Siege of Fredriksten

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

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 Østerdal and Gudbrandsdal were ordered to the border at Halden and Fredrikstad. The Norwegians expected Swedish forces to invade at Kongsvinger, Basmo and/or Halden.^[4]

It was at Basmo Fortress (Basmo festning) where Charles struck, crossing the border on 8 March 1716. The Norwegian scorched earth policy and guerrilla raid interdiction of supply chains by the residents of Bohuslen deprived Charles of supplies, while the fortresses still held by the Norwegians behind his lines threatened his supply chain. Charles took Christiania (now Oslo), but without heavy siege artillery, was unable to take Akershus Fortress.^[5]

After a brief occupation, Charles retraced his steps to the Norwegian fortresses in southeastern Norway with the objective of capturing Fredriksten. This would remove the threat at his back, and the fortifications could serve as the base for a renewed offensive later that year. Capturing the harbours at the mouth of the Glomma river would also allow him to land the necessary provisions for a successful siege of Akershus Fortress.^[6]

Charles' troops attempted to take Fredriksten by storm on 4 July. His troops took the town after fierce fighting, but the citizens set fire to their own houses, forcing Charles, unable to take the fortress, to retreat and await the arrival of heavy siege guns. Unfortunately for the invading army the entire Swedish transport fleet was captured or destroyed by the Norwegian naval commander Peter Wessel Tordenskjold (1690-1720) at the Battle of Dynekilen (Slaget om Dynekilen) in Bohuslen. Running low on supplies, Charles retreated hastily across the Svinesund and burned the bridges behind him. By 12 July 1716 all Swedish troops had been withdrawn from the area around Fredriksten.^[7]

Summarize Fact Check

Leaving some 14,000 men in the defense of southern Sweden,^[8] Charles XII once again invaded southern Norway in the autumn of 1718, this time with 36,000 men,^[8] which were divided into 3 armies.^[9] He did this intending to first capture Fredriksten fortress to be able to sustain a siege of Akershus. By first taking the border areas, Charles wished to avoid a repeat of the fiasco he had suffered two years before. The Frederiksten garrison, of between 1,400 and 1,800 men, fought ferociously to hold back the besieging force of some 5,000–6,000 Swedes under the personal command of their king.^[3] The defenders, however, suffered a setback when, on 8 December the forward fortification, Gyldenløve fort, at Fredriksten fell, though at significant cost for the Swedes. Encouraged by their very hard-fought success the Swedish army intensified their efforts against the main fort.^{[citation needed]}

By the evening of 11 December (Swedish calendar: 30 November 1718), the Swedish forces had advanced their saps into the terminal phase of the parallel siege, placing their forward trenches well within the effective envelope of the fortress's defensive grapeshot and small-arms fire. While peering out over his frontline trenches, Charles XII poked his head above the parapet just as a large iron projectile—almost certainly a piece of enemy grapeshot—perforated his skull, killing him on the spot. For three centuries, rumors swirled that the king had actually been assassinated by his own war-weary soldiers desperate for peace. However, modern analyses have laid those conspiracies to rest. For example, by reconstructing the trauma using modern ballistic phantoms and CT scans, scientists from the Universities of Oulu and Helsinki recently verified that the fatal projectile was large, completely devoid of lead—therefore an iron ball—and traveling at a velocity that could only be achieved by a distant, elevated artillery piece fired straight from the opposing fortress walls.^[10]

The King's death marked the end of the Norwegian campaign. Recognizing that capturing Fredriksten would do little to rescue a failing invasion, the king's brother-in-law, Prince Frederick of Hesse, seized military control to order an immediate cessation of hostilities and an abrupt, overnight evacuation from the siege lines back to the Swedish border.

The news of his death soon travelled north to Trønderlag, where a second Swedish army was about to retreat under substantially less favourable conditions in what would be known for posterity as the Carolean Death March.