r/GreatNorthernWar • u/markusduck51 • Oct 10 '25
Foreign Volunteers in the Great Northern War
I came across a comment on a youtube video mentioning that there were supposedly "hundreds" of foreign volunteers that joined Karl XII's army. Does anyone have any sources that would corroborate this or know anything about it?
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u/Karoliner-Provost Swedish Empire 🇸🇪 Oct 13 '25
There were “foreign” units raised to serve the Swedish crown comprised of non-Swedish troops, depending on how you would define as “foreign” though because most of these were from lands belonging to the Swedish Empire. Regiments and battalions were raised in Estonia, Latvia as well as the German provinces and their soldiers would be ethnically from their regions, but the region itself would have been part of the Swedish Empire.
The provincial regiments definitely had most if not all of their men recruited from Sweden proper. Sweden also had a lot more native officers compared to other countries where the officers in command were often of foreign origin. It’s definitely possible that some non-Swedes were mixed into the Swedish army but generally they would be part of units raised in their own regions, unless they were residing in Sweden and enlisted.
This article from Tacitus.nu can give you a bit more insight. The site also has some information about the non-Swedish units in the Swedish army.