In the year 1700, the Great Northern War began, and the Swedish Empire, which was at its peak,
led by the young military genius, Charles XII, faced off against a coalition led by
the rising Russian Empire under Peter the Great. Charles won multiple victories despite
being usually significantly outnumbered, and his army, the Caroleans, is regarded today
as one of the most effective military forces in European History. But Charles was also
a very stubborn monarch, and he thought himself to be invincible, so he began a march to take
Moscow and bring an end to the Russian Empire.
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Although initially successful, the campaign quickly turned into a disaster after the start
of winter, and the lack of supplies kicked in. Peter the Great had effected a scorched
earth tactic, leaving no supplies for the Caroleans to harvest. A Carolean veteran named
Roos, describes: “The fearful cold and hardships of the winter of 1709 will never fade from
the remembrance of those who experienced it. It commenced soon after New Year's. Most of
our horses perished, and thousands of our soldiers dropped dead with cold and hunger.
Even the very fish in the streams froze. As late as the month of May the Baltic Sea was
covered with ice full ten miles out from the coast, and the earth was frozen until the
very middle of the same month. You can scarcely imagine what a fearful condition we were in.”
In 1709 the Great Northern War took an unfortunate course for Sweden. Charles’s foot was wounded
prior to the battle of Poltava, when he received a shot from a carbine which shattered the
bone of his heel. He received medical attention from a German surgeon, who managed to save
his foot from amputation, but he needed to rest to recover from his wounds and the fevers
that accompanied it.
The Battle of Poltava had been a disastrous defeat, and Charles ordered the remainder
of his army to travel to the Ottoman Empire instead of being captured by Peter. After
five difficult days, the Swedes reached the banks of the Bog with the Russians following
close behind them. At the Ottoman border, the Turks were not willing to transport so
many without the permission of the Moldovan authorities. Much time was lost before the
boats were ready, with the Russians getting ever closer and eventually five hundred Swedes
and their Cossack allies were taken as prisoners of war. But Charles and his entourage had
finally reached Ottoman territory in Bender, a town in Moldova.
Roos said about his arrival: “Charles, who until now had been victor in every battle;
he who had deposed one king and had proposed to do the same with regard to the Russian
czar; he who had made laws for the Roman emperor and before whom all the crowns of Europe had
trembled, was brought so low that he must now receive a scanty allowance from unbelievers.”
The Swedes were treated with the utmost hospitality, and the wounded king was regarded with honor
and the highest respect. The Ottomans had received him as a victorious, not vanquished,
king, and supplied his entourage with every comfort. The king received daily from the
sultan Ahmed III a purse containing three hundred thalers. This earned him his nickname
Demirbaş, which means ‘fixed rent’, and has been translated as ‘iron head’ in
western accounts.
The best dwelling available was appointed to him, but he declined this attention and
encamped in the neighborhood of the fortress. A local problem was the probability that the
Dniester might flood the camp during the winter, but Charles, in his usual stubbornness, refused
to move the camp further away from the river. There were left about eighteen hundred men
from the original thirty-five thousand that had departed Saxony heading to Moscow. They
remained where they were and built houses for themselves. Soon, quite a little town
sprang up outside of Bender.
Charles had not given up his designs upon Russia, and now urged the sultan to raise
an army and march against the czar. He also wanted to establish a military alliance and
a commercial agreement with the Ottomans. For this purpose, he sent the Polish Count
Poniatowski as an agent to Constantinople, with the order to leave no measures untried
to induce Ahmed to declare war against Russia. The count was a shrewd man devoted to the
king. Through unknown means he influenced the mother of the Ottoman ruler - Gülnuş
Sultan - who was now strongly in favor of Charles and called him by no other name than
that of 'her lion'. She urged upon her son in her zeal to give ear to the king's proposal,
saying, 'When will you help my lion to devour this czar?'
The ongoing Spanish War of Succession was coming to an end, which meant that the attention
of the other European Powers would again turn towards the East, and consequently to limiting
Peter the Great’s ascension. Almost all the Great Powers proposed to help Charles:
the French and Dutch offered to send a ship to the Black Sea in order to bring him home,
while Austria was ready to give a free pass through Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire.
But Charles refused all these offers, possibly hoping to avoid a shameful appearance in his
capital, after Poltava.
However, Charles was also feared in the European courts, as he could also potentially lead
a two hundred thousand strong Ottoman army into Poland. The foreign ambassadors in Istanbul
worked against Poniatowski, such as the British Sir Robert Sutton and the Dutch Count Colyer.
Only the French ambassador, Des Alleurs, supported Charles’ aggressive efforts. The British,
who also disliked Swedish predominance in the Baltic Sea, decided to form a diplomatic
coalition against Sweden in 1710 because of the antagonism of its monarch, trying to stop
the war.
During this time Sweden was largely controlled by Heinrich von Görtz, a believer that Sweden
was the strongest country in the north and supporter of Charles’ policies. He wasn’t
very well-liked by the foreign powers either, and his government only indebted the realm
and brought instability to a war-ravaged Sweden. In 1711, Elector George I of Hannover joined
the war against Sweden in return for Verden-Bremen. The Prussians would do the same in return
for Pomerania.
As soon as the king recovered from his wound, his old restless spirit returned. Before the
sun rose he was ready for action, tiring sometimes three horses a day, and ceaselessly exercising
the Caroleans. Charles was supplied with plenty of money, but he spent most of it bribing
the grand vizier Çorlulu Ali, to advance his interests. However, the latter was also
being bribed by Peter the Great, and he delayed the Ottoman invasion in accordance with his
Russian ally.
The Swedish colony in Bender had plenty of visitors. Curiosity led thousands from Constantinople
to see the 'iron head.' He was gazed at as if he had been some wild animal, and because
it was his habit to abstain from wine and to attend public devotion regularly twice
a day, they honored him as a devout Muslim. After a long time, the Sultan seemed to suspect
the duplicity of his vizier, and not only deposed but banished him. Köprülüzade Numan
Pasha, an upright, honorable man, was appointed his successor, and he tried to pay Charles
to leave, but the king refused, stating that he would only return at the head of an army.
This vizier was deposed just 2 months after his appointment, and the seal of the empire
was given to Baltacı Mehmet Pasha. He was shrewd enough to see that the king had influential
friends at court, particularly the mother of the sultan and the Crimean Khan, Devlet
II Giray. Meanwhile, Peter was sending ultimatums asking to hand over Charles, and as the Ottomans
were already looking for war with Russia due to the conquest of Azov in 1696, they finally
responded by declaring war in November of 1710.
At last, the Turks actually did march against the czar with an army of two hundred thousand
men. With this enormous army the vizier surrounded the Russians under Peter, who only numbered
about fifty thousand troops. Count Poniatowski, who was with the army, gave the grand vizier
the very best advice, that he should not allow himself to be drawn into a battle, but should
simply famish the czar and his army.
But the Russians quickly surrendered and Empress Catherine sued for peace, trying to rescue
their czar from the siege. And surprisingly, the grand vizier yielded, having been bribed
by Peter’s wife, and a treaty was signed - the Ottoman Empire gained some territory.
Poniatowski was the main opposition to this treaty, and he tried to play for time as Charles
traveled from Bender to the camp. But the latter arrived too late and the treaty was
concluded, giving safe passage for the czar and his army to return to Moscow. Charles
was furious, and he accused the grand vizier of treason. After a heated discussion, disappointed
Charles rode back to Bender.
Back at Bender, the Swedish camp was flooded and the king decided to move to Varnitza,
where he had built for himself a large stone house. Although he had never cared for splendor,
he had it furnished in a most sumptuous manner, so as to command the respect of the Turks.
It was also built as sturdy and defensible as possible.
But Charles had become an enemy of the grand vizier, and now faced hostility from his Moldavian
hosts. The king was threatened and told to return home, had his letters to the Sultan
intercepted, and was denied the money he received from Istanbul. Even with all these hardships,
the king remained firm in his resolve, and he started borrowing money from Jews, Christians,
Turks, and Janissaries with great interest rates, while Poniatowski gathered proof of
Mehmet’s treachery.
When the grand vizier was finally deposed thanks to Poniatowski, he was replaced by
Ağa Yusuf Pasha, who resumed Charles’ allowance of money and provisions. Three years had passed
since Charles’ exile had begun, and the king hoped again for renewed war with the
Russians, but with the Ottomans that wasn’t going to happen, as two empires signed a peace
treaty in Adrianople in 1713. Sultan Ahmed himself wrote a letter to Charles asking him
to depart back to Sweden. Charles diplomatically refused, but the Turks were growing tired
of the Swedes.
Twelve hundred purses of coins were handed to the king in return for leaving, but the
king refused the money. This was a little too much for Turkish patience, and the Sultan
ordered that if the Swedes would not go by fair means, then Charles would be compelled
by force. The Sultan stopped the supply of provisions and withdrew the honor guard that
was stationed to protect the Swedes, preparing a twenty-six thousand strong army to expel
Charles from Ottoman territory.
The king was inexorable in his decision to stay, so the Caroleans prepared themselves
for a hard struggle. In 1713, the Turks approached the wooden house at Varnitza shouting ‘Demirbaş!
Surrender!’. The Count of Grotthusen came to them trying to convince the Turks to resolve
the situation peacefully. This worked, as the Janissaries respected Charles and threatened
their commanders with a mutiny if three days of respite were not granted to the Caroleans.
A special Janissary bodyguard was sent to Charles to escort him to Adrianople to speak
with the Sultan and negotiate. But at the same time, Charles received a letter from
Poniatowski confirming that the Sultan would not accept anything other than a Swedish withdrawal.
Enraged, Charles insulted the Janissaries and the Turks readied for battle.
Highly outnumbered, some Swedes surrendered, but many fought valiantly to defend their
king. The king repelled the assault with his usual bravery, but it was to no avail. After
the retreat to the king’s barricaded apartment, a chaotic fight ensued. The king was wounded,
but kept fighting along with his Carolean soldiers. After a furious fight, the Janissaries’
first assault had been repelled and they escaped through the windows. For eight long hours,
the Swedes held out against the massive Ottoman army. Charles himself came out, sword in hand
and shouting to the Turks, terrifying them with his unexpected appearance.
Every attempt upon the part of the Turks to force their way in failed, and although their
cannons kept firing, the wooden house resisted. The Turks then decided to set the house on
fire. Charles, instead of leaving, as they thought he would do, immediately gave orders
to extinguish the flames, even assisting in putting them out. But the house was set ablaze,
and the king ordered a retreat to his apartment. The brave Swedes could not resist anymore
and in the end, Charles and the Swedes were taken captive.
The prisoners were first brought back to Bender, where they spent the night before being taken
to Adrianople. Even at this stage, Charles continued arguing, but news from Sweden stopped
that. As no word had been sent by him to Sweden since his stay at Demotica, a report was circulated
that he would never return. Because of this, and his prolonged absence from his kingdom,
the Swedish council deemed it advisable to offer the regency to Ulrika, the king's sister.
They explained their position by claiming that they had given up all hopes of Charles'
return, and that the long war had utterly impoverished the kingdom. Under these circumstances
they deemed themselves justifiable in putting the reins of government into the hands of
the princess, who in the name of her brother was to conclude a peace with the czar of Russia.
When word of this reached Charles, who feared a possible deposition and didn’t want to
end the war, he finally made his mind to return to Sweden, setting the 1st day of October,
1714 as the date of his departure. And on that day, the Swedes started their return
home, passing through Transylvania, Hungary and then Germany. The long stay of Charles
in the Ottoman empire was over.
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