In 1700, a triple alliance of Denmark-Norway, Saxony-Poland-Lithuania and Russia launched a threefold attack on the Swedish protectorate of Swedish Holstein-Gottorp and provinces of Livonia and Ingria, aiming to draw advantage as Sweden was unaligned and ruled by a young and inexperienced king, thus initiating the Great Northern War.
At the time, most of the Swedish Empire was under foreign military occupation, though Sweden itself was still free.