Charles XII Crushes Peter: Sweden's Victory at Narva
An 8,500-strong Swedish army under eighteen-year-old King Charles XII crushed a Russian siege force nearly four times its size at Narva in a blinding snowstorm. The stunning victory established Charles as Europe's most formidable young commander, though Tsar Peter the Great used the humiliation to rebuild the Russian military into the force that would eventually destroy Swedish dominance.
November 20, 1700
326 years ago
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