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TOLL, JOHAN KRISTOFFER, COUNT (1743-1...

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 1053 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TOLL, JOHAN KRISTOFFER, See also:COUNT (1743-1817) , See also:Swedish statesman and soldier, was See also:born at Mollerod in Scania. Toll came of a very See also:ancient See also:family, of Dutch origin, which can be traced back to the 13th, but migrated to the Baltic provinces in the 16th See also:century. Toll's See also:father was one of See also:Charles XII.'s warriors, his See also:mother a descendant of the aristocratic Gyellenstjernas. In his youth Johan Kristoffer served in the Seven Years' See also:War, and then, exchanging the military for the See also:civil service, became See also:head See also:ranger of the See also:county of See also:Kristianstad. During the riksdag of 1771-1772 the dominant "Caps" deprived him of his See also:post, and Toll, shrewdly guessing that the See also:king was preparing a revolution, almost forced his services on the conspirators, Goran See also:Magnus See also:Sprengtporten (q.v.) declaring that a See also:man who knew so much of their most See also:secret plans must either" be killed or squared." To Toll was assigned by far the most difficult See also:part of the enterprise. It was his business to secure the important See also:southern fortress of Kristianstad. Two days after the See also:coronation, on the 31st of May 1772, he set forth from See also:Stockholm with twenty-two pounds wherewith to corrupt a See also:garrison and revolt a See also:province. He had no sort of See also:credentials, and the little that was known about him locally from the See also:official point of view was not to his See also:credit. Finally, in the fortress itself there was but one man known to be a safe royalist, namely, See also:Captain See also:Abraham Hellichius. On the 21st of See also:June Toll reached Kristianstad. By sheer See also:bluff Toll first won over Hellichius, and, six See also:weeks later (See also:August 12), the whole garrison of Kristianstad, arresting the few See also:officers who proved recalcitrant; taking See also:possession of the records and military See also:chest, and closing the See also:gates in the See also:face of the " Cap " high See also:commissioner who had been warned by the See also:English See also:minister, See also:John Gooderich, that some-thing was afoot in the See also:south. Seven days later Gustavus III.'s coup d'etat at Stockholm completed the revolution.

Toll was liberally rewarded and more and more frequently employed as his See also:

genius as an See also:administrator and his blameless integrity came to See also:light. His reforms in the See also:commissariat See also:department were See also:epoch-making, and the See also:superior mobility of the Swedish forces under Gustavus III. was due entirely to his initiative. But it was upon Toll's boundless audacity that Gustavus chiefly relied. Thus as Gustavus, under the pressure of circumstances, inclined more and more towards See also:absolutism, it was upon Toll that he principally leant. In 1783 Toll was placed at the head of the secret " See also:Commission of See also:National See also:Defence " which ruled See also:Sweden during the king's See also:absence abroad without the privity of the See also:senate. It was he who persuaded the king to summon the riksdag of 1786, which, however, he failed to See also:control, and in all Gustavus's plans for forcing on a war with See also:Russia Toll was initiated from the first. In 1786 he had already risen to the See also:rank of See also:major-See also:general and was Gustavus's See also:principal See also:adjutant. It was against Toll's See also:advice, however, that Gustavus, in 1788, began the war with Russia. Toil had always insisted that, in such a contingency, Sweden should be militarily as well as diplomatically prepared, but this was far from being the See also:case. Nevertheless, when the inevitable first disasters happened, Toll was, most unjustly, made a scapegoat, but the later successes of the war were largely due to his care and See also:diligence as See also:commissary-general. After the See also:death of Gustavus III. Toll was for a See also:short See also:time war minister and See also:commander-in-See also:chief in Scania and, subsequently, was sent as See also:ambassador to See also:Warsaw.

Unjustly involved in the so-called " See also:

Armfelt See also:conspiracy," he was condemned to two years' imprisonment; but was fully reinstated when in 1796 Gustavus IV. attained his See also:majority. At the riksdag of See also:Norrkoping, 1800, he was elected See also:marshal of the See also:Diet, and led the royalist party with consummate ability. On this occasion he forced the mutinous riddarhus to accept the detested " See also:Act of See also:Union and See also:Security" by threatening to reveal the names of all the persons suspected of complicity in the See also:murder of the See also:late king. Subsequently he displayed See also:great See also:diplomatic adroitness in his negotiations with the See also:powers concerning Sweden's participation in the war against See also:Napoleon. In the Pomeranian See also:campaign of 1807 Toll assisted in the defence of See also:Stralsund. The fortress was compelled to surrender on the 20th of August by Marshal See also:Brune, whereupon the Swedish See also:army of 13,000 men, which had retired to Rifgen, seemed irretrievably lost. It was saved by Toll, who cajoled the See also:French marshal into a See also:convention whereby the Swedish army, with all its munitions of war, was permitted to return unmolested to Sweden (See also:September 7). For this exploit Toll received his marshal's See also:baton. It was in the See also:camp of Toll, then acting commander-in-chief in Scania, that Gustavus IV. was about to take See also:refuge when the western army rebelled against him, but he was arrested in the See also:capital before he could do so. Toll retained his high position under Bernadotte, who, in 1814, created him a count. He died unmarried. See R.

Nisbet See also:

Bain, Gustavus III. and his Contemporaries (See also:London, 1895) ; K. N. Liliekrona, Fdltmarskalken Grefve J. K. Toll (Stockholm, 1849-1850). (R. N.

End of Article: TOLL, JOHAN KRISTOFFER, COUNT (1743-1817)

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