Who is Charles 12. Funeral procession with the body of Charles XII

King of Sweden, Goths and Wends

Motto: Med Guds hjälp ( God willing)

Successor: Ulrika Eleonora

Dynasty: Palatinate-Zweibrücken

Father: Charles XI

Mother: Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark

His youthfully adventurous policy gave rise to other countries to launch military operations in the Swedish Baltic in 1700. Poland with Saxony, Denmark with Norway and Russia created a coalition against Sweden on the eve of the Northern War. But 18-year-old Charles XII turned out to be more insightful than his older monarch-opponents could have predicted.

Charles's first military campaign was directed against Denmark, whose king at that time was his cousin Frederick IV of Denmark, which in the summer of 1700 attacked the Swedish ally Frederick IV of Holstein-Gottorp (another cousin of Charles XII, married to his sister Hedwig-Sophia). Charles and an expeditionary force unexpectedly landed near Copenhagen, and Denmark sued for peace, but the rise of Sweden in the Baltic caused discontent among two major neighbors: the Polish king Augustus II (he was a cousin of both Charles XII and Frederick IV of Denmark; back in February 1700 his Saxon troops besieged the center of the Swedish Baltic - the fortified city of Riga, but news of the defeat of Denmark forced Augustus II to retreat), as well as the Russian Tsar Peter I.

Having invaded the Swedish Baltic states in the summer of 1700, Russian troops under the command of Peter I besieged the nearby fortresses of Narva and Ivangorod with a single garrison. In response to this, the Swedish expeditionary force led by Charles, which had so successfully brought Denmark out of the war, crossed by sea to Pärnu (Pernov) and moved to help the besieged. On November 30, Charles decisively attacked the Russian army with Field Marshal de Croix left in command at Narva by Peter I. In this stubborn battle, the Russian army was almost three times superior to the Swedish army (9-12 thousand with 37 guns for the Swedes against 32-35 thousand Russians with 184 guns). Advancing under the cover of a snowstorm, the Swedes came close to the Russian positions, stretched out in a thin line in front of the walls of Narva, and with short blows broke through them in several places. Commander de Croix and many foreign officers immediately surrendered to the Swedes. The central part of the Russian troops began a disorderly retreat to their right flank, where the only bridge across the Narova River was located. The bridge could not withstand the mass of retreating people and collapsed. On the left flank, Sheremetev's 5,000-strong cavalry, seeing the flight of other units, succumbed to general panic and rushed to swim across the river. Despite the fact that the Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky regiments standing on the right flank managed to repel the attacks of the Swedes, the infantry on the left flank also held out, the battle ended with the surrender of the Russian troops due to their complete defeat. Losses in killed, drowned in the river and wounded amounted to about 7,000 people (versus 677 killed and 1,247 wounded for the Swedes). All artillery (179 guns) was lost, 700 people were captured, including 56 officers and 10 generals. Under the terms of surrender (Russian units, except those who surrendered during the battle, were allowed to cross over to their own, but without weapons, banners and convoys), the Swedes received 20 thousand muskets and the tsar’s treasury of 32 thousand rubles, as well as 210 banners.

Charles XII then turned his army against Poland, defeating Augustus II and his Saxon army (Augustus the Strong, having been elected king of Poland, remained the hereditary Elector of Saxony) at the Battle of Klissow in 1702. After the removal of Augustus II from the Polish throne, Charles replaced him with his protege Stanislav Leszczynski .

Meanwhile, Peter I recaptured part of the Baltic lands from Charles and founded a new fortress, St. Petersburg, on the conquered lands. This forced Charles to make the fatal decision to capture the Russian capital of Moscow. During the campaign, he decided to lead his army to Ukraine, whose hetman, Mazepa, went over to Karl’s side, but was not supported by the bulk of the Ukrainian Cossacks. Levengaupt's corps, which came to the aid of Karl, was defeated by the Russians in the battle near the village of Lesnoy. By the time the Swedish troops approached Poltava, Charles had lost up to a third of his army. After the three-month siege of Poltava, which was unsuccessful for the Swedes, a battle took place with the main forces of the Russian army, as a result of which the Swedish army suffered a crushing defeat. Charles fled south to the Ottoman Empire, where he set up a camp in Bendery.

The Turks initially welcomed the Swedish king, who encouraged them to start a war with the Russians. However, the Sultan, eventually tired of Charles's ambitions, showed treachery and ordered his arrest. The king's old enemies Russia and Poland took advantage of his absence to restore lost lands and even expand territories. England, an ally of Sweden, abandoned allied obligations, while Prussia seized Swedish capital in Germany (by which we must understand Swedish possessions in Germany, temporarily ceded to Prussia under the sequestration treaty). Russia captured part of Finland, and Augustus II returned to the Polish throne. In 1713, the Sultan, under pressure from Russia and the European powers, ordered the forceful removal of Charles from Bendery, during which an armed clash between the Swedes and the Janissaries took place, the so-called. “kalabalyk”, and Karl himself was wounded, losing the tip of his nose.

The situation in the kingdom itself was threatening, so Charles fled the Ottoman Empire and took only 15 days to cross Europe and return to Swedish-controlled Stralsund in Pomerania, and then to Sweden itself. His attempts to restore lost power and influence failed (he never visited the capital, Stockholm, thus leaving the city forever in 1700). Shortly before his death, Charles tried to end the Northern War with Russia with the Åland Congress. In November 1718, during his last campaign in Norway (which was then under Danish rule), during the siege of the Fredriksten fortress, Karl was in the front trench and was killed by a stray bullet (button). According to another version, he became a victim of a conspiracy by the Swedish ruling circles, dissatisfied with the ruin of the country by endless wars, and was killed as a result of an assassination attempt (the circumstances of the death of the king are still the cause of fierce disputes). Charles XII became the last European monarch to fall on the battlefield. After Charles, the Swedish throne was inherited by his sister Ulrika Eleonora, but soon the throne passed to her husband Frederick (Frederick I) of Hesse-Kassel. After an unsuccessful attempt to continue the war, Fredrick I concluded the Peace of Nystadt with Russia in 1721.

Charles XII considered by most historians to be a brilliant commander, but a very bad king. Doing without alcohol and women, he felt great on the campaign and on the battlefield. According to contemporaries, he endured pain and hardship very courageously and knew how to restrain his emotions. The king led Sweden to the pinnacle of power, bringing enormous prestige to the country through his brilliant military campaigns. However, his ambitious desire for a victorious continuation of the war with Russia, which was supported by the restored anti-Swedish coalition, ultimately brought Sweden defeat and deprived it of its status as a great power.

There are more than 230 states in the world. Of these, only 41 countries have a monarchical form of government . Today, the monarchy is a very flexible and diverse system, ranging from the tribal form operating in Arab states to the monarchical version of the democratic countries of Europe. Europe ranks second in the world in terms of the number of monarchical states. There are 12 monarchies here . Monarchy is represented here in a limited form - in countries that are considered leaders in the EU ( UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg etc.), as well as the absolute form of government - in small states: Monaco, Liechtenstein, Vatican. The quality of life in these countries is different. The influence of monarchs on the governance of the country also varies.

Monarchy is not only a form of government, it is a set of certain ideas of state, spiritual and social order. Monarchy is characterized by the principles of unity of command, hereditary power and the primacy of the moral principle. In Orthodoxy, the monarch was perceived as a person sent by God to serve his people.

Now the rulers of countries, even during military operations, are in safe, warm offices, but previously monarchs were directly on the front line and took part in military operations.

This begs the question, which of the last monarchs of Europe was killed on the battlefield?

There is an answer to this question. This is King Charles the Twelfth of Sweden.

Charles the Twelfth was tenth King of Sweden And December 11, 1718 at the age of 36 he was killed on the front line during hostilities and is The last King of Europe killed on the battlefield.

In this castle of the Three Crowns, King Charles the Twelfth of Sweden was born on June 27, 1682.

Charles XII ascended the throne after the death of his father Charles XI at the age of 15.

Charles's coronation ceremony shocked his compatriots. The prince, who inherited the crown as the sole and absolute ruler of Sweden, whose power is not limited by any council or parliament, believed that his coronation should emphasize this circumstance. Charles refused to be crowned the way all Swedish kings had done before him - he did not want anyone to place a crown on his head. And in general, since he is not an elected king, but a hereditary king, the act of coronation itself is inappropriate. Swedish statesmen - both liberals and conservatives - and even his own grandmother were horrified. In vain they tried to convince Karl - he did not give in to his principled position. He agreed only to the rite of anointing by the archbishop as a sign that the monarch was God's anointed, but insisted that this ceremony should not be called coronation, but anointing to the throne. When fifteen-year-old Karl went to church, he already had a crown on his head. Lovers of all sorts of omens had something to see during this ceremony. By order of the new king, everyone present, including himself, was dressed in mourning in order to honor the memory of his deceased father: the only bright spot was Charles' purple coronation robe. A strong snowstorm that broke out before the guests arrived at the church created a contrast of white snow and black clothes. When the king, crowned with a crown, was mounting his horse, he slipped, the crown fell off, but before it touched the ground, it was picked up by a page. During the service, the archbishop dropped a vessel of myrrh. Charles refused to take the traditional royal oath, and then, at the most solemn moment, he placed the royal crown on his head .

And after 3 years he left the country for a long time, embarking on numerous military campaigns that lasted for 18 years. with the goal of finally making Sweden the dominant power in Northern Europe.

His youthfully adventurous policy gave rise to other countries to launch military operations in the Swedish Baltic in 1700. Poland with Saxony, Denmark with Norway and Russia created a coalition against Sweden on the eve of the Northern War. But 18-year-old Charles XII turned out to be more insightful than his older monarch-opponents could have predicted.

Under Charles, part of modern Latvia, together with the city of Riga, was part of Sweden, and one of the biggest enemies for Charles was the Russian Emperor Peter the Great.

November 30, 1700 18 year old Karl decisively attacked the Russian army with Field Marshal de Croix left in command by Peter I at Narva. In this stubborn battle, the Russian army was almost three times superior to the Swedish army (9-12 thousand with 37 guns for the Swedes against 32-35 thousand Russians with 184 guns). Advancing under the cover of a snowstorm, the Swedes came close to the Russian positions, stretched out in a thin line in front of the walls of Narva, and with short blows broke through them in several places. Commander de Croix and many foreign officers immediately surrendered to the Swedes. The central part of the Russian troops began a disorderly retreat to their right flank, where the only bridge across the Narova River was located. The bridge could not withstand the mass of retreating people and collapsed. On the left flank, Sheremetev's 5,000-strong cavalry, seeing the flight of other units, succumbed to general panic and rushed to swim across the river. Despite the fact that the Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky regiments standing on the right flank managed to repel the attacks of the Swedes, the infantry on the left flank also held out, the battle ended with the surrender of the Russian troops due to their complete defeat. Losses in killed, drowned in the river and wounded amounted to about 7,000 people (versus 677 killed and 1,247 wounded for the Swedes). All artillery (179 guns) was lost, 700 people were captured, including 56 officers and 10 generals. Under the terms of surrender (Russian units, except those who surrendered during the battle, were allowed to cross over to their own, but without weapons, banners and convoys), the Swedes received 20 thousand muskets and the tsar’s treasury of 32 thousand rubles, as well as 210 banners.

Then Charles XII turned his army against Poland, defeating Augustus II and his army.
Meanwhile, Peter I recaptured part of the Baltic lands from Charles and founded a new fortress, St. Petersburg, on the conquered lands. This forced Charles to make the fatal decision to capture the Russian capital of Moscow. During the campaign, he decided to lead his army to Ukraine, whose hetman, Mazepa, went over to Karl’s side, but was not supported by the bulk of the Ukrainian Cossacks.

By the time the Swedish troops approached Poltava, Charles had lost up to a third of his army. After an unsuccessful three-month siege of Poltava for the Swedes, a battle took place on June 27 (July 8), 1709, 6 versts from the city of Poltava on Russian lands (Left Bank of the Dnieper) with the main forces of the Russian army, as a result of which the Swedish army was defeated. Charles fled south to the Ottoman Empire, where he set up a camp in Bendery.

The Turks initially welcomed the Swedish king, who persuaded them to start a war with the Russians. However, the Sultan ultimately tired of Karl's ambitions, showed cunning and ordered his arrest.

In 1713, the Sultan, under pressure from Russia and the European powers, ordered the forceful removal of Charles from Bendery, during which an armed clash between the Swedes and the Janissaries took place, the so-called. “kalabalyk”, and Karl himself was wounded, losing the tip of his nose.

The situation in the kingdom itself was threatening, so Charles fled from the Ottoman Empire, spending only 15 days to cross Europe and return to Swedish-controlled Stralsund in Pomerania and then to Sweden itself. His attempts to regain lost power and influence failed ( he never visited the capital, Stockholm, thus leaving the city forever in 1700). Shortly before his death, Charles tried to end the Northern War with Russia with the Åland Congress. However, peace negotiations between Russia and Sweden were not destined to end peacefully due to assassination of the Swedish King.

Monument to Charles XII in Stockholm. The king points towards Russia.

In October 1718, Charles set out to conquer Norway. . His troops approached the walls of the well-fortified fortress of Friedrich Hall, located at the mouth of the Tistendal River, near the Denmark Strait. The army was ordered to begin a siege, but the soldiers, numb from the cold, could barely dig the frozen ground in the trenches with pickaxes.

Fredriksten Fortress (Norway), photograph from the 1890s

This is how Voltaire described further events:

« On December 1, St. Andrew's Day, at 9 o'clock in the evening, Charles went to inspect the trenches and, not finding the expected success in the work, seemed very dissatisfied.

Mefe, the French engineer who supervised the work, began to assure him that the fortress would be taken within eight days.

“We’ll see,” said the king and continued to walk around the works. Then he stopped in the corner, at the break in the trench and, resting his knees on the inner slope of the trench, leaned his elbows on the parapet, continuing to look at the working soldiers who were working in the light of the stars.

The king leaned out from behind the parapet almost to his waist, thus representing the target... At that moment there were only two Frenchmen next to him: one was his personal secretary Sigur, an intelligent and efficient person who had entered his service in Turkey and who was especially devoted; the other is Maigret, an engineer... A few steps away from them was Count Schwerin, the commander of the trench, who gave orders to Count Posse and Adjutant General Kaulbars.

Suddenly Sigur and Maigret saw the king fall on the parapet, letting out a deep sigh. They approached him, but he was already dead: a shot weighing half a pound hit him in the right temple and punched a hole into which three fingers could be inserted; his head fell back, his right eye went inside, and his left one completely jumped out of its socket …

Falling, he found the strength to naturally place his right hand on the hilt of his sword and died in this position. At the sight of the dead King, Maigret, an original and cold man, could not find anything else to do but say: “The comedy is over, let’s go to dinner.”

Sigur ran to Count Schwerin to tell him what had happened. They decided to hide the news of the king's death from the army, until the Prince of Hesse is notified. The body was wrapped in a gray cloak. Sigur put his wig and hat on the head of Charles XII so that the soldiers would not recognize the murdered king.

The Prince of Hesse immediately ordered that no one dare leave the camp, and ordered that all roads leading to Sweden be guarded. He needed time to take measures to ensure that the crown passed to his wife, and to prevent the Duke of Holstein from claiming the crown.

This is how Charles XII, King of Sweden, died at the age of 36. who experienced the greatest successes and the most cruel vicissitudes of fate...»

Funeral procession with the body of Charles XII.

In 1874, King Oscar II of Sweden came to Russia.. He visited St. Petersburg, toured the Hermitage, in Moscow he visited the Kremlin, the Armory Chamber, where he examined with undisguised interest the trophies taken by Russian soldiers at Poltava, Charles XII's bier, cocked hat and glove. The conversation, naturally, could not help but touch on this remarkable personality, and King Oscar said that he had long been interested in the mysterious and unexpected death of Charles XII, which followed on the evening of November 30, 1718, under the walls of the Norwegian city of Frederikshall. While still heir, in 1859 Oscar, together with his father, King Charles XV of Sweden, attended the opening of the sarcophagus of King Charles XII.

The sarcophagus with the coffin of Charles XII stood on a pedestal in a recess, near the altar. They carefully lifted the multi-pound stone lid and they opened the coffin.

King Charles lay in a very faded, half-decayed doublet and boots with the soles falling off. A funeral crown made of sheet gold sparkled on the head. Thanks to the constant temperature and humidity, the body was well preserved. Even the hair on the temples, once fiery red, and the skin on the face, which had darkened to an olive color, were preserved

But everyone present involuntarily shuddered when they saw a terrible through wound in the skull, covered with a cotton swab. An entrance hole was discovered on the right temple, from which deep cracks radiated like black rays (the bullet was fired from a short distance and had great destructive power). Instead of the left eye there was a huge wound into which three fingers could fit freely...

Having carefully examined the wound, Professor Fricksel, who performed the autopsy, gave his conclusion, and his words were immediately recorded in the protocol: “ His Majesty is shot in the head with a flintlock rifle»

This conclusion was sensational. The fact is that all history textbooks stated that King Charles fell, struck by a cannonball.

« But who took this tragic shot? - asked Charles XV.

« I'm afraid this is a great secret that will not be revealed soon.|It is quite possible that His Majesty’s death is the result of a carefully prepared murder... ».

Mummified remains, 1916 (the bullet hole in the head is clearly visible)

In 1917, the sarcophagus was reopened, and an authoritative commission composed of historians and criminologists took up the matter. Experimental shots were fired at the dummy, angles were measured, ballistics were calculated, and the results were carefully processed and published. But the commission was unable to come to a final conclusion. The examination showed that, being in the trench, Charles XII, due to the long distance, was practically invulnerable to rifle fire from the walls of Friedrichshall. But the conditions were ideal for an ambush. When Karl appeared at the break in the trench and, leaning out from behind the parapet, looked at the walls of the fortress, he was perfectly visible against the background of white snow. Firing an aimed shot at such a target was not particularly difficult. Shot by an excellent sniper: The bullet hit right in the temple.

King Charles had many enemies. But it is still not known who killed King Charles the Twelfth . Versions have long been discussed that the king could have been killed by English agents or Swedes - oppositionists , supporters of the Prince of Hesse Most likely, the second - after all, after the death of Karl, the “Hessian party” gained the upper hand in the internal political struggle and the protege of the “Hessians,” Karl’s younger sister Ulrika Eleonora, ascended the throne.

There was no official investigation into Karl's death. The people of Sweden were told that they the king is killed by a cannonball, and the absence of his left eye and a huge wound on his head did not raise much doubt about this.

Charles XII is considered by most historians to be a brilliant commander, but a very bad king . Without alcohol and women , he felt great on the campaign and on the battlefield. According to contemporaries, he endured pain and hardship very courageously, and knew how to restrain his emotions. The king led Sweden to the pinnacle of power, bringing enormous prestige to the country through his brilliant military campaigns. However, his ambitious desire for a victorious continuation of the war with Russia, which was supported by the restored anti-Swedish coalition, ultimately brought Sweden defeat and deprived it of its status as a great power.

The Swedish King was buried February 26, 1719, in Riddarholm Church, Stockholm to which he returned dead 19 years after leaving the Swedish capital. All his life with the King his motto was:Med Guds hjälp (God willing )

Church located on the island of Riddarholmen, next to the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden. The only surviving medieval monastery church in Stockholm. Tomb of the Swedish monarchs. The tradition of burying monarchs on Riddarholmen continued until 1950. The church is currently used only for funerals and memorial services.

The king never married, and therefore he had no children. .

In 2009, Sweden, as a gift in memory of the 300th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava, wanted to give the city of Poltava a monument to Charles the Twelfth, but the city government of Poltava did not accept this gift. However, in Ukraine there is a monument to Karl, it is located in the Chernigov region on the top of a hill in the village of Degtyarivka. Installed in 2008on the initiative of the Chairman of the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting Vitaly Shevchenko. This is a joint monument to Charles 12 and Mazepa.
On October 30, 1708, a historical meeting between Hetman of Ukraine Ivan Mazepa and King of Sweden Carl XII Gustav took place in the village., where the decision was made to form a military-political alliance and joint actions against Tsar Peter I with the goal of creating an independent Ukrainian state.

Autograph of King Charles the Twelfth

One of the most controversial monarchs of Scandinavia was the Swedish king Charles 12. During his reign, the conquests of this Scandinavian country reached their maximum limits, but under him, due to defeat in the war, the end of the Swedish great power came. Was Charles 12, the Swedish king, one of the nation's greatest heroes or a failure? The biography of this monarch will allow us to understand this issue.

Childhood

What kind of person was this - the Swedish king Charles 12? The short biography of this monarch, as expected, begins with the birth of the crowned person. This will be the starting point of our story.

So, the future Charles 12 was born in June 1682 in the capital city of Stockholm. His father was the Swedish monarch Charles 11 of the Palatinate-Zweibrücken dynasty, and his mother was Ulrika Eleonora, daughter of Frederick 3.

Charles 12 received a very good education for those times, as evidenced by the fact that this husband spoke several languages.

Ascension to the throne

He died quite early, at the age of 41, when his son was only 14 years old. From now on, Charles 12 is the Swedish king. He was crowned immediately after the death of his parent in March 1697.

Despite his father's wishes and his immature age, Charles 12 insisted on recognizing him as an adult and refused to introduce a regency.

First military campaign

From the first years of his reign, Charles 12, the Swedish king, became involved in various military campaigns. The biography of this ruler consists almost entirely of descriptions of his campaigns. In such vigorous activity, youthful maximalism played an important role.

Charles 12 knew that he would have to confront the coalition of Russia, Denmark and Poland, but, nevertheless, he was not afraid to enter into confrontation with these countries. He directed his first blow against Denmark in 1700. Thus began the great Northern War.

The pretext for hostilities was the attack of Charles 12th's cousin, King Frederick of Denmark, on the ally of the Swedish monarch Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp. Taking with him a relatively small military contingent, Charles 12 made a lightning landing in the capital of his rival - the city of Copenhagen. The decisiveness and speed of action of the Swedish king forced the Danish monarch to ask for peace, who did not expect such agility from young Charles.

The fact of Denmark's surrender caused acute displeasure among its allies - the Polish king Augustus 2, who was also the Elector of Saxony, and the Russian Tsar Peter 1, later nicknamed the Great.

War in the Baltics

Already in February 1700, the Saxon troops of Augustus II besieged Swedish cities in the Baltic states. Soon the most powerful of the representatives of the anti-Swedish coalition, Peter 1, joined the fighting.

Russian troops besieged the Baltic cities of Narva and Ivangorod, which belonged to Sweden. In this situation, Charles 12 again demonstrated his determination and quick thinking. At the head of the expeditionary force, which had previously triumphed over Denmark, he landed in the Baltic states. Despite the fact that the forces of the Russian army under the command of Field Marshal de Croix were three times larger than the Swedish army, Karl was not afraid to give a decisive battle. His audacity was rewarded, as Sweden triumphed in complete victory. The Russian army suffered significant numerical and material losses, in particular, it lost all its artillery.

Control of the Baltics was restored by Charles 12th.

War with Poland

The next rival of Charles 12, who needed to be dealt with, was the Polish king and at the same time the Saxon elector Augustus 2.

It must be said that Augustus II could completely rely only on his Saxon army. In Poland he was a stranger invited to the throne. In addition, the political system of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth provided for the absence of strict centralized control and significant freedoms for the gentry, which made the royal power rather weak. Not to mention the fact that in Poland there was an opposition against Augustus 2, ready to support Charles 12. The leading role in it was played by the tycoon Stanislav Leszczynski.

The Swedish king Charles 12 invaded Poland in 1702. At the Battle of Kliszow, he defeated Augustus II, despite the fact that his army was half the size of the enemy army. The Swedes captured all enemy artillery.

In 1704, representatives of the Polish gentry, who supported Charles 12, deposed Augustus 2 and proclaimed him king. King Stanisław was able to establish actual control over the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the support of the Swedish monarch in 1706. This happened after Charles 12 finally defeated Augustus 2 and forced the latter to conclude the Peace of Altranstedt, according to which he renounced the Polish throne, but retained the Electorate of Saxony.

Trek to Russia

Thus, by the end of 1706, of the entire coalition of countries opposing Sweden, only Russia remained in service. But her fate, too, seemed to be sealed. Charles's army won victories over the Russians, while simultaneously opposing other states. Now, when Peter 1 lost his allies, only a miracle could save the Russian kingdom from complete surrender.

Nevertheless, while the Swedish king Charles 12 was busy with Polish affairs, Peter 1 managed to recapture a number of Baltic cities from him and even found his new capital in that area - St. Petersburg. Naturally, this state of affairs displeased the Scandinavian monarch. He decided to finish off the enemy with one blow, capturing Moscow.

As during the war with Poland, before the invasion, Charles 12 found allies. These were the Little Russian hetman Ivan Mazepa and the Cossack foreman, dissatisfied with the restriction of their freedoms by the tsarist regime. It was Mazepa’s support that played a primary role in Karl’s decision to move to Moscow through Little Russia. Until the last moment, Peter 1 did not believe in this conspiracy, since he was quite loyal to the Cossack hetman, although the fact of the agreement between the Swedish king and Mazepa was reported to him more than once. In addition, the Ottoman Empire, which at that time was in a state of war with the Russian state, was supposed to be an ally of Charles 12.

In the fall of 1708, the troops of Charles 12 entered the territory of the Russian Empire, which was soon to become the Russian Empire. The Swedish king headed to Little Russia, and General Levenhaupt was moving from the Baltic to help him. In September 1708, he was defeated by Russian troops near Lesnaya, without having time to unite with his sovereign.

Battle of Poltava

Charles 12 (Swedish king) and Peter 1 met in 1709 in the battle of Poltava, which the Scandinavian monarch had been besieging for several months. This was actually the decisive battle not only of the purely Russian campaign, but of the entire Northern War. The battle was brutal, and the scales tipped first one way or the other. Finally, thanks to the genius of Peter 1, the Swedes were completely defeated. They lost almost 10 thousand people killed and wounded, and more than 2.5 thousand people were captured.

Charles 12 himself was wounded and barely escaped with his loyal people, leaving most of the army to the mercy of fate. After this, the remnants capitulated at Perevolochna. Thus, the number of captured Swedes increased by 10-15 thousand people.

For Russia, the battle in which the Swedish king Charles 12 was crushed became significant. A photo of the church built in memory of this glorious event at the site of the battle is posted above.

Causes of defeat

But why did Charles 12, the Swedish king, lose the battle? The years of this monarch's reign were marked by glorious victories and in more difficult conditions. Is it really all about the genius of Peter 1?

Of course, the military talent of the Russian sovereign played a significant role in the victory over the Swedes, but there were other significant factors. The Russian army outnumbered the Swedish one by a factor of two or more. Karl, on whose help he so counted, could not convince most of the Cossacks to go over to the side of the Swedish monarch. In addition, the Turks were in no hurry to help.

A significant role in Karl’s defeat was played by the fact that the transition through Russian territory was not at all easy for him. His army suffered major non-combat losses due to the severity of the campaign. In addition, she was constantly torn apart by irregular Russian cavalry, attacking in swoops and hiding. Thus, the total losses of the Swedish army by the time it approached Poltava amounted to almost a third of the army. After this, the Swedes kept Poltava under siege for about three months. The Russian forces not only outnumbered the Swedes twice, but were also relatively fresh, in contrast to the battered enemy army.

We should also not forget that although Charles 12 was already a famous commander at the time of the battle, he was nevertheless only 27 years old, and youth is a frequent accompaniment of fatal mistakes.

Sitting in Bendery

The rest of Charles 12's life was a series of defeats and failures. The Battle of Poltava became a kind of Rubicon between the years of glory and humiliation. After a terrible defeat from Peter 1, Charles 12 fled to the possessions of his ally, the Turkish Sultan. The Swedish monarch stayed in the city of Bendery, in the territory of modern Transnistria.

Having lost his entire army, the king of Sweden was forced to fight against Russia using diplomatic methods. He persuaded the Turkish Sultan to start a war with the Russian kingdom. In 1711 his attempts were finally crowned with success. Another war began between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Its results were disappointing for Peter 1: he was almost captured and lost part of his possessions. But Charles 12 did not gain anything from this victory. Moreover, according to the peace concluded in 1713 between the Ottoman Empire and Russia, the Swedish king was forcibly expelled from the Turkish possessions by the Sultan. There was even a skirmish with the Janissaries, during which Charles was wounded.

Thus ended the four-year period of the Swedish king's stay in Bendery. During this time, his empire noticeably decreased in size. Territories were lost in Finland, the Baltic states, and Germany. The longtime enemy of Charles 12, Augustus 2, reigned in Poland again.

Return to Homeland

In twelve days, Charles 12 crossed the whole of Europe and reached the city of Stralsund, a Swedish possession on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea. He was just being besieged by the Danes. Charles tried to defend the city with a small contingent of troops, but was unsuccessful. After that, he moved to Sweden in order to maintain his possessions at least in Scandinavia.

Charles continued active hostilities in Norway, which was part of the Danish crown. At the same time, understanding the complexity of his situation, he tried to conclude a peace treaty with Russia.

Death

According to the official version, Charles 12 was killed in 1718 in Norway by a stray bullet while fighting against the Danes. It happened near the Fredriksten fortress.

According to another version, his death occurred as a result of a conspiracy by the Swedish aristocracy, which was dissatisfied with the king’s failed foreign policy.

The question of at whose hands the Swedish king Charles 12 died remains a mystery. The years of life of this monarch were from 1682 to 1718. Death overtook Charles at the age of 36.

General characteristics

The Swedish king Charles 12 lived a glorious, eventful, but short life. The biography, history of his campaigns and death were discussed by us in this review. Most historians agree that Charles 12 was an excellent commander who knew how to win battles with fewer warriors than the enemy. At the same time, his weakness as a statesman is noted. Charles 12 was unable to ensure the future prosperity of Sweden. Already during his lifetime, the previously powerful empire began to fall apart.

But, of course, Charles 12 is one of the most prominent personalities in Swedish history.

King Charles XII of Sweden (1697-1718) was born on June 17, 1682. Son of the Swedish King Charles XI and Queen Ulrika Eleonora, Princess of Denmark. He received a good classical education and spoke several foreign languages. After the death of Charles XI in April 1697, young Charles, who was less than 15 years old, contrary to his father’s dying will, insisted on recognizing him as an adult and took power into his own hands.

Sweden during this period was opposed by the triple alliance of Denmark, Poland and Russia.

Charles then transferred his troops to the Baltic provinces, where Russian troops were besieging Narva. On November 19, 1700, near Narva, Charles won a victory over superior Russian forces. The battle and victory near this city brought Charles XII the European glory of a great commander.

Charles spent the years from 1702 to 1707 in Poland, where he got pretty stuck, losing time and initiative, while he tirelessly increased the power of the Russian state. Charles managed to place Stanislaw Leszczynski on the Polish throne, forcing Augustus II to renounce all claims in accordance with the terms of the peace treaty concluded in September 1706 at Altranstadt.

After a series of victories in Poland and Saxony, the rested army of Charles XII invaded Russian territory in the spring of 1708. He intended to defeat the Russian army in one battle, capture Moscow and force Peter I to conclude a profitable peace. Avoiding a general battle, the Russian army retreated to the east, with the goal of “tormenting the enemy” with attacks by small detachments and the destruction of provisions and fodder.

Having met fierce resistance, Karl turned to Ukraine, counting on the support of Hetman Mazepa. Here military luck changed for Charles XII, who underestimated his enemy. After the defeat of Levengaupt’s corps coming from the Baltic states near the village of Lesnaya in September 1708, the main army of Charles XII found itself in a difficult situation, since together with Mazepa a small part of the Ukrainian Cossacks went over to the side of the Swedes, and there was no uprising by Turkey and Crimea against Russia.

At that time, Peter was ready to conclude a peace treaty with Sweden, but Charles decided to continue the war until complete victory in order to completely cut off Russia from maritime trade routes. During the Northern War, on July 8, 1709, the famous Battle of Poltava took place, where the main forces of Russian and Swedish troops met. The battle ended with a convincing victory for the Russian army. The king was wounded and fled to Turkey with a small detachment. The military power of the Swedes was undermined, the glory of the invincibility of Charles XII was dispelled. The Poltava victory determined the outcome of the Northern War.

After six years in Turkey, the king returned to his homeland in 1715. Charles spent the last years of his life preparing to repel the expected attacks from Denmark and Russia in 1716, as well as invading Norway twice. During this period, he carried out a number of internal reforms aimed at mobilizing forces for war. During the last campaign on December 11, 1718, Karl was killed by a shot from a falconet during the siege of Fort Frederikshall (now Halden). The circumstances of the king's death are still unclear and are the cause of controversy among historians.

When news of the death of Charles XII reached the capital of Russia, Peter I declared mourning in St. Petersburg for one of his most dangerous and courageous opponents.

In the fall of 1718, the Swedish king Charles XII led his army against the Danes. The offensive was carried out towards the city of Fredrikshald, an important strategic point of defense for all of Southern Norway. Norway and Denmark at that time were a personal union (that is, a union of two independent and independent states with one head).

But the approaches to Fredrikshald were covered by the mountain castle Fredriksten, a powerful fortress with several external fortifications. The Swedes came to the walls of Fredriksten on November 1, trapping a garrison of 1,400 soldiers and officers in a siege. Captivated by military fervor, the king personally supervised all siege operations. During the assault on the outer castle fortification of Gyllenløve, which began on December 7, His Majesty himself led two hundred grenadiers into battle and fought in desperate hand-to-hand combat until all the defenders of the redoubt lay dead. There were less than 700 steps left from the frontline trenches of the Swedes to the walls of Fredriksten. Three large-caliber Swedish siege batteries, each with six guns, methodically bombarded the castle from different positions. Staff officers assured Charles that there was a week left before the fall of the fortress. Nevertheless, sapping work on the front line continued, despite the continuous shelling of the Danes. As always, disregarding danger, the monarch did not leave the battlefield, day or night. On the night of December 18, Karl wished to personally inspect the progress of the excavation work. He was accompanied by his personal adjutant, the Italian Captain Marchetti, General Knut Posse, Cavalry Major General von Schwerin, engineer captain Schultz, lieutenant engineer Karlberg, as well as a team of foreign military engineers - two Germans and four French. In the trenches, the king's retinue was joined by a French officer, adjutant and personal secretary of Generalissimo Frederick of Hesse-Kassel, the husband of His Majesty's sister, Princess Ulrika-Eleanor. His name was Andre Sicre, and there was no obvious reason for him to be present at that hour and in that place.

At about nine o'clock in the evening, Karl once again climbed onto the parapet and, with the flashes of flares launched from the castle, inspected the progress of the work through a telescope. In the trench next to him stood the French colonel engineer Maigret, to whom the king gave orders. After another remark, the king fell silent for a long time. The pause was too long even for His Majesty, who was not known for his verbosity. When the officers called out to him from the trench, Karl did not respond. Then the adjutants climbed onto the parapet and, in the light of another Danish rocket launched into the night sky, saw that the king was lying face down, with his nose buried in the ground. When they turned him over and examined him, it turned out that Charles XII was dead - he had been shot in the head.

The body of the deceased monarch was taken out on a stretcher from the forward positions and taken to the main headquarters tent, handing it over to the life physician and personal friend of the deceased, Dr. Melchior Neumann, who began to prepare everything necessary for embalming.

The very next day, the military council meeting in the Swedish camp, in connection with the death of the king, decided to lift the siege and stop this campaign altogether. Due to the hasty retreat, as well as the fuss associated with the change of government, no hot investigation into the death of Charles XII was carried out. There was not even an official report drawn up on the circumstances of his death. All those involved in this story were completely satisfied with the version according to which the king’s head was hit by buckshot the size of a pigeon’s egg, fired into the Swedes’ trenches from a fortress cannon. Thus, the main culprit in the death of Charles XII was declared to be a military accident, sparing neither kings nor commoners.

However, in addition to the official version, almost immediately after the death of Charles, another one arose - the German archivist Friedrich Ernst von Fabrice writes about this in his work “The True History of the Life of Charles XII,” published in 1759 in Hamburg. Many of the king's comrades assumed that he was killed by conspirators near Fredriksten. This suspicion was not born out of nowhere: in the royal army there were enough people who wanted to send Charles to his forefathers.

The Last Conquistador

In 1700, the king went to war with Russia and spent almost 14 years in a foreign land. After his military luck failed him near Poltava, he took refuge in the possessions of the Turkish Sultan. He ruled his kingdom from a camp near the village of Varnitsa near the Moldovan city of Bendery, driving couriers to Stockholm across the entire continent. The king dreamed of military revenge and intrigued in every possible way at the Sultan's court, trying to start a war with the Russians. Over time, the government of the Ottoman Empire became pretty tired of him and he received delicate offers to go home several times.

In the end he was placed with great honor in a castle near Adrianople, where he was given complete freedom. This was a cunning tactic - Karl was not forced to leave, but simply deprived of his ability to act (couriers were not allowed through). The calculation turned out to be accurate - after lying on the sofas for three months, the restless king, prone to impulsive actions, announced his desire to no longer burden the Sublime Porte with his presence and ordered the courtiers to get ready for the journey. By the autumn of 1714, everything was ready, and the caravan of Swedes, accompanied by an honorary Turkish escort, set off on a long journey.

On the border with Transylvania, the king released the Turkish convoy and announced to his subjects that he would travel further, accompanied by only one officer. Having ordered the convoy to go to Stralsund - a fortress in Swedish Pomerania - and to be there no later than a month later, Karl, with forged documents in the name of Captain Frisk, crossed Transylvania, Hungary, Austria, Bavaria, passed Württemberg, Hesse, Frankfurt and Hanover, reaching to Stralsund in two weeks.

The king had reasons to hurry with his return. While he was enjoying military adventures and political intrigue in distant lands, things were going very badly in his own kingdom. On the lands conquered from the Swedes at the mouth of the Neva, the Russians managed to found a new capital, in the Baltic states they took Revel and Riga, in Finland the Russian flag flew over Kexholm, Vyborg, Helsingfors and Turku. The allies of Emperor Peter crushed the Swedes in Pomerania, Bremen, Stetten, Hanover and Brandenburg fell under their onslaught. Soon after his return, Stralsund also fell, which the king left under enemy artillery fire on a small rowing boat, escaping capture.

The Swedish economy was completely ruined, but all the talk that the continuation of the war would turn into a complete economic disaster did not frighten the knight king at all, who believed that if he himself was content with one uniform and one change of linen, fed from a soldier’s cauldron, then his subjects could wait until he defeats all the enemies of the kingdom and the Lutheran faith. Von Fabrice writes that in Stralsund, the former Holstein minister, Baron Georg von Goertz, who was seeking service, introduced himself to the king, who promised the king a solution to all financial and political problems. Having received carte blanche from the king, Mr. Goertz quickly pulled off a scam reform, equating the silver Swedish daler by decree with a copper coin called “notdaler”. The head of Hermes was minted on the reverse of the notdalers, and the Swedes called him “the god of Hertz,” and the coppers themselves “the money of need.” 20 million of these unbacked coins were minted, which aggravated the economic crisis of the kingdom, but still made it possible to prepare for a new military campaign.

By order of Charles, the regiments were replenished with recruits, guns were cast again, fodder and food supplies were made, and headquarters developed plans for new campaigns. Everyone knew that the king would still not agree to end the war, if only out of simple stubbornness, for which he had been famous since childhood. However, opponents of the war also did not intend to sit idly by. The king placed his headquarters in Lund, declaring that he would return to the capital of the kingdom only as a winner, and news came from Stockholm, one more alarming than the other. In 1714, when the king was still “visiting” the Sultan, the Swedish nobility assembled the Riksdag, which decided to persuade the monarch to seek peace. Karl ignored this decree and did not make peace, but he and his supporters had an opposition - an aristocratic party, the head of which was considered the Hessian Duke Friedrich, who in 1715 was legally married to Princess Ulrika-Eleanor, Karl’s only sister and heir to the Swedish throne. Members of this organization became the first suspects in preparing the murder of their crowned relative.

Revelations of Baron Kronstedt

The death of Charles brought Ulrike-Eleanor, the wife of Frederick of Hesse-Kassel, the royal crown, and as Roman jurists taught, Is fecit cui prodest - “It was done by the one who benefits.” In the spring of 1718, before setting off on a Norwegian campaign, Duke Frederick instructed the court councilor Hein to draw up a special memorandum for Ulrika-Eleanor, which described in detail her actions in the event that King Charles died and her husband was absent at that time in the capital. And the mysterious appearance at the scene of the murder of the king of the adjutant of Prince Frederick, Andre Sicre, whom close officers initially believed to be the direct executor of the order of the conspirators, looks completely ominous.

However, if desired, these facts can be interpreted in a completely different way. The drafting of the memorandum for Ulrika-Eleanor is fully explained by the fact that her husband and brother were not going to a ball, but to a war, where anything could happen. Realizing that his wife, not distinguished by any special abilities, would most likely become confused in a crisis situation, Friedrich could well be concerned with the issue of safety net. Mr. Adjutant Sikr turned out to have a solid alibi: on the night of the death of Charles XII, there were several other people in the trench next to Sikr, who showed that none of those present fired. In addition, Sikra stood so close to the king that if he had shot, traces of gunpowder would certainly have remained in the wound and around it - but there were none.

Foreigners from the king's retinue also came under suspicion. As the German historian Knut Lundblad writes in the book “The History of Charles XII,” published in 1835 in Kristianstad, they were ready to write down the engineer Maigret as the murderer of the Swedish king, who allegedly could take sin on his soul in the name of the interests of the French crown. As a matter of fact, everyone who was in the trench that night was suspected in turn, but no reliable evidence was found against anyone. However, rumors that King Charles was killed by conspirators continued for many years, thereby casting doubt on the legitimacy of Charles's successors on the Swedish throne. Unable to refute this rumor in any other way, the authorities, 28 years after the death of Charles XII, announced the beginning of an official investigation into the murder.

In 1746, by order of the highest order, the crypt in the Riddarholm Church in Stockholm, where the remains of the king rested, was opened, and the corpse was subjected to detailed examination. At one time, the conscientious Doctor Neumann embalmed Karl's body so thoroughly that decay almost did not touch him. The wound on the head of the late king was carefully examined, and experts - doctors and military - came to the conclusion that it was not left by round cannon shot, as previously thought, but by a conical rifle bullet fired from the direction of the fortress.

Calculations, writes Lundblad, showed that the bullet would have reached the place of Karl’s death from where the enemy could have shot at him, but its destructive force was no longer enough to pierce through the head, knocking out the temple, as was discovered during the examination. Fired from a nearby Danish position, the bullet would have remained in the skull or even lodged in the wound itself. This means that someone shot the king from a much closer distance. But who?

Four years later, says Lundblad, in December 1750, the pastor of the Stockholm Church of St. Jacob, the famous preacher Tolstadius, was urgently called to the bedside of the dying Major General Baron Karl Kronstedt, who asked to accept his last confession. Clutching the pastor's hand, Monsieur Baron begged him to immediately go to Colonel Stierneros and demand from him in the name of the Lord a confession of the same thing that he himself, tormented by pangs of conscience, was going to repent of: they were both guilty of the death of the king of the Swedes.

General Kronstedt was in charge of fire training in the Swedish army and was known as the inventor of high-speed shooting methods. A brilliant marksman himself, the baron trained many officers who today would be called snipers. One of his students was Magnus Stierneros, who was promoted to lieutenant in 1705. Two years later, the young officer was enlisted in the detachment of drabants - the personal bodyguards of King Charles. Together with them, he went through all the troubles that abounded in the biography of the warlike monarch. What the general said on his deathbed was completely at odds with the reputation of a loyal and valiant servant that Stierneros enjoyed. However, fulfilling the will of the dying man, the pastor went to the colonel’s house and conveyed to him Kronstedt’s words. As one would expect, Mr. Colonel only expressed regret that his good friend and teacher, before his death, fell into madness, began to talk, and in his delirium spewed sheer nonsense. Having heard this answer from Stierneros, conveyed to him by the pastor, Monsieur Baron again sent Tolstadius to him, ordering him to say: “So that the colonel does not think that I am talking, tell him that he made “this” from the carbine hanging third on the weapon wall of his office.” . The baron's second message infuriated Stierneros, and he kicked the respected pastor out. Bound by the secret of confession, the Monk Tolstadius remained silent, fulfilling his priestly duty in an exemplary manner.

Only after his death in 1759, among the papers of Tolstadius, they discovered a summary of the story of General Kronstedt, from which it followed that, on behalf of the conspirators, he selected the shooter, offering this role to Magnus Stierneros. Secretly, unnoticed by anyone, the general made his way into the trenches following the king's retinue. Drabant Stierneros followed at this time as part of a team of bodyguards who accompanied Charles everywhere. In the nighttime confusion of the intertwining trenches, Stierneros quietly broke away from the general group, and the baron himself loaded the carbine and handed it to his student with the words: “Now it’s time to get down to business!”

The lieutenant got out of the trench and took a position between the castle and the advanced fortifications of the Swedes. After waiting for the moment when the king rose above the parapet up to his waist and was well illuminated by another rocket fired from the fortress, the lieutenant shot Charles in the head, and then managed to return to the Swedish trenches unnoticed. Later, he received 500 gold rewards for this murder.

After the death of the king, the Swedes lifted the siege from the castle, and the generals divided the military treasury, which consisted of 100,000 dalers. Von Fabrice writes that the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp received six thousand, field marshals Renskold and Mörner took twelve, some received four, some three. All major generals were given 800 dalers, senior officers - 600. Kronstedt received 4,000 dalers “for special merits.” The general claimed that he himself gave Magnus Stierneros 500 coins from the amount that was due to him.

The evidence recorded by Tolstadius is accepted by many as a correct indication of the perpetrators of the assassination attempt, but it did not in any way affect the career of Stierneros, who rose to the rank of cavalry general. The recording of the late pastor outlining the contents of Baron Kronstedt's dying confession was not enough for an official accusation.

Click to enlarge

Siege of Fredrikshald, during which Charles XII died

1. Fort Gyllenløve, taken by the Swedes on December 8, 1718
2, 3, 4. Swedish siege artillery and its firing sectors
5. Swedish trenches built during the siege of Gyllenløve
6. The house where Charles XII lived after the capture of the fort
7. New Swedish assault trench
8. Front assault trench and the place where Charles XII was killed on December 17
9 Fredriksten Fortress
10, 11, 12. Sectors of fire of the Danish fortress artillery and artillery of auxiliary forts
13, 14, 15 Swedish troops blocking the Danish retreat routes
16 Swedes camp

Fortress rifle

Already at the end of the eighteenth century, in 1789, the Swedish king Gustav III, in a conversation with the French envoy, confidently named Cronstedt and Stierneros as the direct perpetrators of the murder of Charles XII. In his opinion, the English king George I acted as an interested party in this incident. Towards the end of the Northern War (1700–1721), a complex multi-step intrigue began, in which Charles XII and his army played an important role. There was an agreement, Lundblad writes, between the Swedish king and the supporters of the son of King James II, who was claiming the English throne, according to which, after the capture of Fredriksten, a Swedish expeditionary force of 20,000 bayonets was to set off from the coast of Norway to the British Isles to support the Jacobites (Catholics, supporters of James . - Ed.), who fought with the army of the reigning George I. Baron Goertz, whom Karl completely trusted, agreed with the plan. Mister Baron was looking for money for the king, and the English Jacobites promised to pay well for Swedish support.

But even here there is reason to doubt. Secret correspondence between the Swedes and Jacobites was intercepted, and the fleet intended to transport the Swedish army to the English theater of operations was destroyed by the Danes. After this, if there was still a threat of the Swedes entering into the English civil strife, it was perhaps speculative, which did not require an immediate attempt on the life of Charles XII. Lundblad says that the contradictory and unproven evidence of Charles XII's death at the hands of the conspirators has led some scholars to suggest that the king's death was the result of an accident. He was hit by a stray bullet. Researchers cite practical experience and accurate calculations as arguments. In particular, they claim that the king was hit in the head by a bullet fired from a so-called serf gun. It was a type of handgun, of greater power and caliber than ordinary handguns. They were fired from a stationary stand, and they fired further than ordinary infantry rifles, giving the besieged the opportunity to fire at the besiegers at the distant approaches to the fortifications.

The Swedish doctor, Dr. Nyström, one of the researchers interested in the history of Karl’s death, decided in 1907 to check the version with a shot from a fortress gun. He himself was a staunch supporter of the version of the atrocity of the conspirators and believed that a targeted shot at the required distance from the fortress to the trench was impossible in those days. Having a scientific mindset, the doctor was going to experimentally prove the fallacy of his opponents' statements. By his order, an exact copy of a serf gun from the early 18th century was made. This weapon was loaded with gunpowder - an analogue of that used at the siege of Fredrikshald, and exactly the same bullets as those used at the beginning of the 18th century.

Everything was reproduced down to the smallest detail. At the place where Charles XII was found dead, a target was installed, at which Nyström himself fired 24 bullets from the castle wall from a reconstructed fortress gun. The result of the experiment was amazing: 23 bullets hit the target, entering it horizontally, piercing right through the target! Thus, proving the impossibility of this scenario, the doctor confirmed its full possibility.

The colorful life of King Charles is a treasure trove of stories for novelists and film screenwriters. But nothing has been established for sure yet.