Johan Verstolk van Soelen

Johan Gijsbert Verstolk van Soelen (16 March 1776 – 3 November 1845) was a Dutch politician. Between 1825 and 1841 he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Biography Verstolk van Soelen came from a family of patricians from Rotterdam. He studied law at the University of Göttingen, where he followed lectures from Georg Friedrich von Martens. At the University of Kiel he studied constitutional and international law. Within the Kingdom of Holland he held the office of Landdrost of the Department Guelderland. After the Incorporation of the kingdom into the First French Empire he became prefect of Frise. He switched this office with Regnerus Livius van Andringa de Kempenaer.

He largely endorsed the ideas behind Napoleonic governance, but he advocated a more moderate approach. During his time in Frise, he was not hated by the people and he was able to meet the minimum requirements for measures like the unpopular Napoleonic conscription. In cases of popular resistance, he did not hesitate to call upon the gendarmerie or the military. After the arrival of the Russian cossacks in November 1813, he resigned from his position as prefect.

After the liberation of the Netherlands, Verstolk first held the office of commissaris-generaal in the Southern Netherlands. After that he became ambassador for the Netherlands in Saint Petersburg. He held this office from 1815 until 1823.