Patkul, Johann Reinhold von [key], 1660–1707, Livonian nobleman. He incurred the wrath of Charles XI of Sweden by championing the rights of the Livonian gentry and fled abroad to escape punishment. In 1698, Patkul entered the service of Augustus II of Poland and Saxony. He inspired Augustus's scheme to wrest Livonia from Sweden and reunite it with Poland and was instrumental in forming the anti-Swedish alliance of Poland, Denmark, and Russia that led (1700) to the Northern War. He held high commands in the war, but when Augustus II made peace with Sweden at Altranstädt (1706) he delivered Patkul to Charles XII, who had him broken on the wheel.
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