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För alla medlemmar finns nu en purfärsk artikel om slaget tillgänglig här.

Efter sju år av krig beslöt Karl XII i augusti 1707 att bryta upp från Sachsen, där han befann sig med sin här. Han vände sig österut för att ta itu med hotet från Ryssland. Den långa marschen skulle föra honom från höjden av ära och nästan religiös dyrkan till djupaste förnedring på mindre än två år. Innan det katastrofala nederlaget skulle drabba den svenska armén
vid Poltava en junidag 1709, skulle Karl XII dock vid den lilla staden Holowczyn i nuvarande Vitryssland skapa svensk krigshistoria. Här skulle han den 4 juli 1708 uppleva en av sina främsta segrar.

Den 30 juni 1708 trängde Karl XII i spetsen för bland andra Livgardet och Drabanterna fram till Holowczyn, väster om floden Vabitj. På den motsatta stranden befann sig två tredjedelar av den ryska armén, ungefär 30 000 man, under kavallerigeneralen Aleksandr Mensjikov och generalfältmarskalken Boris Sjeremetiev – fast inställd på att förhindra en svensk flodövergång.

RYSSARNAS TRETTON INFANTERI- och elva kavalleriregementen skulle ställas mot den svenska hären om Karl XII skulle drista sig till att försöka gå över floden vid denna plats. Några kilometer söderut stod furst Anikita Repnin med ytterligare nio infanteri- och tre dragonregementen och ännu längre söderut fanns generalmajor Franz Rüdiger von der Goltz med ytterligare beridna styrkor. (Se kartan nedan).Vänligen Login för att se hela artikeln.

Den 18oktober 1936, alltså när Estland fortfarande var fritt (som landet var mellan de bägge världskrigen), invigdes en staty till Karl XII:s minne i Narva. I Estland, liksom runt om i Europa, var ju Karl XII känd som det ”Svenska lejonet”eller, med anknytning till sin föregångare Gustav II Adolf, ”det nordiska lejonet”. På plats vid invigningen var prins Gustav Adolf.

I filmen skymtar en rad intressanta svenska regementesfanor från förr.

Under det andra världskriget träffades statyn av en artilleriprojektil, vilket gjorde att den demonterades efter kriget. Nu finns det åter en staty, om än inte lika pompös som den ursprungliga.

Njut av filmklippet:Vänligen Login för att se hela artikeln.

Tack Karl för detta.

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Det är ett intressant stycke karolinsk rättssyn allra högst uppe i trädet, nämligen kronan själv, Karl XI:s. Adressaten, generalen av infanteriet, Mårten Schultz von Ascheraden var vid tillfället guvernör över provinserna Narva, Ingermanland och Kexholms län. Även om dessa provinser formellt låg utom riket, fanns det en stark politisk vilja i Stockholm att inlemma dem i det egentliga Sverige. Därför skulle till exempel svensk lag gälla, helt oaktat att provinserna var utomrikes. Vidare var speciellt Narva av synnerligen stor statsfinansiell betydelse med tanke på till exempel tullarna på den så kallade rysslandshandeln.

Den 8 mars 1682: Til Gen. Schultz om deß Embetes administration

Carl etc. Wår ynnest etc.

Oß hafwer Wårt Cammar Collegium i Underdh. demonstrerat, hurusåsom icke allenast Ränte och Proviantmästaren Axel Christerßon är oskyldig til den af Eder honom påförde balance, och fördenskull aldeles befrijadh, uthan och at Staden Narven haar haft goda och gijltige skiähl at excipera emot det, som dhe i lijka måtto giöras skyldige, och tycka derföre wara mycket swårt och eftertänkeligit at I strax hafwe hotat den förre med execution och uthi Eder skrifwelse til Magistraten förekastat dem såsom skulle dhe wilja föra process emot Oß, i dy at dhe offerera sigh med en grundelig förklaring at inkomma och reservera sigh beneficia juris, sägandes I, at såsom Wij äro öfwer lagen och kunnom ändra lagen så skulle denne dheras begäran wara hård och eftertenkelig i en saak som intet under ingen [sic] rätt uthan Execution hörer; Hwilket heelt annorlunda är beskaffat och annorledes böör uthaf Eder considereras; ty först böör ingen Execution skee uthan uthi klare och ostridige saker och uppå föregången laga ransakning och dom och effter wederbörandes först inhämtade skääl och förklaring.

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Johan III Sobieski (polska; Jan III Sobieski), född 17 augusti 1629 i Olesko utanför Lwów, död 17 juni 1696 i Willanów utanför Warszawa, valdes 1674 till kung av Polen och storfurste av Litauen. På sin moders sida hade han påbrå genom familjen Żółkiewski. Han gifte sig 1665 med den franska markisdottern Maria Kazimiera d’Arquien (Marie Casimire Louise de la Grange d’Arquien) som då var hovdam vid det polska hovet. Tillsammans fick de bland annat barnen Jakob Sobieski och Konstantin Sobieski.

Jan Sobieski var Polens siste krigarkung med många framgångar i striderna mot turkarna. Han påbörjade sin militära bana vid 20 års ålder efter en gedigen utbildning vid Krakóws universitet och en treårig vistelse i Tyskland, Holland, England och Frankrike (han lärde sig att tala tyska, latin, franska, italienska samt senare även turkiska och tatariska). Sobieski steg i de militära graderna: 1651 blev han överste 22 år gammal, 1656 Kunglig Standarbärare, 1666 Fälthetman (general) och slutligen 1668 Kronans Storhetman (överbefälhavare) endast 39 år gammal. 1674 valdes han på grund av sina militära framgångar mot turkar och tatarer till kung av det Polsk-Litauiska Samväldet men skjuter upp sin kröning till 1676 eftersom strider fortfarande pågår. Han kallades för ”Lejonet från Lechistan” (Polen) av osmanerna och ”Trons Försvarare” av de kristna. Han fick efter segern vid Kahlenberg en stjärnbild uppkallad efter sig: ”Sobieskis sköld” (Latin: Scutum Sobiescii). Under den svenska invasionen av Polen 1655-60 slogs han ett tag på svensk sida innan han anslöt till det senare upproret mot den svenska närvaron.

År 1683 ingrep han i slaget om Wien (slaget vid Kahlenberg) och var ytterst ansvarig för hävandet av den osmanska belägringen och det efterföljande utdrivandet av osmanerna ur Österrike och Ungern. Under 1690-talet ödslade han mycket tid och resurser på resultatlösa och mödosamma kampanjer mot tatarerna och osmanerna vid Svarta havskusten, i dagens Moldavien. Detta avlastade och gynnade det habsburgska Österrike, vars ställning i regionen därmed stärks i samma takt som det polska och osmanska inflytandet tar ut varandra och försvagas.

Sobieski strävade under sin regeringstid efter ett närmande till Sverige för att ömsesidigt stärka varandra mot det växande Ryssland, samt att åter inlemma den forna vasallen Preussen med Polen igen. Hans efterträdare, den sachsiske kurfursten August (den II eller senare; den starke) kullkastar dessa planer och drar istället tvärtom in Polen i krig mot Karl XII:s Sverige på Rysslands sida och tillåter och erkänner Preussens förvandling från hertigdöme till kungadöme. Efter Sobieskis död påskyndas Polens försvagning och Polen förpassas till en randstat med allt mindre politisk och militär betydelse.

Nu till Sobieski. Även denna gång är texten på engelska.

In early Modern Europe one of the most powerful states was the joint Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, covering an area which would have included modern Poland, Lituania, Belorussia, Slovakia and much of Ukraine. The following is an account of the victory of King Jan Sobieski in 1683. The 18th century was to see both Poland and the Ottoman empire suffer a relative decline in power in comparison with the newer formations of Prussia, Austria and Russia: by the end of the 18th century Poland had been gobbled up by these states, and Ottoman Turkey endured a protracted conflict over which European state was going to dominate its territories.

The Victory which the King of Poland has obtained over the Infidels, is so great and so complete that past Ages can scarce parallel the fame; and perhaps future Ages will never see any thing like it. All its Circumstances are as profitable to Christendom in general, and to the Empire in particular, as glorious to the Monarch. On one hand we see Vienna besieged by three hundred thousand Turks; reduced to the last extremity; its Outworks taken; the Enemy fixed to the Body of the Place; Masters of one Point of the Bastions, having frightful Mines under the Retrenchments of the besieged: We see an Emperor chased from his Capital; retired to a corner of his Dominions; all his country at the mercy of the Tartars, who have filled the Camp with an infinite number of unfortunate Slaves that had been forcibly carried away out of Austria. On the other hand we see the King of Poland, who goes out of his Kingdom, with part of his Army, and hastens to succor his Allies, who abandons what is dearest to him, to march against the enemies of the Christian Religion willing to act in Person on this occasion, as a true Buckler of Religion; and will not spare his eldest son, the Prince of Poland, whom he carries with him, even in a tender age, to so dangerous an Expedition as this was. That which preceded the battle is no less surprising. The Empire assembles on all sides, the Elector’s of Saxony and Bavaria come in person to join their troops with the Imperialists under the command of the Duke of Lorraine. Thirty other Princes repair out of emulation, to one another, to the Army, which nevertheless, before they will enter upon Action, stay for the presence of the King of Poland, whose presence alone is worth an Army.

[hidepost]They all march with this confidence. The King passes the Danube first, and leaves no troops on the other side to cover Moravia from the incursions that the malcontents under Count Teckley might make into the same, as the Duke of Lorraine had proposed; because, says the King, he had wrote to that Hungarian Lord, that if he burnt one straw in the territories of his allies, or in his own, he would go and burn him and all his family in his house, so that this was enough to protect that country during the distance of the army. He leads them afterwards, through unfrequented defiles to the tops of the hills of Vienna, and in fight of the Turks, who drew out of their camp to put themselves in order, and even attacked the Imperialists by break of day on Sunday the twelfth of September, before the King of Poland had made an end of forming his order of battle, and extending his lines, in which his Majesty has mixed his hussars, and other Polish troops among those of the Empire.

In the meantime, the Turks leave their trenches well provided with Janissaries, with a considerable body of at the posts and at the attacks, to hinder the besieged from sallying out; hoping to continue the siege at the same time as the army should make head against the succors of the Christian princes; and truly they had wherewithal to back this proud revolution; having above 300,000 men, according to the King’s account, who found above 100,000 small tents in their camp, wherein apparently according to the manner of disposing their men, there were at least three men in each, and his Polish Majesty has reduced the common report of 300,000 tents which would infinitely augment the number of soldiers to that of 1,000,000.

The battle was fought on the twelfth, it lasted fourteen or fifteen hours; the slaughter was horrible, and the loss of the Turks inestimable, for they left upon the field of battle, besides the dead and prisoners, all their cannon, equipage, tents and infinite riches that they had been six years gathering together throughout the whole Ottoman Empire. There was found in their camp above a million pounds of powder, bullets, balls, and other ammunition, without reckoning the powder that the slaves burnt by inadvertency in several places of the park of the artillery, the flame whereof made an emblem of the terrible day of judgment, with the earthquakes that will accompany it; and that thick mass of clouds that will obscure the universe: a loss nevertheless which ought to be called a great misfortune, seeing tis above a million pounds more, as the King assures us in his letter, that he wrote himself to the Queen, from which all these particulars are extracted.

The battle ended by the infantry of the trenches, and of the Isle of the Danube, where the Turks had a battery [of artillery]. The night was spent in slaughter, and the unhappy remnant of this army saved their lives by flight, having abandoned all to the victors; even an infinite number of wagons, laden with ammunition, and some field pieces, that designed to have carried with them; and which were found next day upon the road they had taken; which makes us suspect that they’ll not be able to rally again, as neither having wherewithal to encamp themselves nor cannon to shoot with.

So soon as the Grand Vizier knew the defeat of his first lines, he caused a red tent to be pitched at the head of his main body, where he resolved to die for the Ottoman Empire, but his last efforts were to no purpose; and the wing of the Imperialists, which he attacked with all his might, was so opportunely succored by the presence of the king, who brought part of the troops of his left wing thither, that all fled before him. So soon as he perceived the red tent, knowing by it that the Vizier was there in person, he caused all his artillery to fire upon that pavilion, encouraging the activity of the gunners by considerable recompenses, promising them fifty crowns for each cannon-shot; and these leveled their pieces so well, that they brought down the red tent of the Grand Vizier; and the troop of Prince Alexander his second son, had the advantage to break through that body of cavalry, at the very place where the Vizier was, who was dismounted, and had much ado to save himself upon another horse; having left, among the slain, his Kiayia, that is, his lieutenant general, and the second person of the army; with abundance of considerable officers; all the standards; the marks of his dignity that are carried before him, or that are set up before his pavilions; even the great standard of Mahomet, which the Sultan had put into his hands when he set out upon this expedition; and which the king has sent to Rome by the Sieur Talenti, one of his secretaries, to be a testimony to the Pope, of this great victory.

The King understood afterwards by deserters, who come every hour in troops to surrender themselves to him, as well as the renegades, that the Vizier, seeing the defeat of the army, called his sons to him, embraced them, bitterly bewailed their misfortune, and turned towards the Khan of the Tartars, and said ”And you, will not you succor me?” To whom the Tartar prince replied, that he knew the King of Poland by more than one proof, and that the Vizier would be very happy if he could save himself by flight, as having no other way for his security, and that he was going to show him the example.

The Grand Vizier being thus abandoned, took the same way, and retired in disorder with only one horse; that which he had in the battle, and was armed all over with steel, having fallen into the hands of the king with all the equipages of that Ottoman general; who has left his Majesty heir to all his riches. In effect, his letters were dated from the tents of the Grand Vizier, the park whereof was as large extent as the city of Warsaw or that or Leopold; enclosing his baths, fountains, canals, a garden, a king of menagerie or place for strange beasts and birds, with dogs, rabbits and parrots. There was found an ostrich of an admirable beauty, which had been taken from one of the Emperor’s country-houses, and whose head the vizier’s men cut off in their retreat, that it might not serve to adorn the King’s menagerie. This precaution would have been of greater use if they had taken it with respect to the Standard of Mahomet, and of that prodigious quantity of riches, bows, quivers, sabers set with rubies, and diamonds, precious movables and equipages of great value, that were left with the tents to the King of Poland; which made that monarch say very pleasantly in his letter to his Queen, ”You will not tell me at my return, what the Tartarian women tell their husbands when they see them return from the army without booty, You are not a Man, seeing you return empty-handed,’ for doubtless he was the first in the battle, who returns laden with the spoils of the Enemy; the Grand Vizier having made me his Universal Legatee.”

The booty that was taken in this action is infinite and inestimable: the field of battle was sowed with gold sabers, with pieces of stuff, and such a prodigious quantity of other things that the pillage which has already lasted three days will scarce be over in a whole week, although the besieged are come out of the town in great companies to partake of the booty with the victorious soldier; both the one and the other being scarce able as yet to persuade themselves that this happy success is real, it is so extraordinary: insomuch that the whole army, which nevertheless has done its duty very courageously, can’t forbear to attribute this great victory to the mighty God of Battles, who would make use of the hands of the King of Poland to overthrow the enemies of his name, for which let him be honored and glorified forever and ever!

Excerpt ur: Polish Manuscripts, eller The Secret History of the Reign of John Sobieski, The III of that Name, King of Poland, containing a particular account of the siege of Vienna. . . . övers. François-Paulin Dalairac (London: Rhodes, Bennet, Bell, Leigh & Midwinter, 1700), pp. 355-364.

Uppgifterna om Jan Sobieski hämtade från Wikipedia.se[/hidepost]

Det franska hovet, som ända fram till revolutionen långt senare, gällde för att vara Europas elegantaste och mest luxuösa, kan inte på något sätt jämföras med det nästan spartanska svenska. Vid kung Louis XIV:s hov fanns allting i överflöd och många ur den franska adeln bodde till och med vid Versailles. En del hade rum i självaste slottet, eller snarare stora våningar. Marie Antoinette skulle mot slutet av 1700-talet jämföra det vid ett fängelse.

Nu till utdraget ur grevinnan av Orleans hand (språket är återigen engelska):

From Letter of the Duchess of Orleans

4th January, 1704, Versailles.

To the DUCHESS OF HANOVER.

I must really tell you how just the King is. The Duchesse de Bourgogne’s ladies, who are called Ladies of the Palace, tried to arrogate the rank and take the place of my ladies everywhere. Such a thing was never done either in the time of the Queen or of the Dauphiness. They got the King’s Guards to keep their places and push back the chairs belonging to my ladies. I complained first of all to the Duc de Noailles, who replied that it was the King’s order. Then I went immediately to the King and said to him, ”May I ask your Majesty if it is by your orders that my ladies have now no place or rank as they used to have? If it is your desire, I have nothing more to say, because I only wish to obey you, but your Majesty knows that formerly when the Queen and the Dauphiness were alive the Ladies of the Palace had no rank, and my Maids of Honour, Gentlemen of Honour, and Ladies of the Robe had their places like those of the Queen and the Dauphiness.

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I denna första del av serien presenterar jag ett utdrag om hur livet vid det franska hovet vid Versailles tedde sig under 1700-talet (under kung Louis XIV) – innan Marie Antoinette gjorde sitt intåg. Det är ett utdrag ur Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simons (1675–1755) memoarer. Denne greve Saint-Simon levde vid Versailles under många år och hade alltså god insikt i det franska hovets göranden.

Dokumentutdraget är på engelska, men det torde inte utgöra något problem för våra läsare.

Här följer utdraget:

The Court

His [Louis XIV] natural talents were below mediocrity; but he had a mind capable of improvement, of receiving polish, of assimilating what was best in the minds of others without slavish imitation; and he profited greatly throughout his life from having associated with the ablest and wittiest persons, of both sexes, and of various stations. He entered the world (if I may use such an expression in speaking of a King who had already completed his twenty-third year), at a fortunate moment, for men of distinction abounded. His Ministers and Generals at this time, with their successors trained in their schools, are universally acknowledged to have been the ablest in Europe; for the domestic troubles and foreign wars under which France had suffered ever since the death of Louis XIII had brought to the front a number of brilliant names, and the Court was made up of capable and illustrious personages….

Glory was his passion, but he also liked order and regularity in all things; he was naturally prudent, moderate, and reserved; always master of his tongue and his emotions. Will it be believed? he was also naturally kind-hearted and just. God had given him all that was necessary for him to be a good King, perhaps also to be a fairly great one. All his faults were produced by his surroundings. In his childhood he was so much neglected that no one dared go near his rooms. He was often heard to speak of those times with great bitterness; he used to relate how, through the carelessness of his attendants, he was found one evening in the basin of a fountain in the Palais-Royal gardens….

His Ministers, generals, mistresses, and courtiers soon found out his weak point, namely, his love of hearing his own praises. There was nothing he liked so much as flattery, or, to put it more plainly, adulation; the coarser and clumsier it was, the more he relished it. That was the only way to approach him; if he ever took a liking to a man it was invariably due to some lucky stroke of flattery in the first instance, and to indefatigable perseverance in the same line afterwards. His Ministers owed much of their influence to their frequent opportunities for burning incense before him….

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