Battle of Narva (1700)
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| Battle of Narva | |||||||
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| Part of the Great Northern War | |||||||
 The Swedish Victory at Narva by Gustaf Cederström, painted 1910 |
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| Combatants | |||||||
 Sweden |
 Russia |
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| Commanders | |||||||
| King Charles XII of Sweden | Field Marshal Charles Eugène de Croy | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 10,640 | about 37,000 | ||||||
| Casualties | |||||||
| 667 killed | 15,000 killed or drowned the rest surrendered |
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| Great Northern War |
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| Narva – Daugava – Kliszów – Gemauerthof – Fraustadt – Holowczyn – Lesnaya – Poltava – Helsingborg – Gadebusch – Storkyro – Gangut – Stralsund – Dynekilen – Ösel – Stäket – Grengam |
- For other Battles of Narva, see Battle of Narva (disambiguation).
The Battle of Narva was an early battle in the Great Northern War fought in November of 1700. The Swedish army under King Charles XII of Sweden defeated the Russian army of Tsar Peter the Great at Narva in a stunning tactical victory. This victory at Narva is considered to be one of the greatest victories in Swedish history.
[edit] The battle
On November 20, 1700 (Julian calendar), the 8,140-man main force under King Charles XII engaged the Russian army that was besieging the Swedish (now Estonian) city of Narva. The main Swedish force was assisted by approximately 2,500 men from within the city. The Russian army had great numerical superiority, numbering about 37,000 troops. Swedish sources from the time, still quoted in some literature, claimed that the Russians numbered 80,000 to 100,000; this might be a reasonable number when including the Russian support machinery of civilians, soldiers' wives and families.
The Swedish army was commanded by the king himself, assisted by General Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld, and the Russian army was commanded by Charles Eugène de Croy. Tsar Peter had left the army just days before.
The Swedes went into action at noon, protected by a blizzard that was blowing into the Russians' eyes and blinding them. The Swedes broke through the Russian lines and put the entire Russian army in a panic. Russian communication was also hampered by the difficulty that the officers, most of whom were foreign, had in relaying orders to the Russian peasant soldiers.
Sweden lost only 667 men while the Russian army lost about 15,000 men, many of whom fled the battlefield only to drown in the Narva River.
The remaining Russians capitulated and were given full quarter after turning over their weapons. Over 20,000 muskets were turned over to the Swedes.
[edit] Aftermath
The Swedes had won the battle, but not the war. The great defeat was one of the reasons Peter the Great decided to pursue a rapid reform program of modernising the Russian military. In just a few years, the new Russian army would be a much tougher opponent. Charles, having destroyed the Russian army, decided to turn against the Saxon forces near Riga and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, even though the latter had been suing for peace. For this decision the king has been greatly criticised by commentators who insist that he should have invaded Russia. However, as General Fuller points out, had Charles done so, the Saxons and Poles would have been left in his rear, able to wreak havoc with his communications and supply. Over the next several years Charles would dethrone the Polish king Augustus II of Poland. However, given that breathing space, Russian Tsar Peter the Great had time to create an army that would defeat the Swedes at the Battle of Poltava, ending the dominance of the Swedish Empire and marking the rise of the Russian Empire.
