Jean Grossaint De la Roche-yon (1713 - 1769) was a Swedish officer and spy.
Han was born in
Lysekil
Lysekil () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Lysekil Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had about 7,600 inhabitants in 2018. Situated on the south tip of Stångenäs peninsula at the mouth of Gullmarn fjord, it ...
. He was a lieutenant in the regiment of
Maurice de Saxe in 1735, served in the Swedish army in Finland in 1736-43, and in the Danish army as colonel lieutenant in 1743-59.
He was active in Sweden as a Danish agent in 1740-44, supporting the Pro-Danish party against the
Hats (party)-government and influencing members of the Peasant- and Priest-Estates in favor of Danish interests. During the
Dalecarlian rebellion (1743), he acted as a channel between the rebels and the Danish embassy. He was suspected of having encouraged the rebellion, and when it was defeated he escaped to Denmark. He returned in secret in the mission of recruiting Dalecarlian rebels to support a planned Danish invasion of Sweden from Norway, but failed and returned to Denmark.
Sweden demanded that he be extradited from Denmark, but Denmark refused by sending him abroad to live incognito and tell Sweden that he died. He lived the rest of his life comfortable on the salary from a titular office in the Danish military.
His career has been described as typical of the many adventurers participating in the political life during the Swedish
Age of Liberty
In Swedish and Finnish history, the Age of Liberty ( sv, frihetstiden; fi, vapauden aika) was a period that saw parliamentary governance, increasing civil rights and the decline of the Swedish Empire that began with Charles XII's death in 1718 ...
.
References
* Bj. Beckman: Jean Grossaint De la Roche-yon i Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (1945)
{{DEFAULTSORT:De la Roche-yon, Jean Grossaint
1713 births
1769 deaths
Swedish spies
18th-century spies
Age of Liberty people
People of the Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743)
18th-century Swedish people