Johan Christopher Great

Johan Christopher Great

Johan Christopher Toll , also: Johan Kristoffer Toll, (* February 1, 1743 at Gut Mölleröd in Skåne ; † May 21, 1817 at Bäckaskog Castle near Kristianstad ) was a Swedish count, knight, field marshal and politician with great influence on the Gustav kings III. and Gustav IV Adolf . From 1801 to 1809 he was the last governor general in Skåne.

Life

Under Gustav III.

The son of Lieutenant Colonel Reinhold Gustav Toll and Baroness Elsa Sofia Gyllenstierna was great . He volunteered in the army in 1758 and took part in a campaign to Pomerania (1759-1760), but he said goodbye as early as 1764 without having achieved the rank of officer. Toll started his legal career and in 1766 became deputy head of a Swedish harde ( Härad ). After a mistake in office, he had to give up this job. In 1769 he was given the position of chief hunter in the former province of Kristianstads län because of his close relationship with the ruling party of the Hattarne . At the following Reichstag, the Mützen party gained power and Toll was threatened with dismissal again. He therefore sought contact with Gustav III. and recommended himself for the planned coup. On August 12, 1772, he started the coup in Skåne before Jacob Magnus Sprengtporten had brought troops loyal to the king home from Finland . The novelty reached Stockholm and Gustav III. was forced to take action without this intended support. However, the coup succeeded, which accelerated Toll's career. He was naturalized as a Swedish aristocrat and appointed Rittmeister .

In quick succession Toll became major in 1775 , lieutenant colonel in 1776 and colonel in 1780 . Toll often stayed abroad to carry out secret orders, for example he prepared Gustav's planned invasion of Denmark in 1783 . Toll was also involved in the preparations for the war of 1788 against Russia , but when the Anjalabund against Gustav III. rebelled, Toll lost the king's trust and was to blame for an inadequately equipped army. When the king and his troops set out from Helsinki on July 24, 1788 , Toll had to stay behind.

However, Toll received new assignments, including organizing the defense of Skåne against a feared Danish attack. In 1789 he arrived in Karlskrona as general manager of the fleet and member of the committee for arming the fleet . After the fleet was able to achieve various successes in 1790, Toll regained the favor of the king. In the peaceful years that followed, Toll held a post in the Skåne military. After Gustav's death, Duke Karl appointed him head of the War College and lieutenant general, but shortly afterwards he was sent as envoy to Poland by his cousin, Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm , who had the duke's greatest confidence. In Poland, Toll received a letter from Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt who, with Russian help, was planning to overthrow Reuterholm. Toll advised against these plans, but did not report the attempted coup. Regardless of this, Armfeld's endeavors became public and Toll was sentenced in 1795 for his secrecy to the loss of his offices and two years in prison in Wismar .

Under the Napoleonic Wars

Toll was able to leave his place of exile as early as 1796 because the young Gustav IV Adolf had come to power and installed him in his old offices. At the Reichstag of 1800 in Norrköping , Toll belonged to the royalist party and tried to publicize the government's intentions in the knight and peasant class. Later he belonged to a delegation of the king in St. Petersburg , where a Nordic league was founded, which intended to remain neutral in the Napoleonic wars . For this reason it was considered necessary to put Skåne back under a governor general and Toll received this post. One of his achievements was z. B. the implementation of a land reform . In 1802 he was appointed general of the cavalry .

After Gustav IV Adolf had decided to go to war against Napoléon , Toll received the order in 1804 to work out a war budget. Toll corresponded to this order but tried to dissuade the king from his plan. With the king firmly committed to his plan, Toll was sent to Great Britain to negotiate. Due to the Helsingborg Convention of August 31, 1804, Sweden initially only needed to strengthen the garrison in Stralsund and open Pomerania for the passage of Russian and Hanoverian troops. Due to British efforts, the king decided to re-negotiate, and so Toll received the order on October 3rd to sign a treaty with Great Britain, which led to Sweden's entry into the war against Napoleon. Because of this, Toll became the military leader not only in Skåne, but also in Blekinge , Halland , Västergötland and Bohuslän . When the Swedish army moved to Pomerania in 1807, Toll was in command of a division of the army. Shortly after Gustav IV Adolf broke the armistice with France, the army was forced to retreat near Stralsund. Toll was sent to Rügen to lead the British auxiliary troops. However, they only stayed there for a short time and when the king withdrew completely from Stralsund, he came to Rügen and Toll first got his division back and later the command of the army. After the king had said goodbye to the army, Toll managed to pretend to the French marshal Guillaume Marie-Anne Brune that the Swedish troops were mutinying against Gustav IV Adolf, which prevented him from being captured. The credibility of this deception, however, testified to how little the king's reputation was in the army. Brune allowed the Swedish army to leave the island unmolested with all supplies.

Shortly afterwards, Toll was appointed field marshal and was given the command of a newly formed southern army to defend Scena against an announced attack by Denmark. The arrival of the allied British fleet prevented the Danish shore leave and Toll was ordered to Stockholm in the autumn of 1808 to participate in a finance committee that was supposed to provide funds for the continuation of the war. He contradicted the king's plans for huge tax increases and openly advised him to abdicate. When Toll returned to Skåne, a Danish attack seemed inevitable because the Oresund was frozen over. Toll prohibited all Swedish patrols on the ice, which should suggest to the opponent that it was unsafe. Before Denmark decided to attack, the waterway was open again.

After 1809

The king's failures on all fronts initiated efforts of upheaval in all strata of the country's population. In March 1809 General Carl Johan Adlercreutz moved against Stockholm and Toll also renounced his support for the king, so that the latter was taken prisoner. The new government, however, dismissed Toll because of his previous loyalty to the king. Since the choice of the succession to the throne was complicated, Toll was made General Commander-in-Chief in Skåne again a year later. The first leading figure to greet Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, the future Charles XIV Johann , on Swedish soil was also great . Toll also received the new king's trust despite his distrust of personalities from the Gustavian era. During the campaign against Norway in 1814 , Toll was an advisor to Karl XIV. Johann. Toll spent his last years at Bäckaskog Castle.

literature

• Christopher von Toll: The von Toll family - a noble family in the Baltic Sea region . In: Nils Jörn, Haik Thomas Porada (ed.): The world and reality of the nobility in the Baltic Sea region . Publishing house Dr. Kovač, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8300-4600-4
• Johan Christopher Great . In: Theodor Westrin, Ruben Gustafsson Berg, Eugen Fahlstedt (eds.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 29 : Tidsekvation – trompe . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1919, Sp. 288 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).