Saxon Cities in the Great Northern War (1700–1717)

Chapter 3 Saxon Cities in the Great Northern War (1700–1717) Alexander Querengässer To Anglo-Saxon scholars, The Great Northern War is often seen as an epic clash between the young warrior king, Charles XII of Sweden, and the reform- ing Czar, Peter the Great of Russia. While this is what it eventually became, it began as an ambitious attempt by Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, to regain Polish lands lost to Sweden in the previous century. Had he succeeded, he might have strengthened his position in Poland, bound his two countries closer together, and established a major new power in east- ern Europe. Augustus started the war in February 1700 with a surprise attack on Swedish-held Riga. It failed, setting the pattern for the nearly twenty years of warfare that followed. At the commencement of the struggle, Augustus’ pres- tige was at least equal to, and probably greater than that of his Danish and Russian allies, but by the end of it he was very much the junior partner of Peter the Great and held the crown of Poland at the Czar’s pleasure.1 For the most part, Augustus’ war was fought in Poland and Pommerania, far from his ancestral lands in Saxony. Nevertheless it was the Electorate of Saxony that enabled him to maintain his war effort. It was the Saxon army, not the Polish, which fought the decisive battles and this army was raised and nur- tured in the Electorate and received its supplies and equipment from Upper Saxony.2 The Saxon cities were the backbone of the elector-king’s military machine. They provided accommodation for thousands of his troops and the * The author wishes to thank Mr. Richard O’Sullivan for his help with the article. 1 The best account the Northern Wars available in English is that by Robert I. Frost, The Northern Wars: War, State and Society in Northeastern Europe, 1558–1721 (Edinburgh: Routledge 2000). Also helpful is the recently published Steve Kling, ed. Great Northern War Compendium. A Special Collection of Articles by International Authors on the Great Northern War. 2 Volumes (St. Louis: LLC dba THGC Publishing 2015). 2 The author wrote his dissertation on the Saxon military in the Great Northern War. It will be published as: Alexander Querengässer, Das kursächsische Militär im Großen Nordischen Krieg 1700–1717 (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2019). For the moment, see Alexander Querengässer, Die Armee Augusts des Starken im Nordischen Krieg (Berlin: Zeughaus Verlag 2013). An abridged version can be found in Alexander Querengässer, “The Saxon Army in the Great Northern War,” in Great Northern War Compendium. A Special Collection of Articles by International Authors on the Great Northern War. Volume 1, ed. Steve Kling, (St. Louis: LLC dba THGC Publishing 2015), 245-254. © Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2020 | doi:10.30965/9783657702787_004 46 Alexander Querengässer means by which they could be clothed and fed. As we shall see, they were the mainspring of Augustus’ ambitions.3 German scholarship has not yet fully examined the importance of city econ- omies for the maintenance of the miles perpetuus in the late 17th and early 18th century. While military historians have at least started to examine the bil- letings system, urban historians show no real interest in the military aspects of their respective communes. The early modern age was a unique period in warfare. Urban civilian society was much more integrated into the military than today. The following chapter illustrates the pivotal role Saxon cities had in the maintenance of Augustus’ forces during the Great Northern War. It examines how military functions later handled by the state or private contractors, in- cluding garrisoning, guarding of POWs, defense, social care system, as well as uniform and weapon production were fulfilled in cities and their citizens in varying capacities. Cities were in this sense a necessary component of the war itself. Saxony was a densly urbanized country, and for the Saxon army, these cities served as fortresses or at least fortified places, prisons, sources for credit, centers of defense production, recruiting areas, garrisons, barracks and even as early modern safe havens for invalid soldiers. An Urbanized Country Saxony was one of the most densely urbanized places in Europe. Since medieval times, its ruling dynasty, the Wettins, had encouraged the foundation of towns, as had most of the small princes of the region. The foundation of towns had played as vital a part in the colonisation of the area as the erection of castles and monasteries had in other German territories.4 This explains why 3 Most of the primary source information used in this article comes from the Hauptstaatsarchiv (Main State Archive) in Dresden and the city archives of Dresden and Leipzig. In many cases these sources have already been quoted in previous articles by the author and the latter are referred to in these notes as they are more accessible to readers from outside Germany. Alexander Querengässer, “‘Was nur immer die Kräffte und Vermögen des armen Landes tragen kann’. Das Kurfürstentum Sachsen und der Nordische Krieg 1700–1717,” Neues Lausitzisches Magazin 137 (2015), 49-80; “Von der Landesdefension zu den Kreisregimentern: Das kursächsische Milizwesen im Großen Nordischen Krieg 1700 bis 1716,” Zeitschrift für Heereskunde 459 (2016), 2-8; “Leipzig und der Große Nordische Krieg 1700 bis 1721,” Jahrbuch Leipziger Stadtgeschichte (2015), 67-106. 4 Alexander Querengässer, “Stadtgründungen der Wettiner in der Mark Meißen im Mittelalter,” in Města ve středověku a raném novověku jako. badatelské téma posledních dvou desetiletí (Cities in the Medieval Ages and in Earky Modern Times as Research Topic within the Last .

Load more