Siege of Tönning

Battle of Tönning

Tönning defensive works

Date	1st: March–August 1700 2nd: 1713-February 1714
Location	Tönning (Tønning) area, Holstein-Gottorp (present-day Germany)
Result	1700: siege lifted , Peace of Travendal 1713-1714: Danish-Russian-Saxon victory

Belligerents

Swedish Empire

Holstein-Gottorp

Denmark
(1700; 1713–1714)

Saxony (1713–1714)

Tsardom of Russia (1713–1714)

Commanders and leaders

Frederick IV, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (1700)

Nils Gyllenstierna (1700)

Magnus Stenbock (1713–1714)

Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov (1713–1714)

Strength

9,000 Swedes (1713–1714)
1,600 Holsteiners (1713–1714)

36,000 (1713–1714)

During the Great Northern War, the fortress of Tönning (Tønning) in the territory of Holstein-Gottorp, an ally of the Swedish Empire, was besieged twice: Denmark-Norway was forced to lift the first siege in 1700, but a combined force of the anti-Swedish coalition successfully besieged and took Tönning in 1713–1714.

The first siege was one of the first military actions of the Great Northern War. Denmark-Norway, Saxe-Poland-Lithuania and Russia had agreed on invading the Swedish Empire on three fronts, and accordingly, Danish forces moved into Holstein-Gottorp, allied and dynastically tied to Sweden, and laid siege to Tönning in March 1700. The siege had to be lifted when Charles XII of Sweden, backed by the Maritime Powers, in a surprise move deployed an army in front of Copenhagen, forcing Frederik IV of Denmark-Norway out of the war by the Peace of Travendal on 18 August 1700. Denmark re-entered the war only in 1709 as a consequence of the Swedish defeat at Poltava.

In early 1713, forces of the Swedish Empire and Holstein-Gottorp were encircled by a combined Russian and Saxe-Polish army in a pocket around Tönning. The Swedish force consisted of the remains of Magnus Stenbock's 16,000 men who had broken out of the Stralsund pocket, and ignoring orders to march into Poland turned west, defeated a Danish army the Battle of Gadebusch and pursued their remains into Holstein. The Russian and Saxe-Polish allies of Denmark sent 36,000 troops after Stenbock.

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