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It was
not until 1681 when Saxony created a standing army, but this had already
reached the respectable size of over 18,000 men when it started the
Great Northern War in 1700 with an attack against the Swedish city of Riga.
It would then expand to about 30,000 at the end of the war. It was an army
which enjoyed a good reputation and its regiments were
highly sought after by great powers in need for auxiliary troops in their
wars. Saxony had participated in the Great Turkish War (1683-1699) and its
ambitious elector Augustus the Strong had even become commander of
the Imperial forces in 1695 by sending 8,000 Saxon troops as auxiliaries to
the Holy Roman Emperor. The following year this force was increased to 12,000 men.
But in contrast to the quality of his soldiers, Augustus the Strong was a
mediocre commander and had no luck in the battles against the Turks. It was
to the relief of the Emperor that he in 1697 left his position as commander and
instead turned his eyes to the Baltic. Saxony would however continue to
raise revenue by hiring out auxiliary troops to the Emperor and later also
to Holland and Great Britain. This occurred during the War of the Spanish
Succession (1701-1713) even though Saxony had their hands full fighting their
own war against Sweden.
It was
with support from the Emperor and Russia that Augustus the Strong was
elected king of Poland in 1697. Based from this country he intended to use
his battle hardened Saxon army to conquer the Swedish provinces in the
Baltic (even though Poland itself remained neutral). The war was supposed to
be fought on three fronts as Saxony had signed alliances with Denmark and
Russia before they launched their surprise attack on Riga. The attack failed
however and Augustus' allies fared even worse. Augustus was then unfortunate
to be the primary focus of the Swedish war effort. Led by the young king
Charles XII the Swedes were determined to depose Augustus as king of Poland.
And despite of the good reputation the Saxon regiments had earned as
auxiliaries in both the Turkish war and in the War of the Spanish
Succession, the Saxons proved to be no match to the numerically inferior
Swedish field army. The Saxons lost battle after battle against the Swedes
at Düna 1701, Kliszow
1702, Pultusk 1703, Punitz and Posen 1704, Warsaw 1705 and finally the
worst defeat of them all when a twice as large Saxon -Russian army was
almost annihilated by the Swedes at Fraustadt 1706. Augustus lost his Polish
throne and was forced to sue for peace in 1706 when Saxony was occupied by
Charles XII's army.
Ironically it was right after the peace treaty was signed that Augustus
experienced his first victory against the Swedes when a Saxon-Russian army
defeated a greatly inferior Swedish force at Kalisz.
Augustus
was however not yet ready to give up his ambitions. Once the Swedish army
left Poland for the Russian campaign he began talks with his former allies
to re-enter the war and with Russian help he was reinstated as Polish king in
1709 after the Swedish defeat at Poltava. Saxony participated in the
anti-Swedish coalition the following years, but he was not much successful
this time either and his war aims were successively lowered until it was just
about keeping his Polish throne.
Saxon cavalry regiments reinforced the Danish army in the battle of
Gadebusch 1712 but it was not enough to prevent its defeat to the Swedish
army led by Magnus Stenbock. However, in the following year Saxon troops
participated in the Danish-Russian siege of Tönningen which forced
Stenbock's army to surrender.
Though when the remaining Swedish possessions in Germany were occupied in 1715-16
Saxony ceased to take an active part in the Great Northern War. The Saxons
did not get a share of the occupied Swedish provinces and had when the war
draw to a close in 1719-21 become so irrelevant that no formal peace treaty
was signed between Saxony and Sweden. It was not until 1729
that the two countries signed a convention in which they declared that the
friendship between them was restored.
The table
below shows all the campaigns each Saxon regiment participated in. Because
the Saxon regiments usually were named after their colonels, several of them
were known by different names during the course of the war. Every name of
those colonels are included (in italics) in the table. The only
exception is cavalry regiment No. 10 which had so many colonels that the
space was not enough. The letters represent battles (normal style) and
sieges (italics), and the colours show which theatre of war the
regiment was located in any given year according to the following system:
|
In the Maritime Power's
Service |
In the Emperor's
Service |
Pomerania, Mecklenburg |
Schleswig-Holstein |
The Baltic |
Poland |
? |
D = Düna
F = Fraustadt
G = Gadebusch
K = Kliszow (1702), Kalisz
(1706) |
P = Pultusk (1703), Punitz (1704), Prosna (1716)
Po = Posen
S = Stralsund (1715), Sockel (1716)
Sa = Sandomir |
S S = Stralsund and
Stresow
T = Thorn (1703), Tönning (1713)
W = Warsaw
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The poor state of Saxony's
economy forced Augustus the Strong to raise revenue by sending auxiliary
corps to Austria and the maritime powers
(Holland and Great Britain) to serve in the War of the Spanish Succession
even though he was fighting a losing war of his own against Sweden. The
table above however does not give the complete picture of the Saxon
contribution to the War of the Spanish Succession. The regiments shown to
have been in Austrian service in 1703 were actually hired from November 1702 to
May 1704. The next contingent sent to Austria served according to the table
as auxiliaries in 1705 and 1706 but were actually there from August 1705 to
December 1707. The infantry regiments shown to have been in Anglo-Dutch
service in 1707-1713 only sent one battalion while the other remained in Saxon
service.
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