 1717 landing 12 thousand soldiers in Scotland, where the position of the Jacobites was especially strong. What assistance in organizing the rebellion and coup d'état in England, Russia was supposed to provide Sweden, is not known thoroughly today, but some researchers write about the contacts of Peter himself with Jacob III and negotiations with representatives of Charles XII, including a very authoritative source - the classic of geopolitics Admiral A.T. Mahen.

“Alberoni tried to bolster his military power with diplomatic efforts throughout Europe. Russia and Sweden were involved in the plan to invade England in the interests of the Stuarts. " ( A.T. Mahen, Role naval forces in history, M, Centerpolygraph, 2008).

But the British uncovered the conspiracy. And struck a preemptive blow. The Swedish envoy to London, Earl of Gillenborg, was arrested at the embassy, ​​and the embassy's documents were seized. In a news release, London indicated that the Swedish envoy had deprived himself of the right to protection, which he should have enjoyed in accordance with international law. In the Netherlands, the new Swedish envoy, Baron Goertz, who arrived in this country, was arrested. Speaking before parliament, the British king announced that the letters from Gillenborg and Goertz contained plans for an invasion of England. Outraged parliamentarians passed a law banning trade with Sweden.

In response to the arrest of Gillenborg and Hertz, the Swedish king ordered the arrest of the British resident minister in Stockholm Jackson, and forbade the envoy of the Dutch States General in Stockholm to appear at court ...

Peter I continues to build an anti-British coalition, despite the failure. On August 4 (15), 1717 in Amsterdam, Russia, France and Prussia signed a treatise "for the maintenance of general silence in Europe." In accordance with which, the three powers entered into a defensive alliance, providing for a mutual guarantee of the security of possessions.

In May 1718, a new round of Russian-Swedish negotiations begins, in which Russia is trying not only to end the war with the Swedes, but also to direct Sweden against London again. Contacts began on the Åland Islands and went down in history as the Åland Congress. The list of members of the Swedish delegation is quite typical - Charles XII again directs Baron Goertz (head of the delegation) and Count Gillenborg. That is, the head of Sweden sends two diplomats to negotiations with Russia, who were arrested by the British and the Dutch just a year ago on charges of preparing a coup d'etat in Foggy Albion and after sitting there in prison, they “loved” England more than ever.

Peter suggested to Karl to fight with his former Danes for Norway and to "ask" Hanover to return the land in Germany by force of arms. And I remind you that Hanover belonged to the English king ...

In response, the British acted in their own way - in 1718, an English squadron appeared in the Baltic Sea. It was putting pressure on both St. Petersburg and Stockholm. However, it had no effect. Well, except that Russia prepared for all sorts of surprises: in case of British aggression in Kronstadt, measures were taken to protect: three large ship were prepared for flooding at the entrance to the harbor.

And what about Karl? In the fall of 1718, he again invaded Norway, which was then part of Denmark. Let's repeat the dates again: in May 1718, the beginning of negotiations with the Russians, in the fall of 1718, the invasion of the Swedes into Norway.

As we agreed with Peter I ...

In London, it became clear that after the implementation of the first agreement "on Norway", the Russians and the Swedes could begin to implement their anti-Hanoverian - anti-British plans.

What happened next is still considered one of the historical mysteries. On November 30, 1718 (December 11, new style), the Swedish king Charles XII was killed with a single shot during the siege of the Norwegian fort Frederikshall (now Halden). The story is very dark. Charles XII was in a trench, which was LOWER than the walls of the enemy fort. The firing range of the then smooth-bore flintlock gun was 300 meters. Sniper scopes hadn't been invented yet, but snipers were already there. Because the Swedish king died precisely from a sniper shot. During the lull, he went into the trench to inspect the positions. And got a bullet in the head. In this case, the bullet did not hit the king's head from top to bottom, i.e. not from the fortress wall, but from the side - into the temple. This means that the "unknown sniper" was somewhere near the trench.

Who was behind the death of the Swedish king and why this murder is still "not solved", I hope, it is now clear ...

The assassination of Charles will dramatically change the entire geopolitical situation and at once put an end to the possibility of Russian-Swedish joint actions against Hanover (England) in Europe. The new queen, his sister Ulrika-Eleanor, having ascended the throne, breaks off negotiations with the Russians, immediately making unacceptable demands. The new queen of Sweden does not want peace, because the UK behind her is interested in continuing the war between Stockholm and St. Petersburg.

Coffin of Charles XII in Stockholm

The war between Russia and Sweden will last three more years and will only be in 1721. The war with Sweden lasted 21 years and ended ... with the purchase of territories from Stockholm. Russia paid the Swedes millions of silver thalers for the lands that were included in it (Estonia, part of Latvia, the territory of Karelia up to Vyborg).

The answer to the question why the winner bought land from the defeated is simple - Sweden was the strongest power of that time and Peter the Great considered it good to end the war.

In 1917-1918, the territories we BUY from the Swedes and then from the Duke of Courland SUDDENLY will call themselves independent states in complete violation of international law ...