"The Carolean death march" Topic

"In the summer of 1718 a large army was gathering in Åredalen. These were the soldiers of King Carl XII of Sweden. Under the command of General Carl Gustav Armfeldt the army was to invade and annex Trondheim and the surrounding region. When the army left Duved in August, it comprised 10,073 soldiers, 7,000 horses and 3,300 beef cattle. The campaign ended in disaster. During the march back to Sweden a dreadful snowstorm broke out during the New Year of 1718-1719, leaving 3,000 soldiers dead in the mountains between Tydal and Handöl.

In 1697, at the age of 15, Karl XII acceded to the throne of Sweden, at the time a major European power with its heartland in Northern Europe.The king was facing a difficult task in preserving unity within in his vast kingdom. Positional warfare with Russia, Poland, Great Britain and Denmark was inevitable. As a result of losing the battle of Poltava in 1709, Sweden not only lost control of vast tracts of land but also suffered a significant decline in political power…"

More here

link

Armand

Hard to imagine the extent of Swedish power and outreach now, but they were something to be reckoned with – in the early stages of the Great Northern War they kicked the Russian's butt on a regular basis – but they seriously over-reached; I visited Poltava years ago on a trip to newly liberated Ukraine and I was struck at just how far it was from Sweden!

Thanks

Armand