Charles's battlefield record explains why Peter I struggled to turn Russia's resources into a quick victory. At Fraustadt, roughly 9,500 Swedes defeated an army at least twice their size, killing or capturing most of it. The march toward Moscow continued the pattern until Charles was wounded before a major battle and his deputies could not reproduce his results. Exile in Ottoman territory then separated him from Sweden, and his return ended with his death during the Norwegian campaign in 1718. In this interpretation, the Treaty of Nystad in 1721 marked the end of the autocratic government and institutions that had built the Swedish Empire.
Chapter · 24:24-29:27
Fraustadt and Moscow expose the limits of Charles XII's brilliance
Charles XII destroyed a much larger Saxon-Russian army at Fraustadt, but the advance toward Moscow, his incapacitation, Ottoman exile, and death left Sweden unable to convert repeated victories into a durable peace.