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19.07.

1702: Battle of Klissow: Swedish Army Marches into Southern Poland

1702: Battle of Klissow: Swedish Army Marches into Southern Poland
Photo Credit To Wikipedia Commons

Story Highlights

  • Historical event:
  • 19 July 1702
  • The military success of Swedish King Charles XII is one of the most unusual ones in European history, especially when it is taken into account that he was only 20 years old at the time. He defeated several enemy armies that were many times superior to his own and was given the nickname "Alexander of the North".

On this day the Swedish army, led by the young King Charles XII, managed to defeat an army of Poles and Germans twice its size in Poland. It was an example of the great military successes of the Swedish King Charles XII, who was nicknamed “Alexander of the North”.



Namely, when he was only 18, his country was attacked by the combined forces of the Russian Tsar Peter the Great, Polish King August II, and several other rulers.

Young Charles XII replied with a counterattack – he crossed the Baltic Sea and invaded Europe. He defeated the Russian Tsar Peter the Great in the famous Battle of Narva (the defeated Russian troops outnumbered his own by almost four to one).

After that, Charles XII rushed south into Europe with lightning speed, passing through present-day Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and entering deeply into Poland. On this day he defeated the Polish King Augustus II near the town Kliszów (Klissow) and then triumphantly entered the royal city of Krakow in today’s southern Poland.

This sudden military success of Karl XII is one of the most unusual ones in European history, especially when it is taken into account that he was only 20 years old at that time.




He forced the Polish King Augustus II to step down from his throne and placed Stanisław Leszczyński, a Polish nobleman of untarnished reputation, as the new Polish king. It is interesting that Charles XII allegedly even got a new crown and scepter for Leszczyński (since the old regalia was taken to Germany by the overthrown August II).

King Stanisław Leszczyński would later become known by the fact that his daughter married the French King Louis XV, thereby making Leszczyński the grandfather of the famous Louis XVI, who was beheaded on the guillotine during the French Revolution.

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