The Battle of Narva

(November 20th, 1700)

Sweden was during the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century a great power in Europe. Most other countries around Sweden was either allied to it, or intimidated by the apparent might of her army, which according to most historians was the most well equipped and trained army in the entire world of that time. The fear for Sweden, and especially her army, is perhaps best shown with the words of Czar Peter of Russia (Peter the Great), but these word does not only show fear, they also show a man who is willing to face his fear and perhaps turn it into something useful, hope. "I am well aware that the Swedes will defeat us for years to come, but eventually they will learn us how to defeat them." (Holm 1)

The closest countries to Sweden at this time were Denmark (in union with Norway), Poland, and Russia. These three countries couldn’t stand that Sweden held the status of a great power, and in 1699 the three of them joined in a military alliance aimed towards Sweden. The alliance was a strong one, although Sweden’s powers were great these three countries could be too much to handle. One must also consider that Sweden in this time was much bigger than nowadays. Sweden consisted of Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Livonia (Part of today's Estonia and Latvia), and Pomerania in Germany.

The three allies decided that in the summer of the year 1700, they would attack Sweden at three different places. Denmark declared war and prepared to ship troops to the south most province of actual Sweden, Skåne. Poland also declared war and marched into Livonia, and last but not least, Russia declared war and started to besiege the Swedish town of Narva, which nowadays lies approximately 30 km from St Petersburg. The commandant of Narva at this time was Colonel Adolf Fredrik Horn, who had at his disposal roughly 2000 infantrymen, and 400 cavalry. The Russian army bombarded Narva 24 hours a day, and it was clear to everyone that Horn couldn’t fight of the Russians forever. Sweden had to send an army to relieve the garrison of Narva.

The Swedish army was immediately dispatched to Denmark, were they forced the Danish king to accept peace. This part of the war took roughly 2 months, and when the peace was signed, the Swedish king, Charles XII, and his army once again boarded ships, but this time the ships went over the Baltic Sea, towards Estonia. Once there, the army marched off towards Narva. The Swedish army consisted of roughly 8,500 men. The Russian army at Narva was much stronger, and it consisted of roughly 30,000 - 40,000 men. That makes the odds, at least, four to one, but the Swedish king refused to let things like that get in the way for his possible soon to come glory. When the army finally reached Narva, after a 190 km march, they didn’t even get time to sleep; they had to fight the day after their arrival. The Russian army had tents and even houses in the camp they had built around Narva. They were well fed, and had had a lot of rest over the last couple of weeks.

In the morning of the 20th of November, the king gave the order to attack to the troops. First a canon fired what is called Swedish code, which is when a canon fires two shoots in a row (This was done during the battles of old times, so as to be able to recognize friend and foe). The castle at Narva replied, and the battle quickly began.

The Swedish army stood on top of a hill (Hermansberg), which lies approx. two kilometers from Narva. Before the Swedish army lay the town of Narva to the right, and to the left was the Russian camp. The Russians had the city walls of Narva at their right flank, and the river Neva at their left. This meant that the Swedish army had to attack in the center, where most forecastles were situated. These forecastles were built along the entire camp, which in length was almost seven kilometers. In the middle of this line of defense lay the biggest forecastle. The walls of that middle forecastle were so high, that a scaling of its walls wasn’t possible, so the army had to be divided into two colons which would go on both sides of the middle forecastle.

The Swedes organized themselves, and at the same time the Russian Commander in Chief, the Duke of Croy, tried to predict what the Swedes might be up to. The Swedes were rather quickly done with the line up, and they had also managed to take a hill, which was situated in front of the middle forecastle of the Russian line, were they assembled and prepared the canons. From this point the canons were able to fire at any given location inside the Russian camp.

The Swedish army was ready, but the Russian army didn’t think that they would attack. The Duke of Croy, who had information on how big the Swedish army was, didn’t think that they would dare to attack the camp with such few men. Instead he and his closest officers went to dinner. During this time the Swedish army was ready to make its move, but just before Rehnskiöld, the Swedish commander, gave the order to attack the weather started to change. Snow started falling and the wind from the south grew in strength. This made it impossible for the Russian scouts to see what the Swedes were up to. Swedish general Rehnskiöld, with the consent of the king, quickly used this advantage, and the army started marching down the hill. During this battle Rehnskiöld was in command, and not the king as one might think. The king had personally taken command of the unit called "His Majesties Guards"  (Kungliga Majestäts Drabanter), which he followed throughout the entire battle.

The Russians didn’t notice that the Swedes were actually coming, and when they finally did the Swedes were only 50 meters away. The Russians sounded the alarm, but before fresh troops arrived at the wall, the Swedes were already all over the place. The reason for the alarm coming late might lie in the way in which a soldier of Charles XII fought. They had strict orders not to fire their sidearm until they were five arm lengths away from the enemy, or when they could see the white of the eye. This was done in order to give the rather crude firearms of the 17th/18th century, as much velocity and power as possible. This also meant that in the snow and wind the Russians didn't notice the Swedes until they heard the crack of the guns, and then it was already too late. What followed also came as a surprise to the Russians, they were used to soldiers firing and then reloading, but instead the Swedish soldiers fired their arms, and when that was done they drew their swords/rapiers and went into close combat. This was too much a chock for the Russians, who started to fall back and a wide outbrake of desertion also started.

The Swedes scaled the walls and started to plunder the camp. The entire Russian center, with the Duke of Croy surrendered after only a few hours fighting, but the two Russian flanks continued to make resistance. At the left the Russian cavalry fought with honorable courage, but they too got defeated, and when they tried to escape on a pontoon bridge over the Neva river, the bridge collapsed. At the right, the Russian regiment of Preobrasjenski (The Czar's Lifeguard) also put up a brave and courageous fight. They were however trapped, on one side they had the city walls of Narva, and on the other several thousand Swedish soldiers, but still they refused to surrender. They kept on fighting throughout the entire day, and it was not until early in the morning the next day, that they surrendered.

When the Russian army capitulated, the Swedes faced a new problem. The amount of prisoners went sky high, and they became so many that the Swedes couldn’t guard them all, so they had to let all the men walk away. They only kept the officers, the arms, the cannons, the banners, the tents, the food, and the treasury. However, the king decided that a show of strength was to be put up for the defeated, so he ordered that all Russian soldiers had to walk by him (as seen on the picture to the right), head bowed, hat in hand. This was utter humiliation for the Russians, but since they had surrendered, they had to withstand this tragic event (which was repeated by the Russians in 1709, when the Swedes had to march through Moscow after having lost the battle of Poltava). When seeing this, the Swedish private Stiernhöök wrote in his journal, "And was it not too big a wonder by God, that 30,000 gave themselves to our mercy, who was not more than 9,000." (Lindqvist). This quotation also shows that different persons in the army had different opinions on how big the Russian army actually was. The king and the generals thought that it might be 80,000, the Russians themselves say that they were 35,000, and this above named Stiernhöök thought that it was 30,000, but from all of this we still draw the conclusion that it was at least 4 Russians to every Swede.

Conclusion

This battle is often portrayed as one of the greatest in Swedish military history. Our greatest triumph over Russia, if you don't count the 'liberation' of Moscow in 1612 by the Swedish Field Marshall Jacob de la Gardie. The victory at Narva gave Sweden breathing space, but due to the kings decision to turn against Poland, and his enemies own lust for war, the war drag on for yet another 21 years.

The war, and in particular the battle itself, started out as a noble enterprise. Its main goal being to protect, and preserve the realm, and for a short period the realm was protected, and saved, but the aftermath shows that by every day in the following 21 years, Sweden was economically and militarily drained, and could not in the end keep up its Great Power status, much to Russia's joy. However, in the Swedish army camp of December 1700 no one knew what was to come, this had only been yet another glorious victory for the Kingdom of Sweden.

Sources of information

© 2003 Magnus Källgren