Resources after the battle of Narva. That disaster entirely
repaired. Peter gains a victory near the same place. The person who
was afterwards empress made prisoner at the storming of a town.
Peter's successes. His triumph at Moscow.[62]
The years 1701 and 1703.
The czar having, as has been already observed, quitted his army before
Narva, in the end of November, 1700, in order to go and concert matters
with the king of Poland, received the news of the victory gained by the
Swedes, as he was on his way. His constancy in all emergencies was equal
to the intrepidity and valour of Charles. He deferred the conference
with Augustus, and hastened to repair the disordered state of his
affairs. The scattered troops rendezvoused at Great Novogorod, and from
thence marched to Pleskow, on the lake Peipus.
It was not a little matter to be able to stand upon the defensive, after
so severe a check: 'I know very well,' said Peter, 'that the Swedes will
have the advantage of us for some time, but they will teach us at length
to conquer them.'
1701.] Having provided for the present emergency, and ordered recruits
to be raised on every side, he sent to Moscow to cast new cannon, his
own having been all taken before Narva. There being a scarcity of metal,
he took all the bells of the churches, and of the religious houses in
Moscow. This action did not savour much of superstition, but at the same
time it was no mark of impiety. With those bells he made one hundred
large cannon, one hundred and forty-three field-pieces, from three to
six pounders, besides mortars and howitzers, which were all sent to
Pleskow. In other countries the sovereign orders, and others execute;
but here the czar was obliged to see every thing done himself. While he
was hastening these preparations, he entered into a negotiation with the
king of Denmark, who engaged to furnish him with three regiments of
foot, and three of cavalry; an engagement which that monarch could not
fulfil.
As soon as this treaty was signed, he hurried to the theatre of war. He
had an interview with king Augustus, at Birzen, (Feb. 27.) on the
frontiers of Courland and Lithuania. His object was, to confirm that
prince in his resolution of maintaining the war against Charles XII. and
at the same time to engage the Polish Diet to enter into the quarrel. It
is well known, that a king of Poland is no more than the head person in
a republic. The czar had the advantage of being always obeyed; but the
kings of Poland, and England, at present the king of Sweden, are all
obliged to treat with their subjects.[63] Patkul and a few Poles in the
interest of their monarch, assisted at these conferences. Peter promised
to aid them with subsidies, and an army of twenty-five thousand men.
Livonia was to be restored to Poland, in case the diet would concur with
their king, and assist in recovering this province: the diet hearkened
more to their fears, than to the czar's proposals. The Poles were
apprehensive of having their liberties restrained by the Saxons and
Russians, and were still more afraid of Charles XII. It was therefore
agreed by the majority, not to serve their king, and not to fight.
The partisans of Augustus grew enraged against the contrary faction, and
a civil war was lighted up in the kingdom; because their monarch had an
intention to restore to it a considerable province.
Feb.] Peter then had only an impotent ally in king Augustus, and feeble
succours in the Saxon troops; and the terror which Charles XII. inspired
on every side, reduced Peter to the necessity of depending entirely upon
his own strength.
March 1.] After travelling with the greatest expedition from Moscow to
Courland, to confer with Augustus: he posted back from Courland to
Moscow, to forward the accomplishment of his promises. He actually
dispatched Prince Repnin, with four thousand men, to Riga, on the banks
of the Duna, where the Saxon troops were intrenched.
July.] The general consternation was now increased; for Charles, passing
the Duna in spite of all the Saxons, who were advantageously posted on
the opposite side, gained a complete victory over them; and then,
without waiting a moment, he made himself master of Courland, advanced
into Lithuania, and by his presence encouraged the Polish faction that
opposed Augustus.
Peter, notwithstanding all this, still pursued his designs. General
Patkul, who had been the soul of the conference at Birzen, and who had
engaged in his service, procured him some German officers, disciplined
his troops, and supplied the place of general Le Fort: the czar ordered
relays of horses to be provided for all the officers, and even for the
German, Livonian, and Polish soldiers, who came to serve in his armies.
He likewise inspected in person into every particular relating to their
arms, their clothing, and subsistence.
On the confines of Livonia and Esthonia, and to the eastward of the
province of Novogorod, lies the great lake Peipus, which receives the
waters of the river Velika, from out of the middle of Livonia, and gives
rise in its northern part to the river Naiova, that washes the walls of
the town of Narva, near which the Swedes gained their famous victory.
This lake is upwards of thirty leagues in length, and from twelve to
fifteen in breadth. It was necessary to keep a fleet there, to prevent
the Swedish ships from insulting the province of Novogorod; to be ready
to make a descent upon their coasts, and above all, to be a nursery for
seamen. Peter employed the greatest part of the year 1701, in building
on this lake an hundred half gallies, to carry about fifty men each; and
other armed barks were fitted out on the lake Ladoga. He directed all
these operations in person, and set his new sailors to work: those who
had been employed in 1697, at the Palus Mæotis were then stationed near
the Baltic. He frequently quitted those occupations to go to Moscow, and
the rest of the provinces, in order to enforce the observance of the
late customs he had introduced, or to establish new ones.
Those princes who have employed the leisure moments of peace in raising
public works, have acquired to themselves a name: but that Peter, just
after his misfortune at Narva, should apply himself to the junction of
the Baltic, Caspian, and the Black seas, by canals, has crowned him with
more real glory than the most signal victory. It was in the year 1702,
that he began to dig that deep canal, intended to join the Tanais and
the Wolga. Other communications were likewise to be made, by means of
lakes between the Tanais and the Duna; whose waters empty themselves
into the Baltic, in the neighbourhood of Riga. But this latter project
seemed to be still at a great distance, as Peter was far from having
Riga in his possession.
While Charles was laying all Poland waste, Peter caused to be brought
from that kingdom, and from Saxony, a number of shepherds, with their
flocks, in order to have wool fit for making good cloth; he likewise
erected manufactories of linen and paper: gave orders for collecting a
number of artificers; such as smiths, braziers, armourers, and
founders, and the mines of Siberia were ransacked for ore. Thus was he
continually labouring for the embellishment and defence of his
dominions.
Charles pursued the course of his victories, and left a sufficient body
of troops, as he imagined, on the frontiers of the czar's dominions, to
secure all the possessions of Sweden. He had already formed a design to
dethrone Augustus, and afterwards to pursue the czar with his victorious
army to the very gates of Moscow.
There happened several slight engagements in the course of this year,
between the Russians and Swedes, in which the latter did not always
prove superior; and even in those where they had the advantage, the
Russians improved in the art of war. In short, in little more than
twelve months after the battle of Narva, the czar's troops were so well
disciplined, that they defeated one of the best generals belonging to
the king of Sweden.
Peter was then at Pleskow, from whence he detached numerous bodies of
troops, on all sides, to attack the Swedes; who were now defeated by a
native of Russia, and not a foreigner. His general, Sheremeto, by a
skilful manoeuvre, beat up the quarters of the Swedish general,
Slipenbak, in several places, near Derpt, on the frontiers of Livonia;
and at last obtained a victory over that officer himself. (Jan. 11,
1702.) And now, for the first time, the Russians took from the Swedes
four of their colours; which was thought a considerable number.
May.] The lakes Peipus and Ladoga were for some time afterwards the
theatres of sea-fights between the Russians and Swedes; in which the
latter had the same advantages as by land: namely, that of discipline
and long practice; but the Russians had some few successes with their
half gallies, at the lake Peipus, and the field-marshal Sheremeto took a
Swedish frigate.
By means of this lake, the czar kept Livonia and Esthonia in continual
alarms; his gallies frequently landed several regiments in those
provinces; who reimbarked whenever they failed of success, or else
pursued their advantage: the Swedes were twice beaten in the
neighbourhood of Derpt, (June, July,) while they were victorious every
where else.
In all these actions the Russians were always superior in number; for
this reason, Charles XII. who was so successful in every other place,
gave himself little concern about these trifling advantages gained by
the czar: but he should have considered, that these numerous forces of
his rival were every day growing more accustomed to the business of
fighting, and might soon become formidable to himself.
While both parties were thus engaged, by sea and land, in Livonia,
Ingria, and Esthonia, the czar is informed that a Swedish fleet had set
sail, in order to destroy Archangel; upon which he immediately marched
thither, and every one was astonished to hear of him on the coasts of
the Frozen Sea, when he was thought to be at Moscow. He put the town
into a posture of defence, prevented the intended descent, drew the plan
of a citadel, called the New Dwina, laid the first stone, and then
returned to Moscow, and from thence to the seat of war.
Charles made some alliances in Poland; but the Russians, on their side,
made a progress in Ingria and Livonia. Marshal Sheremeto marched to meet
the Swedish army, under the command of Slipenbak, gave that general
battle near the little river Embac, and defeated him, taking sixteen
colours, and twenty pieces of cannon. Norberg places this action on the
first of December, 1701; but the journal of Peter the Great, fixes it on
the nineteenth of July, 1702.
6th Aug.] After this advantage, the Russian general marched onwards,
laid the whole country under contributions, and takes the little town of
Marienburg, on the confines of Ingria and Livonia. There are several
towns of this name in the north of Europe; but this, though it no longer
exists, is more celebrated in history than all the others, by the
adventure of the empress Catherine.
This little town, having surrendered at discretion, the Swedes, who
defended it, either through mistake or design, set fire to the magazine.
The Russians, incensed at this, destroyed the town, and carried away all
the inhabitants. Among the prisoners was a young woman, a native of
Livonia, who had been brought up in the house of a Lutheran minister of
that place, named Gluck, and who afterwards became the sovereign of
those who had taken her captive, and who governed Russia by the name of
the empress Catherine.
There had been many instances before this, of private women being raised
to the throne; nothing was more common in Russia, and in all Asiatic
kingdoms, than for crowned heads to marry their own subjects; but that a
poor stranger, who had been taken prisoner in the storming of a town,
should become the absolute sovereign of that very empire, whither she
was led captive, is an instance which fortune never produced before nor
since in the annals of the world.
The Russian arms proved equally successful in Ingria: for their half
gallies on the lake Ladoga compelled the Swedish fleet to retire to
Wibourg,[64] a town at the other extremity of this great lake, from
whence they could see the siege of the fortress of Notebourg, which was
then carrying on by general Sheremeto. This was an undertaking of much
greater importance than was imagined at that time, as it might open a
communication with the Baltic Sea, the constant aim of Peter the Great.
Notebourg was a strong fortified town, built on an island in the lake
Ladoga, which it entirely commands, and by that means, whoever is in
possession of it, must be masters of that part of the river Neva, which
falls into the sea not far from thence. The Russians bombarded the town
night and day, from the 18th of September to the 12th October; and at
length gave a general assault by three breaches. The Swedish garrison
was reduced to a hundred men only capable of defending the place; and,
what is very astonishing, they did defend it, and obtain, even in the
breach, an honourable capitulation: moreover, colonel Slipenbak, who
commanded there, would not surrender the town, but on condition of being
permitted to send for two Swedish officers from the nearest post, to
examine the breaches (Oct. 16.), in order to be witnesses for him to the
king his master, that eighty-three men, who were all then left of the
garrison capable of bearing arms, besides one hundred and fifty sick and
wounded, did not surrender to a whole army, till it was impossible for
them to fight longer, or to preserve the place. This circumstance alone
shews what sort of an enemy the czar had to contend with, and the
necessity there was of all his great efforts and military discipline. He
distributed gold medals among his officers on this occasion, and gave
rewards to all the private men; except a few, whom he punished for
running away during the assault. Their comrades spit in their faces, and
afterwards shot them to death; thus adding ignominy to punishment.
Notebourg was repaired, and its name changed to that of Shlusselburg, or
the City of the Key; that place being the key of Ingria and Finland. The
first governor was that Menzikoff, whom we have already mentioned, and
who was become an excellent officer, and had merited this honour by his
gallant behaviour during the siege. His example served as an
encouragement to all who have merit without being distinguished by
birth.
After this campaign of 1702, the czar resolved that Sheremeto, and the
officers who had signalized themselves, should make a triumphal entry
into Moscow. (Dec. 17.) All the prisoners taken in this campaign marched
in the train of the victors, who had the Swedish colours and standards
carried before them, together with the flag of the Swedish frigate taken
on the lake Peipus. Peter assisted in the preparations for this
triumphal pomp, as he had shared in the great actions it celebrated.
These shows naturally inspired emulation, otherwise they would have been
no more than idle ostentation. Charles despised every thing of this
kind, and, after the battle of Narva, held his enemies, their efforts,
and their triumphs, in equal contempt.