Taking of Stetin.--Descent upon Finland.--Event of the year 1712.
Peter, now seeing himself happy in his own family, and in his state, and
successful in his war against Charles XII. and in the several
negotiations which he had entered into with other powers, who were
resolved to assist him in driving out the Swedes from the continent, and
cooping them up for ever within the narrow isthmus of Scandinavia, began
to turn his views entirely towards the north-west coasts of Europe, not
laying aside all thoughts of the Palus Mæotis, or Black Sea. The keys of
Azoph, which had been so long withheld from the basha, who was to have
taken possession of that place for the sultan, his master, were now
given up; and, notwithstanding all the endeavours of the king of Sweden,
the intrigues of his friends at the Ottoman Porte, and even some menaces
of a new war on the part of the Turks, both that nation and the Russian
empire continued at peace.
Charles XII. still obstinate in his resolution not to depart from
Bender, tamely submitted his hopes and fortunes to the caprice of a
grand vizier; while the czar was threatening all his provinces, arming
against him the king of Denmark, and the elector of Hanover, and had
almost persuaded the king of Prussia, and even the Poles and Saxons, to
declare openly for him.
Charles, ever of the same inflexible disposition, behaved in the like
manner towards his enemies, who now seemed united to overwhelm him, as
he had done in all his transactions with the Ottoman Porte; and, from
his lurking-place in the deserts of Bessarabia, defied the czar, the
kings of Poland, Denmark, and Prussia, the elector of Hanover (soon
afterwards king of England), and the emperor of Germany, whom he had so
greatly offended, when he was traversing Silesia with his victorious
troops, and who now shewed his resentment, by abandoning him to his ill
fortune, and refused to take under his protection any of those
countries, which as yet belonged to the Swedes in Germany.
1712.] It would have been no difficult matter for him to have broken the
league which was forming against him, would he have consented to cede
Stetin, in Pomerania, to Frederick (the first) king of Prussia, and
elector of Brandenburg, who had a lawful claim thereto; but Charles did
not then look upon Prussia as a power of any consequence: and indeed
neither he, nor any other person, could at that time foresee, that this
petty kingdom, and the electorate of Brandenburg, either of which were
little better than deserts, would one day become formidable. Charles
therefore would not listen to any proposal of accommodation, but
determined rather to stake all than to give up any thing, sent orders to
the regency of Stockholm, to make all possible resistance, both by sea
and land: and these orders were obeyed, notwithstanding that his
dominions were almost exhausted of men and money. The senate of
Stockholm fitted out a fleet of thirteen ships of the line, and every
person capable of bearing arms came voluntarily to offer their service:
in a word, the inflexible courage and pride of Charles seemed to be
infused into all his subjects, who were almost as unfortunate as their
master.
It can hardly be supposed, that Charles's conduct was formed upon any
regular plan. He had still a powerful party in Poland, which assisted by
the Crim Tartars, might indeed have desolated that wretched country, but
could not have replaced Stanislaus on the throne; and his hope of
engaging the Ottoman Porte to espouse his cause, or convincing the divan
that it was their interest to send ten or twelve thousand men to the
assistance of his friends, under pretence that the czar was supporting
his ally, Augustus, in Poland, was vain and chimerical.
Sep. 1712.] Nevertheless, he continued still at Bender, to wait the
issue of these vain projects, while the Russians, Danes, and Saxons,
were overrunning Pomerania. Peter took his wife with him on this
expedition. The king of Denmark had already made himself master of
Stade, a sea-port town in the duchy of Bremen, and the united forces of
Russia, Saxony, and Denmark, were already before Stralsund.
Oct. 1712.] And now king Stanislaus, seeing the deplorable state of so
many provinces, the impossibility of his recovering the crown of Poland,
and the universal confusion occasioned by the inflexibility of Charles,
called a meeting of the Swedish generals, who were covering Pomerania
with an army of eleven thousand men, as the last resource they had left
in those provinces.
When they were assembled, he proposed to them to make their terms with
king Augustus, offering himself to be the victim of this reconciliation.
On this occasion, he made the following speech to them, in the French
language, which he afterwards left in writing, and which was signed by
nine general officers, amongst whom happened to be one Patkul,
cousin-german to the unfortunate Patkul, who lost his life on the wheel,
by the order of Charles XII.
'Having been hitherto the instrument of procuring glory to the Swedish
arms, I cannot think of proving the cause of their ruin. I therefore
declare myself ready to sacrifice the crown, and my personal interests,
to the preservation of the sacred person of their king, as I can see no
other method of releasing him from the place where he now is.'
Having made this declaration (which is here given in his own words), he
prepared to set out for Turkey, in hopes of being able to soften the
inflexible temper of his benefactor, by the sacrifice he had made for
him. His ill fortune would have it, that he arrived in Bessarabia at the
very time that Charles, after having given his word to the sultan, that
he would depart from Bender, and having received the necessary
remittances for his journey, and an escort for his person, took the mad
resolution to continue there, and opposed a whole army of Turks and
Tartars, with only his own domestics. The former, though they might
easily have killed him, contented themselves with taking him prisoner.
At this very juncture, Stanislaus arriving, was seized himself; so that
two Christian kings were prisoners at one time in Turkey.
At this time, when all Europe was in commotion, and that France had just
terminated a war equally fatal against one part thereof, in order to
settle the grandson of Lewis XIV. on the throne of Spain, England gave
peace to France, and the victory gained by Marshal Villars at Denain in
Flanders, saved that state from its other enemies. France had been, for
upwards of a century, the ally of Sweden, and it was the interest of the
former, that its ally should not be stript of his possessions in
Germany. Charles, unhappily, was at such a distance from his dominions,
that he did not even know what was transacting in France.
The regency of Stockholm, by a desperate effort, ventured to demand a
sum of money from the French court, at a time when its finances were at
so low an ebb, that Lewis XIV. had hardly money enough to pay his
household servants. Count Sparre was sent with a commission to
negotiate this loan, in which it was not to be supposed he would
succeed. However, on his arrival at Versailles, he represented to the
marquis de Torci the inability of the regency to pay the little army
which Charles had still remaining in Pomerania, and which was ready to
break up and dispute of itself on account of the long arrears due to the
men; and that France was on the point of beholding the only ally she had
left, deprived of those provinces which were so necessary to preserve
the balance of power; that indeed his master, Charles, had not been
altogether so attentive to the interests of France in the course of his
conquests as might have been expected, but that the magnanimity of Lewis
XIV. was at least equal to the misfortunes of his royal brother and
ally. The French minister, in answer to this speech, so effectually set
forth the incapacity of his court to furnish the requested succours,
that count Sparre despaired of success.
It so happened, however, that a private individual did that which Sparre
had lost all hopes of obtaining. There was at that time in Paris, a
banker, named Samuel Bernard, who had accumulated an immense fortune by
making remittances for the government to foreign countries, and other
private contracts. This man was intoxicated with a species of pride very
rarely to be met with from people of his profession. He was immoderately
fond of every thing that made an éclat, and knew very well, that one
time or another the government would repay with interest those who
hazarded their fortune to supply its exigencies. Count Sparre went one
day to dine with him, and took care to flatter his foible so well, that
before they rose from table the banker put six hundred thousand
livres[91] into his hand; and then immediately waiting on the marquis
de Torci, he said to him--'I have lent the crown of Sweden six hundred
thousand livres in your name, which you must repay me when you are
able.'
Count Steinbock, who at that time commanded Charles's army in Pomerania,
little expected so seasonable a supply; and seeing his troops ready to
mutiny, to whom he had nothing to give but promises, and that the storm
was gathering fast upon him, and being, moreover, apprehensive of being
surrounded by the three different armies of Russia, Denmark, and Saxony,
desired a cessation of arms, on the supposition that Stanislaus'
abdication would soften the obstinacy of Charles, and that the only way
left him to save the forces under his command, was by spinning out the
time in negotiations. He therefore dispatched a courier to Bender, to
represent to the king of Sweden the desperate state of his finances and
affairs, and the situation of the army, and to acquaint him that he had
under these circumstances, found himself necessitated to apply for a
cessation of arms, which he should think himself very happy to obtain.
The courier had not been dispatched above three days, and Stanislaus was
not yet set out on his journey to Bender, when Steinbock received the
six hundred thousand livres from the French banker above-mentioned; a
sum, which was at that time an immense treasure in a country so
desolated. Thus unexpectedly reinforced with money, which is the grand
panacea for all disorders of state, Steinbock found means to revive the
drooping spirits of his soldiery; he supplied them with all they wanted,
raised new recruits, and in a short time saw himself at the head of
twelve thousand men, and dropping his former intention of procuring a
suspension of arms, he sought only for an opportunity of engaging the
enemy.
This was the same Steinbock, who in the year 1710, after the defeat of
Pultowa, had revenged the Swedes on the Danes by the eruption he made
into Scania, where he marched against and engaged them with only a few
militia, whom he had hastily gathered together, with their arms slung
round them with ropes, and totally defeated the enemy. He was, like all
the other generals of Charles XII. active and enterprising; but his
valour was sullied by his brutality: as an instance of which, it will be
sufficient to relate, that having, after an engagement with the
Russians, given orders to kill all the prisoners, and perceiving a
Polish officer in the service of the czar, who had caught hold on king
Stanislaus' stirrup, then on horseback, in order to save his life, he,
Steinbock, shot him dead with his pistol in that prince's arms, as has
been already mentioned in the life of Charles XII. and king Stanislaus
has declared to the author of this History, that had he not been
withheld by his respect and gratitude to the king of Sweden, he should
immediately have shot Steinbock dead upon the spot.
Dec. 9, 1712.] General Steinbock now marched by the way of Wismar to
meet the combined forces of the Russians, Danes, and Saxons, and soon
found himself near the Danish and Saxon army, which was advanced before
that of the Russians about the distance of three leagues. The czar sent
three couriers, one after another, to the king of Denmark, beseeching
him to wait his coming up, and thereby avoid the danger which threatened
him, if he attempted to engage the Swedes with an equality of force; but
the Danish monarch, not willing to share with any one the honour of a
victory which he thought sure, advanced to meet the Swedish general,
whom he attacked near a place called Gadebusch. This day's affair gave a
further proof of the natural enmity that subsisted between the Swedes
and Danes. The officers of these two nations fought with most
unparalleled inveteracy against each other, and neither side would
desist till death terminated the dispute.
Steinbock gained a complete victory before the Russian army could come
up to the assistance of the Danes, and the next day received an order
from his master, Charles, to lay aside all thoughts of a suspension of
arms, who, at the same time, upbraided him for having entertained an
idea so injurious to his honour, and for which he told him he could make
no reparation, but by conquering or perishing. Steinbock had happily
obviated the orders and the reproach by the victory he had gained.
But this victory was like that which had formerly brought such a
transient consolation to king Augustus, when in the torrent of his
misfortunes he gained the battle of Calish against the Swedes, who were
conquerors in every other place, and which only served to aggravate his
situation, as this of Gadebusch only procrastinated the ruin of
Steinbock and his army.
When the king of Sweden received the news of Steinbock's success, he
looked upon his affairs as retrieved, and even flattered himself with
hopes to engage the Ottoman Porte to declare for him, who at that time
seemed disposed to come to a new rupture with the czar: full of these
fond imaginations, he sent orders to general Steinbock to fall upon
Poland, being still ready to believe, upon the least shadow of success,
that the day of Narva, and those in which he gave laws to his enemies,
were again returned. But unhappily he too soon found these flattering
hopes utterly blasted by the affair of Bender, and his own captivity
amongst the Turks.
The whole fruits of the victory at Gadebusch were confined to the
surprising in the night-time, and reducing to ashes, the town of Altena,
inhabited by traders and manufacturers, a place wholly defenceless, and
which, not having been in arms, ought, by all the laws of war and
nations, to have been spared; however, it was utterly destroyed, several
of the inhabitants perished in the flames, others escaped with their
lives, but naked, and a number of old men, women, and children, perished
with the cold and fatigue they suffered, at the gates of Hamburg. Such
has too often been the fate of several thousands of men for the quarrels
of two only; and this cruel advantage was the only one gained by
Steinbock; for the Russians, Danes, and Saxons pursued him so closely,
that he was obliged to beg for an asylum in Toningen, a fortress in the
duchy of Holstein, for himself and army.
This duchy was at that time subjected to the most cruel ravages of any
part of the North, and its sovereign was the most miserable of all
princes. He was nephew to Charles XII. and it was on his father's
account, who had married Charles's sister, that that monarch carried his
arms even into the heart of Copenhagen, before the battle of Narva, and
for whom he likewise made the treaty of Travendahl, by which the dukes
of Holstein were restored to their rights.
This country was in part the cradle of the Cimbri, and of the old
Normans, who overrun the province of Neustria, in France, and conquered
all England, Naples, and Sicily; and yet, at this present time, no
state pretends less to make conquests than this part of the ancient
Cimbrica Chersonesus, which consists only of two petty duchies; namely,
that of Sleswic, belonging in common to the king of Denmark and the duke
of Holstein, and that of Gottorp, appertaining to the duke alone.
Sleswic is a sovereign principality; Holstein is a branch of the German
empire, called the Roman empire.
The king of Denmark, and the duke of Holstein-Gottorp, were of the same
family; but the duke, nephew to Charles XII. and presumptive heir to his
crown, was the natural enemy of the king of Denmark, who had endeavoured
to crush him in the very cradle. One of his father's brothers, who was
bishop of Lubec, and administrator of the dominions of his unfortunate
ward, now beheld himself in the midst of the Swedish army, whom he durst
not succour, and those of Russia, Denmark, and Saxony, that threatened
his country with daily destruction. Nevertheless, he thought himself
obliged to try to save Charles's army, if he could do it without
irritating the king of Denmark, who had made himself master of his
country, which he exhausted, by raising continual contributions.
This bishop and administrator was entirely governed by the famous baron
Gortz, the most artful and enterprising man of his age, endowed with a
genius amazingly penetrating, and fruitful in every resource: with
talents equal to the boldest and most arduous attempts; he was as
insinuating in his negotiations as he was hardy in his projects; he had
the art of pleasing and persuading in the highest degree, and knew how
to captivate all hearts by the vivacity of his genius, after he had won
them by the softness of his eloquence. He afterwards gained the same
ascendant over Charles XII. which he had then over the bishop; and all
the world knows, that he paid with his life the honour he had of
governing the most ungovernable and obstinate prince that ever sat upon
a throne.
Gortz had a private conference with general Steinbock,[92] at which he
promised to deliver him up the fortress of Toningen,[93] without
exposing the bishop administrator, his master, to any danger: and, at
the same time, gave the strongest assurances to the king of Denmark,
that he would defend the place to the uttermost. In this manner are
almost all negotiations carried on, affairs of state being of a very
different nature from those of private persons; the honour of ministers
consisting wholly in success, and those of private persons in the
observance of their promises.
General Steinbock presented himself before Toningen: the commandant
refused to open the gates to him, and by this means put it out of the
king of Denmark's power to allege any cause of complaint against the
bishop administrator; but Gortz causes an order to be given in the name
of the young duke, a minor, to suffer the Swedish army to enter the
town. The secretary of the cabinet, named Stamke, signs this order in
the name of the duke of Holstein: by this means Gortz preserves the
honour of an infant who had not as yet any power to issue orders; and he
at once serves the king of Sweden, to whom he was desirous to make his
court, and the bishop administrator his master, who appeared not to have
consented to the admission of the Swedish troops. The governor of
Toningen, who was easily gained, delivered up the town to the Swedes,
and Gortz excused himself as well as he could to the king of Denmark, by
protesting that the whole had been transacted without his consent.
The Swedes retired partly within the walls, and partly under the cannon
of the town: but this did not save them: for general Steinbock was
obliged to surrender himself prisoner of war, together with his whole
army, to the number of eleven thousand men, in the same manner as about
sixteen thousand of their countrymen had done at the battle of Pultowa.
By this convention it was agreed, that Steinbock with his officers and
men might be ransomed or exchanged. The price for the general's ransom
was fixed at eight thousand German crowns;[94] a very trifling sum, but
which Steinbock however was not able to raise; so that he remained a
prisoner in Copenhagen till the day of his death.
The territories of Holstein now remained at the mercy of the incensed
conqueror. The young duke became the object of the king of Denmark's
vengeance, and was fated to pay for the abuse which Gortz had made of
his name: thus did the ill fortune of Charles XII. fall upon all his
family.
Gortz perceiving his projects thus dissipated, and being still resolved
to act a distinguished part in the general confusion of affairs,
recalled to mind a scheme which he had formed to establish a neutrality
in the Swedish territories in Germany.
The king of Denmark was ready to take possession of Toningen; George,
elector of Hanover, was about to seize Bremen and Verden, with the city
of Stade; the new-made king of Prussia, Frederick William, cast his
views upon Stetin, and czar Peter was preparing to make himself master
of Finland; and all the territories of Charles XII. those of Sweden
excepted, were going to become the spoils of those who wanted to share
them. How then could so many different interests be rendered compatible
with a neutrality? Gortz entered into negotiation at one and the same
time with all the several princes who had any views in this partition;
he continued night and day passing from one province to the other; he
engaged the governor of Bremen and Verden to put those two duchies into
the hands of the elector of Hanover by way of sequestration, so that the
Danes should not take possession of them for themselves: he prevailed
with the king of Prussia to accept jointly with the duke of Holstein, of
the sequestration of Stetin and Wismar, in consideration of which, the
king of Denmark was to act nothing against Holstein, and was not to
enter Toningen. It was most certainly a strange way of serving Charles
XII. to put his towns into the hands of those who might choose if they
would ever restore them; but Gortz, by delivering these places to them
as pledges, bound them to a neutrality, at least for some time; and he
was in hopes to be able afterwards to bring Hanover and Brandenburg to
declare for Sweden: he prevailed on the king of Prussia whose ruined
dominions stood in need of peace, to enter into his views, and in short
he found means to render himself necessary to all these princes, and
disposed of the possessions of Charles XII. like a guardian, who gives
up one part of his ward's estate to preserve the other, and of a ward
incapable of managing his affairs himself; and all this without any
regular authority or commission, or other warrant for his conduct, than
full powers given him by the bishop of Lubec, who had no authority to
grant such powers from Charles himself.
Such was the baron de Gortz, and such his actions, which have not
hitherto been sufficiently known. There have been instances of an
Oxenstiern, a Richlieu, and an Alberoni, influencing the affairs of all
parts of Europe; but that the privy counsellor of a bishop of Lubec
should do the same as they, without his conduct being avowed by any one,
is a thing hitherto unheard of.
June, 1713.] Nevertheless he succeeded to his wishes in the beginning;
for he made a treaty with the king of Prussia, by which that monarch
engaged, on condition of keeping Stetin in sequestration, to preserve
the rest of Pomerania for Charles XII. In virtue of this treaty, Gortz
made a proposal to the governor of Pomerania, Meyerfeld, to give up the
fortress of Stetin to the king of Prussia for the sake of peace,
thinking that the Swedish governor of Stetin would prove as easy to be
persuaded as the Holsteiner who had the command of Toningen; but the
officers of Charles XII. were not accustomed to obey such orders.
Meyerfeld made answer, that no one should enter Stetin but over his dead
body and the ruins of the place, and immediately sent notice to his
master of the strange proposal. The messenger at his arrival found
Charles prisoner at Demirtash, in consequence of his adventure at
Bender, and it was doubtful, at that time, whether he would not remain
all his life in confinement in Turkey, or else be banished to some of
the islands in the Archipelago, or some part of Asia under the dominion
of the Ottoman Porte. However Charles from his prison sent the same
orders to Meyerfeld, as he had before done to Steinbock; namely, rather
to perish than to submit to his enemies, and even commanded him to take
his inflexibility for his example.
Gortz, finding that the governor of Stetin had broke in upon his
measures, and would neither hearken to a neutrality nor a sequestration,
took it into his head, not only to sequester the town of Stetin of his
own authority, but also the city of Stralsund, and found means to make
the same kind of treaty (June, 1713,) with the king of Poland, elector
of Saxony, for that place, which he had done with the elector of
Brandenburg for Stetin. He clearly saw how impossible it would be for
the Swedes to keep possession of those places without either men or
money, while their king was a captive in Turkey, and he thought himself
sure of turning aside the scourge of war from the North by means of
these sequestrations. The king of Denmark himself at length gave into
the projects of Gortz: the latter had gained an entire ascendant over
prince Menzikoff, the czar's general and favourite, whom he had
persuaded that the duchy of Holstein must be ceded to his master, and
flattered the czar with the prospect of opening a canal from Holstein
into the Baltic Sea; an enterprise perfectly conformable to the
inclination and views of this royal founder: and, above all, he laboured
to insinuate to him, that he might obtain a new increase of power, by
condescending to become one of the powers of the empire, which would
entitle him to a vote in the diet of Ratisbon, a right that he might
afterwards for ever maintain by that of arms.
In a word, no one could put on more different appearances, adapt himself
to more opposite interests, or act a more complicated part, than did
this skilful negotiator; he even went so far as to engage prince
Menzikoff to ruin the very town of Stetin, which he was endeavouring to
save; and in which, at length, to his misfortune, he succeeded but too
well.
When the king of Prussia saw a Russian army before Stetin, he found that
place would be lost to him, and remain in the possession of the czar.
This was just what Gortz expected and waited for. Prince Menzikoff was
in want of money; Gortz got the king of Prussia to lend him four hundred
thousand crowns: he afterwards sent a message to the governor of the
place, to know of him--whether he would rather choose to see Stetin in
ashes, and under the dominion of Russia, or to trust it in the hands of
the king of Prussia, who would engage to restore it to the king, his
master?--The commandant at length suffered himself to be persuaded, and
gave up the place, which Menzikoff entered; and, in consideration of the
four hundred thousand crowns, delivered it afterwards, together with all
the territories thereto adjoining, into the hands of the king of
Prussia, who, for form's sake, left therein two battalions of the troops
of Holstein, and has never since restored that part of Pomerania.
From this period, the second king of Prussia, successor to a weak and
prodigal father, laid the foundation of that greatness, to which his
state has since arrived by military discipline and economy.
The baron de Gortz, who put so many springs in motion, could not,
however, succeed in prevailing on the Danes to spare the duchy of
Holstein, or forbear taking possession of Toningen. He failed in what
appeared to have been his first object, though he succeeded in all his
other views, and particularly in that of making himself the most
important personage of the North, which, indeed, was his principal
object.
The elector of Hanover then had secured to himself Bremen and Verden, of
which Charles XII. was now stripped. The Saxon army was before Wismar
(Sept. 1715); Stetin was in the hands of the king of Prussia; the
Russians were ready to lay siege to Stralsund, in conjunction with the
Saxons; and these latter had already landed in the island of Rugen, and
the czar, in the midst of the numberless negotiations on all sides,
while others were disputing about neutralities and partitions, makes a
descent upon Finland. After having himself pointed the artillery against
Stralsund, he left the rest to the care of his allies and prince
Menzikoff, and, embarking in the month of May, on the Baltic Sea, on
board a ship of fifty guns, which he himself caused to be built at
Petersburg, he sailed for the coast of Finland, followed by a fleet of
ninety-two whole, and one hundred and ten half-gallies, having on board
near sixteen thousand troops. He made his descent at Elsingford, (May
22. N. S. 1713.) the most southern part of that cold and barren country,
lying in 61 degrees north latitude; and, notwithstanding the numberless
difficulties he had to encounter, succeeded in his design. He caused a
feint attack to be made on one side of the harbour, while he landed his
troops on the other, and took possession of the town. He then made
himself master of Abo, Borgo, and the whole coast. The Swedes now seemed
not to have one resource left; for it was at this very time, that their
army, under the command of general Steinbock, was obliged to surrender
prisoners of war at Toningen.
These repeated disasters which befel Charles, were, as we have already
shewn, followed by the loss of Bremen, Verden, Stetin, and a part of
Pomerania; and that prince himself, with his ally and friend,
Stanislaus, were afterwards both prisoners in Turkey: nevertheless, he
was not to be undeceived in the flattering notion he had entertained of
returning to Poland, at the head of an Ottoman army, replacing
Stanislaus on the throne, and once again making his enemies tremble.