Drabant Corps Of Charles XII
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Drabant Corps Of Charles XII
The Drabant Corps of Charles XII ( sv, Karl XII:s Drabantkår) was the most prestigious unit in the Swedish Army during the time of the Great Northern War. As a result of the reforms of 1700, all personnel in the corps received an officer's rank with increased wages, while its size was eventually set at 168 men. Those serving as Drabants were almost exclusively recruited from the Swedish Empire, with most coming from Sweden. The corps was issued the finest weapons, horses, and clothing was often adorned with gold lacing. They fought according to the cavalry regulations of the Caroleans, emphasizing the cold-steel charge in slight wedge formations, knee behind knee, over the more common caracole. This strategy allowed them to function as a bodyguard for the king as well as an elite combat unit, often playing a crucial role in the battles despite their relatively small size. During the war, the corps frequently marched with the main army and the king, fighting in most battles. Th ...
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Gregorian Calendar
The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years differently so as to make the average calendar year 365.2425 days long, more closely approximating the 365.2422-day 'tropical' or 'solar' year that is determined by the Earth's revolution around the Sun. The rule for leap years is: There were two reasons to establish the Gregorian calendar. First, the Julian calendar assumed incorrectly that the average solar year is exactly 365.25 days long, an overestimate of a little under one day per century, and thus has a leap year every four years without exception. The Gregorian reform shortened the average (calendar) year by 0.0075 days to stop the drift of the calendar with respect to the equinoxes.See Wikisource English translation of the (Latin) 1582 papal bull '' Inter gravissimas''. Second, ...
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Commanding Officer
The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitude to run the unit as they see fit, within the bounds of military law. In this respect, commanding officers have significant responsibilities (for example, the use of force, finances, equipment, the Geneva Conventions), duties (to higher authority, mission effectiveness, duty of care to personnel), and powers (for example, discipline and punishment of personnel within certain limits of military law). In some countries, commanding officers may be of any commissioned rank. Usually, there are more officers than command positions available, and time spent in command is generally a key aspect of promotion, so the role of commanding officer is highly valued. The commanding officer is often assisted by an executive officer (XO) or second-in-com ...
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Battle Of Grodno (1706)
The Battle of Grodno (1706) refers to the battle during the Great Northern War. Grodno was a city of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at this time. Background Battle The blockade of Grodno by the 31,000 men (21,000 Swedes, 10,000 Poles) strong Swedish–Polish army took place between January and March 1706 (3,000 Swedes had already died due to frostbite prior to the arrival). In the city and close vicinity there were about 41,000 Russian and Saxon troops under the command of General Field-Marshall Ogilvy as well as general Repnin. On 13 January 1706 the Swedish army coming from Poland crossed the Neman River and squeezed out the Russian cavalry units of Menshikov towards Minsk, cutting of all connections to Russia for the Grodno garrison. The situation of the Russian troops was made even more difficult after the allied Polish-Lithuanian king Augustus II quickly left Grodno in Polish direction, taking four Russian dragoon regiments with him. As a result, the Grodno garri ...
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Battle Of Lemberg (1704)
The Battle of Lemberg on September 6, 1704, was a successful Swedish assault on the town of Lemberg (Lviv), in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, during the Great Northern War. Prelude The governor of Lemberg, Franciszek Gałecki, had earlier refused to pay a contribution demanded by the Swedes. Charles XII of Sweden, likely angered by this, struck camp at Jarosław, on September 1, and marched towards Lemberg with 16 regiments. He arrived with his vanguard on September 5The same day as the Swedish garrison at Warsaw surrendered. and immediately drove off a force of around two thousand under Janusz Antoni Wiśniowiecki and Stanisław Mateusz Rzewuski, after a brief fight. The garrison, about 600 strong (including 200 Saxons), then quickly scorched the suburbs and opened fire with cannons. Battle Charles, who wanted to storm the town immediately, proceeded with a reconnaissance from the High Castle and ordered three dragoon regiments to prepare to attack; heavy rain, how ...
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Siege Of Thorn (1703)
The siege of Thorn was set during the Great Northern War, between Sweden and Saxony from May to October 14, 1703. The Swedish army was commanded by Charles XII of Sweden and the Saxon by General von Kanitz. The siege ended with a victory for Sweden, and the whole garrison surrendered to the Swedes. References * Karl Hoburg: Die Belagerungen der Stadt und Festung Thorn seit dem 17. Jahrhundert, Lambeck Verlag, Thorn 1844 * Anders Fryxell: Lebensgeschichte Karl's des Zwölften, Königs von Schweden, Band 1, Braunschweig 1861 Thorn Thorn Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to: Botany * Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants * ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species Comics and literature * Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Com ... Thorn 1703 Thorn 1703 History of Toruń {{Poland-battle-stub ...
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Battle Of Pułtusk (1703)
The Battle of Pułtusk took place on April 21, 1703 in Pułtusk during the Great Northern War. The Swedish army under the command of Charles XII defeated the Saxon army under Adam Heinrich von Steinau. Charles later went on to take Toruń (Thorn) in December.Tucker, S.C., 2010, A Global Chronology of Conflict, Vol. Two, Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC, p. 691. Background In the first months of 1703 the war in Poland ceased. In March, Charles XII broke with his army in the direction of Warsaw, which he reached at the beginning of April. At the beginning of April 1703 August II left Dresden for Thorn and Marienburg in order to begin the new campaign from there. After the defeat in the previous year in the Battle of Klissow, August II used the time to build a new Saxon-Lithuanian army. This army camped at Pułtusk. Charles XII decided to attack. He rode out of Warsaw with 3,000 cavalry. Because of the many waterways that had to be passed, he left behind infantry and artillery. With th ...
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Battle Of Kliszów
The Battle of Kliszów (also spelled Klissow or Klezow) took place on July 19, 1702, near Kliszów in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Great Northern War. A numerically superior Polish–Saxon army led by king Augustus II the Strong was defeated by a Swedish army half its size under the command of king Charles XII of Sweden. During the second year of the war, following the Swedish victories at Narva and Düna, Charles XII launched a campaign against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. His aim was to outmaneuver Augustus II's Saxon troops and create dissension in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to depose Augustus II as king of Poland. In May 1702, Charles XII captured the capital of Warsaw. While there, the Swedish king received intelligence about Augustus II being in Kraków and assembling a large Saxon army. He chose to pursue Augustus II and called for Swedish reinforcements in order to assemble an army capable of defeating the Saxon army in a decisive bat ...
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Battle Of Narva (1700)
The Battle of Narva ( rus, Битва при Нарве ''Bitva pri Narve''; sv, Slaget vid Narva) on (20 November in the Swedish transitional calendar) was an early battle in the Great Northern War. A Swedish relief army under Charles XII of Sweden defeated a Russian siege force three to four times its size. Previously, Charles XII had forced Denmark–Norway to sign the Treaty of Travendal. Narva was not followed by further advances of the Swedish army into Russia; instead, Charles XII turned southward to expel August the Strong from Livonia and Poland-Lithuania. Tsar Peter the Great of Russia took Narva in a second battle in 1704. Background During the 17th century, Russia was less advanced technologically than the rest of Europe, a condition which extended to its armed forces.Peter The Great – Swift Despite this shortcoming, Peter the Great of Russia was keen to get "an adequate opening to the Baltic" by conquering parts of Sweden's Baltic provinces Russia lost ...
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Great Northern War
The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedish alliance were Peter I of Russia, Frederick IV of Denmark–Norway and Augustus II the Strong of Saxony– Poland–Lithuania. Frederick IV and Augustus II were defeated by Sweden, under Charles XII, and forced out of the alliance in 1700 and 1706 respectively, but rejoined it in 1709 after the defeat of Charles XII at the Battle of Poltava. George I of Great Britain and the Electorate of Hanover joined the coalition in 1714 for Hanover and in 1717 for Britain, and Frederick William I of Brandenburg-Prussia joined it in 1715. Charles XII led the Swedish army. Swedish allies included Holstein-Gottorp, several Polish magnates under Stanislaus I Leszczyński (1704–1710) and Cossacks under the Ukrainian Hetman Ivan Mazepa (1708–17 ...
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Hotel Skeppsholmen
The Hotel Skeppsholmen is a hotel on the islet of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, Sweden. The hotel comprises two early buildings, individually known as ''Västra/Östra boställshuset'' ("The Western/Eastern Residence House"), located along the ''Långa raden'' ("The long row"). The two buildings were built in 1699-1702 to accommodate the 200 Drabant guards of King Charles XII. They were built to the design of Nicodemus Tessin the Younger using bricks from several palaces, in Ekolsund, Gripsholm, Nyköping, Eskilstuna, and Svartsjö. As Charles spent most of his reign on the battlefields, however, neither building was used for the original purpose, serving instead to house the poor and homeless. Poor and homeless people of Stockholm emerged in great numbers following Sweden's defeat at the Battle of Poltava in 1709, but were considerably decimated by the Black Death, which hit the city the following year. As Sweden started to create its fleet of galleys in 1715, these two b ...
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Siege Of Fredriksten
The siege of Fredriksten ( no, Beleiringen av Fredriksten festning) was an attack on the Norwegian fortress of Fredriksten in the city of Fredrikshald (now Halden) by King Charles XII of Sweden. While inspecting his troops' lines, Charles XII was killed by a projectile. The Swedes broke off the siege, and the Norwegians held the fortress. Along with the Treaty of Nystad three years later, the death of Charles XII marked the end of the imperial era in Sweden, and the beginning of the Age of Liberty ( sv, Frihetstiden) in that country. Background King Charles XII of Sweden made several campaigns into the city during the Great Northern War (Swedish: ''Stora nordiska kriget'') as part of his campaign to capture Norway. At the close of the Great Northern War, the Norwegian Army had been weakened in early 1716 by withdrawal of 5000 of the best troops to Denmark. When rumors reached Christiania (now Oslo) that Charles XII was preparing to invade, all remaining troops in Øste ...
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Sweden Proper
Sweden proper ( sv, Egentliga Sverige) is a term used to distinguish those territories that were fully integrated into the Kingdom of Sweden, as opposed to the dominions and possessions of, or states in union with, Sweden. Only the estates of the realm of Sweden proper were represented in the Riksdag of the Estates. Specifically this means that, from approximately 1155–1156 until the Treaty of Fredrikshamn in 1809, Sweden proper included the bulk of present-day Finland as a fully integrated part of the realm. After 1809, however, the term has been used to distinguish the western part from the former ''eastern half'' of the realm, i.e. Sweden from Finland. Skåne, Halland, Blekinge, and Bohuslän, formerly parts of Denmark and Norway, came under the Swedish Crown by the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, but it was not until 1719 that they were fully integrated and became part of Sweden proper. Sweden proper, a geographical reference that has changed over time, contrasts with Finla ...
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