the battle. Despite failing to achieve a decisive victory against Augustus II, the battle still ended up a tactical and political victory for Charles XII. Background Context On February 12, 1700, the Great Northern War began when Augustus II the Strong, king of Poland and elector of Saxony, and his Saxon troops crossed the Düna river and laid siege to the city of Riga in Swedish Livonia. Meanwhile, the Danish army under king Frederick IV of Denmark invaded the Swedish allied duchies of Holstein and Gottorp in order to secure his rear, before commencing with the planned invasion of Scania. In September 1700, Russian forces under Tsar Peter I invaded Swedish Ingria and began a siege of Narva in Swedish Estonia. These three nations had secretly agreed on a joint pact to attack the Swedish Empire from three separate fronts, and each had the aim of winning back territories which they had lost to Sweden during previous wars. The Swedish Army under the command of king Charles XII of Sweden first repelled the Danish threat. Through a successful Swedish landing operation at Humlebæk on Zealand, on 25 July 1700, Frederick IV was forced to withdraw from the war on 8 August of the same year by signing the Peace of Travendal. Later on 20 November, the Russians was forced to withdraw back to Russia after their crushing defeat against Charles XII's main army at the battle of Narva. On his march towards Riga, Charles XII defeated a Saxon–Russian army at the battle of Düna on 9 July 1701. The majority of the Saxon–Russian troops under Field marshal Adam Heinrich von Steinau withdrew from the battle in a relatively orderly fashion, leaving Charles XII unable to completely defeat Augustus II. The Swedish army later crossed the Düna and occupied the Duchy of Courland. Charles XII then decided to launch a military campaign in Poland, in order to outmaneuver Augustus II's troops and depose him as king of Poland, before moving on against Russia. Several of the king's advisors, including Polish magnates and foreign diplomats, were worried about the king's war plans, especially regarding his plan to depose Augustus II. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was still neutral in the conflict, since Augustus II had attacked Swedish Livonia in his capacity as elector of Saxony and not as king of Poland. Swedish invasion of Poland At the beginning of February 1702, Charles XII marched