[POTN] 2.11 - Siege of Narva

By October, the Russians had besieged Narva entirely, trapping tens of thousands of Swedish soldiers within the city. However, the Swedes, with their Navy now free from the Dutch threat, regained dominance on the sea. The Russians' Northern flank was constantly bombarded by the Swedish Navy, weakening it greatly and enabled supplies to enter the city occasionally.

As November came, the temperature began dropping, freezing many ill-equipped Russian soldiers to death. The Swedes, despite better equipped, trained, and supplied, also suffered a drop in morale. During the standoff, mobilisation also took place in different parts of the Swedish realms. By November, a few thousands of Swedish soldiers, along with almost ten thousand Prussian soldiers, arrived in the Livonian border with Russia. Despite not officially at war with Russia, Brandenburg-Prussia was coerced to provide Sweden with continuous military aid, with Swedish officers threatening invasion otherwise.

The sudden death of Chancellor Erik Oxenstierna in 23th October, 1656, at just 32, caused widespread panic in Stockholm, with the Riksdag fearing chaos with the King hundreds of miles away from the capital. By mid-November, many Russians began deserting with the ever deteriorating situation outside Narva. Many Russian officers executed captured deserters, further alienating the conscripts and wiped out any remaining morale. Nonetheless, the Swedish supply was also a problem amidst the winter weather. With the unusually large population in the city, it was obvious to Gustav that a famine could very well strike Narva if the army was to stay in the city for too long. Scouts reported to Gustav concerning the Russians' terrible conditions. A series of public executions of deserters in the evening of 13th November caused a great deal of unease within the Russian ranks, and the lack of morale among the Russians was clear to all.

In the next morning, before sunrise, Gustav ordered for the city gates to be opened, luring the Russians to attack with the Swedish elites waiting in ambush. The Russian generals were already very weary of the situation after the previous night, and thus ordered an all-out attack into Narva, hoping to take the city with the supposed weakness of the Swedes. Thousands of Swedish elite units ambushed the Russians right after their entry of the city, slaughtering every enemy in sight. The Russians, with their depleted morale, fell into utter disarray, with countless surrendering on spot, others trying to flee the battlefield.

By the evening, the Russians were completely depleted, with their leader, Prince Ivan Khovansky, beheaded by a Swedish battalion. His head was impaled by a pike, before being hung up high on the walls of Narva for the Russians to see. Over ten thousand Russians perished in the day after falling into a chaos, with Swedish casualties numbering only around a tenth of that. The remaining Russians were almost all captured by the Swedes after the battle.

Following a brief celebration, Gustav and the Swedish army took the prisoners of war away from Narva, so to prevent the Russians causing problems within the city.

However, with the bad hygienic conditions in the prisoners' camps, a plague soon began to spread through the Russian prisoners of war, causing many deaths amidst the cold of the winter. Despite initially wishing to shoot all patients to prevent a spread of the disease, Gustav opted for another option by late November. All Russians suffering from the plague was forcibly sent back to Russian territories, bringing the plague to Russian towns and villages. With the freezing temperatures, many Russian soldiers never made it to home, freezing to death in the snowlands on the way back to their hometowns.

Meanwhile, in Poland, Prince Karl took full control of the Swedish forces following Gustav's departure to the northern front. Nonetheless, most Swedish units had followed the King to fight the Russians, and the "Swedish" forces still in Poland consisted mainly of German mercenaries, alongside large amounts of Poles that Prince Karl forcibly conscripted from the occupied provinces.

Polish men and women of all ages were all conscripted by Karl, with those refusing the order executed on spot. In many cases, even children and seniors were force to serve in the Swedish forces, despite the little combat ability they possessed. Karl used the hundreds of thousands of Poles conscripted as cannon fodders in his relentless offensives against the Lesser Poland region still controlled by King Jan II, refusing to provide them with adequate equipment or weapons.

The shockingly high casualty count of the Poles devastated Greater Poland and Masovia entirely, leading to widespread famines and plagues in the regions, dealing irreversible damage to the local economy. Still, even with such high casualties, Karl was unable to decisively invade Lesser Poland. Despite minor defeats, the Polish King was able to set up a robust defense, mobilising all possible forces against the invading army. Tens of thousands of Poles perished on the Lesser Poland front in the latter half of 1656 alone, coupled with uncountable civilian casualties, with neither side achieving anything decisive.

Following the massive victory at Narva, Gustav sailed back to Stockholm to deal with the political situation, while instructing the troops to wait till spring to wage an offensive to retake Ingria from Russian hands. Following the death of Erik Oxenstierna, the Riksdag had largely acted as the de facto Regency Council while Gustav was away. Princess Kristina held a significant influence over the internal governance, but the Riksdag remained relatively powerful.

The pregnant Queen Henrietta, despite attending many state functions on Gustav's behalf, did not hold much power. She mostly stayed with the young Crown Prince, and with a few friends she was close to. Another victory parade on 12th December welcomed Gustav back into Stockholm, as the King retook control of the political affairs in the capital.

Initially, Gustav sought to assure the Riksdag of their authority, pledging to refrain from taking power from the Parliament. However, the Riksdag broke into massive debates, with many members supporting absolute royal authority, while the others supported formal limitations on the royal power. A particularly bad debate broke out on 21th December, and concluded with a violent standoff, causing minor injuries to a few members. With pressure from Kristina, Gustav dismissed the Riksdag in the name of safety on 23th December, citing security concerns against the capital.

A new session of the Riksdag was assembled by mid-January, 1657. Nonetheless, Gustav had already signed a new law concerning the Regency on the monarch's absence, again, under Kristina's pressure. The Regency Act 1657 established that, when the monarch is out of their royal realms, the executive power shall be exercised by the next adult in the line of succession, which would be Princess Kristina in 1657.

By late February, as the frontlines stalled in the cold, Gustav began spending more time taking care of Henrietta, who had become heavily pregnant by then. Unlike the previous pregnancy, this one proved to be far easier for the Queen, with far milder syndromes throughout the months. Having been away for war for more than a year, only seeing Henrietta for a few months in total through the war, Gustav spent most of March with his beloved wife. The two mostly stayed away from public eyes, with Gustav ordering for privacy.

Gustav also spent much time with the young Crown Prince, now a two-year-old toddler. The future King of Sweden was an energetic boy around his parents, but acted rather meek and shy towards strangers. In the afternoon of 3rd April, 1657, Queen Henrietta gave birth to a second healthy child after a delivery that was much smoother than the previous one, with the Queen suffering minimal pain in the process.

A relatively small girl was born, healthy and energetic like most newborns. Despite initial wishes for another royal boy, the Swedish public was still overjoyed by the new addition to the royal family, with many churches hosting services for the newborn Princess.

The little girl was baptised Charlotta Kristina Vasa after a couple of weeks, with her aunt Princess Kristina named as her godmother.

Following a suggestion by Henrietta, Gustav officially created the title of the "Princess Royal" - "Princessan Kunglig" - for his daughter, in late April, 1657, after a bill passed by the Riksdag concerning the creation of the title.

The title was to be bestowed by the monarch on his or her eldest legitimate daughter at the monarch's pleasure, and could, in theory, be revoked by the monarch any time. While the eldest daughter of the monarch would not obtain the title automatically upon her parent's ascension as monarch, the title was to be given in most circumstances, should the monarch have a daughter.

The idea was taken from Henrietta's Stuart kins, especially her maternal uncle, the late King Charles I, who created the title of "Princess Royal" for his eldest daughter, Mary Stuart, Princess of Orange. By May 1657, however, after a few months of relative peace, tensions had grown again throughout Northern Europe. Relations between Denmark and Sweden became very tense after a Danish letter to the Swedish Riksdag in late April 1657, asking for reparations for the Danish territories lost to Sweden in 1645.

Meanwhile, Prince Karl's forces were still unable to achieve any sorts of decisive victory in Lesser Poland, making the possibility of a three-front war on Sweden highly probable, much to Gustav's worry and dismay.