Charles XII in Fet 1716

Written by Sølvi Opsahl November 1999. Sources: Carl den XII og Romeriksbøndene, Paa Vidotta by Ola Svindal, Bygdehistorie for Fet 1. bind.

Charles XII and his army, consisting of 650 dragoons, 2600 infantry men and 300 peasants, went through Fet in March 1716 with accompanying horses and sleighs. (see map)

Charles XII

On March 12th Charles XII went from Høland to Svindal without meeting a single dragoon. The first opposition he met was when he came to the farm at Svindalstajet where he planned to spend the night: The old Svindal peasant gestured angrily at the Swedes wanting to chase them back home. "Is the old coot crazy?" said the king and continued, along with his men, to ride down towards the farm. They stabled their horses in the barn and then went in and took everything they needed from the farm.

The officers took the living room, the dragoons got the kitchen. The king went to sleep early, but not in a bed. He didn't want to live any better than his men. The King was not a 'high society' person, he didn't take especially good care of himself, at least not grooming-wise, he was a bit grimy, and often wiped his nose on his shirt-sleeves. He was no night owl, he went to bed early and read from the big bible he had before laying down and going to sleep.

Charles XII´s journey through Romerike 1716

On March 13th at 4 A.M. he left the farm and crossed the ice covered Øyeren. The lady of the house received a small silver pin as payment.

The king and his army camped at Stalsberg. Reinforcements were supposedly due to arrive from Sweden, and rumors of their difficult enterprise were abundant.

At Sørigarden things went bad because the soldiers had been careless with the fires. It was windy and some straw that had been spread by the Carolingians caught fire. The fire spread to the outhouses. Attempts to douse the fire didn't help much, all that was left were the farmhouse and the forge.

There was great hostility to the Swedes. Three Swedish women who had spent the night at By were going to the Swedish army at Rælingen. Inger and Ole Svindal heard about this and told their son Even to go to his uncle at Nordigarden and ask him to come to them so they could interrogate the women and find out if they had a message for the Swedish army and if more Swedes were on the way.

One of the Swedish women was standing in Inger Svindal's living room when the furious Swede Lars Larssen took a rifle down from the wall. He wanted to kill her. Inger screamed, "For Christ's sake don't do it!" She begged and pleaded but to no avail, Lars was adamant. As he was about to lead the women out Nordigarden's tenant farmer Jens Gaukerud arrived with Ola Svindal. Inger screamed yet again "In Jesus' name, don't kill them!" But the women were lead outside.

People had gathered around the three women in the farmyard outside. Two of them were sitting in a Swedish sleigh. Ole Vestre Svindal checked to see if there was a letter in a little sack they had. He found some food scraps and a red head band. Even took the headband.

The crowd was hostile to the three women. Lars Larssen, a Swedish deserter, was eager to prove his loyalty to his new fatherland and suggested shooting the three women. Ole Svindal wanted to get them to the local authorities, but Lars got his way. Lars, Jens Gaukerud and one of the crowd, Henrik Madsen went after the three women who were headed for the beach.

Shots were heard. People from the gathering ran down towards the beach and saw Lars shoot one of the women who was standing in the sleigh. She was the last of them. The other two were already dead.

This case was tried.

This episode describes a bit about how the hostile march of Charles XII affected the local population.

One of Charles XII's travel trunks can now be viewed at the Folkemuseet.

Compensation claims against Charles XII

Translated by Steven Mohn, December 1999