The Skirmish at Bender (; ) was devised to remove

Charles XII of Sweden Charles XII, sometimes Carl XII () or Carolus Rex (17 June 1682 – 30 November 1718 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.), was King of Sweden from 1697 to 1718. He belonged to the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, a branch line of the House of ...

from the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

after his military defeats in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. It took place on 1 February 1713 on Ottoman territory, in what is now the town of

Bender, Moldova Bender (, ) or Bendery (, ; ), also known as Tighina ( mo-Cyrl, Тигина, links=no), is a city within the internationally recognized borders of Moldova under ''de facto'' control of the unrecognized Transnistria, Pridnestrovian Moldavian Rep ...

( separatist region of Transnistria).

Etymology

The Turkish word ''kalabalık'' means "crowd", which after the incident has become a Swedish and Finnish

loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...

, ''kalabalik'', with the meaning "confusion" or "great disorder".

History

After the

Battle of Poltava The Battle of Poltava took place 8 July 1709, was the decisive and largest battle of the Great Northern War. The Russian army under the command of Tsar Peter I defeated the Swedish army commanded by Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld. The battle would l ...

on 27 June 1709 and the surrender of most of the Swedish army at Perevolochna three days later,

fled together with about 1,500

Caroleans Caroleans (), from ''Carolus'', the Latin form of the name Charles, is a term used to describe soldiers of the Military of the Swedish Empire, Swedish army during the reigns of Kings Charles XI of Sweden, Charles XI and Charles XII of Sweden, ...

and about the same number of

Cossacks The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic languages, East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borde ...

to the Ottoman Empire, where they spent about 5 years. Charles XII officially lived in Turkey as an honoured guest of the Sultan and is titled in the letters of

Ahmed III Ahmed III (, ''Aḥmed-i sālis''; was sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a son of sultan Mehmed IV (r. 1648–1687). His mother was Gülnuş Sultan, originally named Evmania Voria, who was an ethnic Greek. He was born at Hacıoğlu Pazarcık, ...

"The most illustrious of the great princes who worship Jesus, clothed with majesty and splendour, the lord of honour and glory". However, hospitality became a strain on the Turkish treasury in the long run. The high cost of maintaining the Swedes was also something that the

Grand Vizier Grand vizier (; ; ) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. It was first held by officials in the later Abbasid Caliphate. It was then held in the Ottoman Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Soko ...

s – who were more hostile to Charles XII – did not fail to point out when they tried to persuade the Swedish king to leave. However, the danger threatening Charles from the Grand Vizier's side was usually counterbalanced by the Sultan's benevolence. But in the course of 1712 the danger became greater than before when the Tartar khan Devlet II Giray, who had hitherto been Charles's friend, switched to the side of his enemies. The event itself took place at the village of Varnitsa on the eastern bank of the

Dniester The Dniester ( ) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and then through Moldova (from which it more or less separates the breakaway territory of Transnistria), finally discharging into the Black Sea on Uk ...

, about 4 kilometres north of the town of Bender, where the king had moved with his entourage in July 1711. There the king had a one-storey stone building built for him with unusually thick walls. Around the "king's house", five or six buildings were gradually erected for officials and barracks for a battalion of 500 men. This complex of buildings was commonly called the "camp". On 31 January 1713, Turkish artillery fired on the Swedish camp. On 1 February, the Ottoman forces, commanded by the Serasker of Bender, attacked the camp. Together with some 40 soldiers, Charles XII stood against many hundreds of Turks. During parts of the fighting, Charles was also actively sniping with a carbine against the assaulting enemy from a window in his sleeping quarters, positioned in the building where the Swedes had taken up their defense. The fighting lasted for over seven hours and the Ottomans eventually used both artillery and fire arrows when the initial assaults were beaten back; the latter method proved to be more effective. The fire arrows set the building's roof on fire and forced the defenders to abandon it, the fighting then came to an abrupt end when the king tripped on his own

spur A spur is a metal tool designed to be worn in pairs on the heels of riding boots for the purpose of directing a horse or other animal to move forward or laterally while riding. It is usually used to refine the riding aids (commands) and to ba ...

s while exiting the burning house. He was assaulted by scores of Ottoman soldiers who managed to capture him and the remaining fighters. A first-hand account of the skirmish was written by Baron Fabricius, translated into English and published in the Monthly Review of January 1761.

Aftermath

After some time as a prisoner, Charles XII and his soldiers were released when news about the Swedish victory in the Battle of Gadebusch reached the Ottomans. Charles then started to plan his trip back to Sweden. Already in 1718, he led an army to conquer Norway in the

Great Northern War In the Great Northern War (1700–1721) a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern Europe, Northern, Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the ant ...

, which ended in Swedish retreat upon the king's death at

Fredriksten Fredriksten is a fortress in the city of Halden in Norway. History This Fortresses was constructed by Denmark-Norway in the 17th century as a replacement for the border fortress at Bohus, which had been lost when the province of Bohuslän was ...

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

europaidag.se

Aftonbladet - article Herman Lindqvist
{{coord, 46, 50, N, 29, 29, E, source:kolossus-nowiki, display=title Great Northern War 1713 in Europe Bender Bender Military history of Moldova Charles XII of Sweden