The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia

CHAP. XXIX

Proceedings against prince Alexis Petrowitz.

Peter the Great, at the age of seventeen, had married, in the year 1689, Eudocia Theodora, or Theodorouna Lapoukin. Bred up in the prejudices of her country, and incapable of surmounting them like her husband, the greatest opposition he met with in erecting his empire, and forming his people, came from her: she was, as is too common to her sex, a slave to superstition; every new and useful alteration she looked upon as a species of sacrilege; and every foreigner, whom the czar employed to execute his great designs, appeared to her no better than as corruptors and innovators.

Her open and public complaints gave encouragement to the factious, and those who were the advocates for ancient customs and manners. Her conduct, in other respects, by no means made amends for such heavy imperfections. The czar was at length obliged to repudiate her in 1696, and shut her up in a convent at Susdal, where they obliged her to take the veil under the name of Helena.

The son, whom he had by her in 1690, was born unhappily with the disposition of his mother, and that disposition received additional strength from his very first education. My memoirs say, that he was entrusted to the care of superstitious men, who ruined his understanding for ever. 'Twas in vain that they hoped to correct these first impressions, by giving him foreign preceptors; their very quality of being foreigners disgusted him. He was not born destitute of genius; he spoke and wrote German well; he had a tolerable notion of designing, and understood something of mathematics: but these very memoirs affirm, that the reading of ecclesiastical books was the ruin of him. The young Alexis imagined he saw in these books a condemnation of every thing which his father had done. There were some priests at the head of the malcontents, and by the priests he suffered himself to be governed.

They persuaded him that the whole nation looked with horror upon the enterprises of Peter; that the frequent illnesses of the czar promised but a short life; and that his son could not hope to please the nation, but by testifying his aversion for all changes of custom. These murmurs, and these counsels, did not break out into an open faction or conspiracy, but every thing seemed to tend that way, and the tempers of the people were inflamed.

Peter's marriage with Catherine in 1707, and the children which he had by her, began to sour the disposition of the young prince. Peter tried every method to reclaim him: he even placed him at the head of the regency for a year; he sent him to travel; he married him in 1711, at the end of the campaign of Pruth, to the princess of Brunswick. This marriage was attended with great misfortunes. Alexis, now twenty years old, gave himself up to the debauchery of youth, and that boorishness of ancient manners he so much delighted in. These irregularities almost brutalized him. His wife, despised, ill-treated, wanting even necessaries, and deprived of all comforts, languished away in disappointment, and died at last of grief, the first of November, 1715.

She left the prince Alexis one son; and according to the natural order, this son was one day to become heir to the empire. Peter perceived with sorrow, that when he should be no more, all his labours were likely to be destroyed by those of his own blood. After the death of the princess, he wrote a letter to his son, equally tender and resolute: it finished with these words: 'I will still wait a little time, to see if you will correct yourself; if not, know that I will cut you off from the succession, as we lop off a useless member. Don't imagine, that I mean only to intimidate you; don't rely upon the title of being my only son; for if I spare not my own life for my country, and the good of my people, how shall I spare you? I will rather choose to leave my kingdom to a foreigner who deserves it, than to my own son, who makes himself unworthy of it.'

This is the letter of a father, but it is still more the letter of a legislator; it shews us, besides, that the order of succession was not invariably established in Russia, as in other kingdoms, by those fundamental laws which take away from fathers the right of disinheriting their children; and the czar believed he had an undoubted prerogative to dispose of an empire which he had founded.

At this very time the empress Catherine was brought to bed of a prince, who died afterwards in 1719. Whether this news sunk the courage of Alexis, or whether it was imprudence or bad counsel, he wrote to his father, that he renounced the crown, and all hopes of reigning. 'I take God to witness,' says he, 'and I swear by my soul that I will never pretend to the succession. I put my children into your hands, and I desire only a provision for life.'

The czar wrote him a second letter, as follows:98– 'You speak of the succession, as if I stood in need of your consent in the disposal thereof. I reproached you with the aversion you have shewn to all kind of business, and signified to you, that I was highly dissatisfied with your conduct in general; but to these particulars you have given me no answer. Paternal exhortations make no impression on you, wherefore I resolved to write you this once for the last time. If you despise the advice I give you while I am alive, what regard will you pay to them after my death? But though you had the inclination at present to be true to your promises, yet a corrupt priesthood will be able to turn you at pleasure, and force you to falsify them. They have no dependance but upon you. You have no sense of gratitude towards him who gave you your being. Have you ever assisted him in toils and labours since you arrived at the age of maturity? Do you not censure and condemn, nay, even affect to hold in detestation, whatever I do for the good of my people? In a word, I have reason to conclude, that if you survive me, you will overturn every thing that I have done. Take your choice, either endeavour to make yourself worthy of the throne, or embrace a monastic state. I expect your answer, either in writing, or by word of mouth, otherwise I shall treat you as a common malefactor.'

This letter was very severe, and it was easy for the prince to have replied, that he would alter his conduct; instead of which, he only returned a short answer to his father, desiring permission to turn monk.99

This resolution appeared altogether unnatural; and it may furnish matter of surprise, that the czar should think of travelling, and leaving a son at home so obstinate and ill-affected; but, at the same time, his doing so, is next to a proof, that he thought he had no reason to apprehend a conspiracy from that son.

The czar, before he set out for Germany and France, went to pay his son a visit. The prince, who was at that time ill, or at least feigned himself so, received his father in his bed, where he protested, with the most solemn oaths, that he was ready to retire into a cloister. The czar gave him six months to consider of it, and then set out on his travels with the czarina.

No sooner was he arrived at Copenhagen, than he heard (what he might reasonably expect) that the czarowitz conversed only with factions and evil-minded persons, who strove to feed his discontent. Upon this the czar wrote to him, that he had to choose between a throne and a convent; and that, if he had any thoughts of succeeding him, he must immediately set out and join him at Copenhagen.

But the confidants of the prince remonstrating to him how dangerous it would be to trust himself in a place where he could have no friends to advise him, and where he would be exposed to the anger of an incensed father, and the machinations of a revengeful step-mother; he, under pretence of going to join his father at Copenhagen, took the road to Vienna, and threw himself under the protection of the emperor Charles VI. his brother-in-law, intending to remain at his court till the death of the czar.

This adventure of the czarowitz was nearly the same as that of Lewis XI. of France, who, when he was dauphin, quitted the court of his father Charles VII. and took refuge with the duke of Burgundy; but the dauphin was much more culpable than Alexis, inasmuch as he married in direct opposition to his father's will, raised an army against him, and threw himself into the arms of a prince, who was Charles's declared enemy, and refused to hearken to the repeated remonstances of his father, to return back to his court.

The czarowitz, on the contrary, had married only in compliance with his father's orders, had never rebelled against him, nor raised an army, nor taken refuge in the dominions of an enemy, and returned to throw himself at his feet, upon the very first letter he received from him; for, as soon as Peter knew that his son had been at Vienna, and had afterwards retired to Tyrol, and from thence to Naples, which, at that time, belonged to the emperor, he dispatched Romanzoff, a captain of his guards, and the privy-counsellor Tolstoy, with a letter written with his own hand, and dated at Spa, the 21st of July, N. S. 1717. They found the prince at Naples, in the castle of St. Elme, and delivered to him his father's letter, which was as follows: —

'I now write to you for the last time, to acquaint you, that you must instantly comply with my orders, which will be communicated to you by Tolstoy and Romanzoff. If you obey, I give you my sacred word and promise, that I will not punish you; and that, if you will return home, I will love you more than ever; but, if you do not, I, as your father, and in virtue of the authority which God has given me over you, denounce against you my eternal curse; and, as your sovereign, declare to you, that I will find means to punish your disobedience, in which I trust God himself will assist me, and espouse the just cause of an injured parent and king.

'For the rest, remember that I have never laid any restraint upon you. Was I obliged to leave you at liberty to choose your way of life? Had I not the power in my own hands to oblige you to conform to my will? I had only to command, and make myself obeyed.'

The viceroy of Naples found it no difficult matter to persuade the czarowitz to return to his father. This is an incontestable proof that the emperor had no intention to enter into any engagements with the prince, that might give umbrage to his father. Alexis therefore returned with the envoys, bringing with him his mistress, Aphrosyne, who had been the companion of his elopement.

We may consider the czarowitz as an ill-advised young man, who had gone to Vienna and to Naples, instead of going to Copenhagen, agreeable to the orders of his father and sovereign. Had he been guilty of no other crime than this, which is common enough with young and giddy persons, it was certainly very excusable. The prince determined to return to his father, on the faith of his having taken God to witness, that he not only would pardon him, but that he would love him better than ever. But it appears by the instructions given to the two envoys who went to fetch him, and even by the czar's own letter, that his father required him to declare the persons who had been his counsellors, and also to fulfil the oath he had made of renouncing the succession.

It seemed difficult to reconcile this exclusion of the czarowitz from the succession, with the other part of the oath, by which the czar had bound himself in his letter, namely that of loving his son better than ever. Perhaps divided between paternal love, and the justice he owed to himself and people, as a sovereign, he might limit the renewal of his affection to his son in a convent, instead of to that son on a throne: perhaps, likewise, he was in hopes to reduce him to reason, and to render him worthy of the succession at last, by making him sensible of the loss of a crown which he had forfeited by his own indiscretion. In a circumstance so uncommon, so intricate, and so afflicting, it may be easily supposed that the minds of both father and son were under equal perturbation, and hardly consistent with themselves.

The prince arrived at Moscow on the 13th of February, N. S. 1717; and the same day went to throw himself at his father's feet, who was returned to the city from his travels. They had a long conference together, and a report was immediately spread through the city, that the prince and his father were reconciled, and that all past transactions were buried in oblivion. But the next day, orders were issued for the regiments of guards to be under arms at break of day, and for all the czar's ministers, boyards, and counsellors, to repair to the great hall of the castle; as also for the prelates, together with two monks of St. Basile, professors of divinity, to assemble in the cathedral, at the tolling of the great bell. The unhappy prince was then conducted to the great castle like a prisoner, and being come in his father's presence, threw himself in tears at his feet, and presented a writing, containing a confession of his faults, declaring himself unworthy of the succession, and imploring only that his life might be spared.100

The czar, raising up his son, withdrew with him into a private room, where he put many questions to him, declaring to him at the same time, that if he concealed any one circumstance relating to his elopement, his life should answer for it. The prince was then brought back to the great hall, where the council was assembled, and the czar's declaration, which had been previously prepared, was there publicly read in his presence.101

In this piece the czar reproaches his son with all those faults we have before related, namely, his little application to study, his connexions with the favourers of the ancient customs and manners of the country, and his ill-behaviour to his wife. – 'He has even violated the conjugal faith,' saith the czar in his manifesto, 'by giving his affection to a prostitute of the most servile and low condition, during the life-time of his lawful spouse.' It is certain that Peter himself had repudiated his own wife in favour of a captive, but that captive was a person of exemplary merit, and the czar had just cause for discontent against his wife, who was at the same time his subject. The czarowitz, on the contrary, had abandoned his princess for a young woman, hardly known to any one, and who had no other merit but that of personal charms. So far there appears some errors of a young man, which a parent ought to reprimand in secret, and which he might have pardoned.

The czar, in his manifesto, next reproaches his son with his flight to Vienna, and his having put himself under the emperor's protection; and adds, that he had calumniated his father, by telling the emperor that he was persecuted by him; and that he had compelled him to renounce the succession; and, lastly, that he had made intercession with the emperor to assist him with an armed force.

Here it immediately occurs, that the emperor could not, with any propriety, have entered into a war with the czar on such an occasion; nor could he have interposed otherwise between an incensed father and a disobedient son, than by his good offices to promote a reconciliation. Accordingly we find, that Charles VI. contented himself with giving a temporary asylum to the fugitive prince, and readily sent him back on the first requisition of the czar, in consequence of being informed of the place his son had chosen for his retreat.

Peter adds, in this terrible piece, that Alexis had persuaded the emperor, that he went in danger of his life, if he returned back to Russia. Surely it was in some measure justifying these complaints of the prince, to condemn him to death at his return, and especially after so solemn a promise to pardon him; but we shall see, in the course of this history, the cause which afterwards moved the czar to denounce this ever-memorable sentence. For the present let us turn our eyes upon an absolute prince, pleading against his son before an august assembly. —

'In this manner,' says he, 'has our son returned; and although, by his withdrawing himself and raising calumnies against us, he has deserved to be punished with death, yet, out of our paternal affection, we pardon his crimes; but, considering his unworthiness, and the series of his irregular conduct, we cannot in conscience leave him the succession to the throne of Russia; foreseeing that, by his vicious courses, he would, after our decease, entirely destroy the glory of our nation, and the safety of our dominions, which we have recovered from the enemy.

'Now, as we should pity our states and our faithful subjects, if, by such a successor, we should throw them back into a much worse condition than ever they were yet; so, by the paternal authority, and, in quality of sovereign prince, in consideration of the safety of our dominions, we do deprive our said son Alexis, for his crimes and unworthiness, of the succession after us to our throne of Russia, even though there should not remain one single person of our family after us.

'And we do constitute and declare successor to the said throne after us, our second son, Peter,102 though yet very young, having no successor that is older.

'We lay upon our said son Alexis our paternal curse, if ever at any time he pretends to, or reclaims, the said succession.

'And we desire our faithful subjects, whether ecclesiastics or seculars, of all ranks and conditions, and the whole Russian nation, in conformity to this constitution and our will, to acknowledge and consider our son Peter, appointed by us to succeed, as lawful successor, and agreeably to this our constitution, to confirm the whole by oath before the holy altar, upon the holy gospel, kissing the cross.

'And all those who shall ever at any time oppose this our will, and who, from this day forward, shall dare to consider our son Alexis as successor, or assist him for that purpose, declare them traitors to us and our country. And we have ordered that these presents shall be every where published and promulgated, to the end that no person may pretend ignorance.'

It would seem that this declaration had been prepared beforehand for the occasion, or that it had been drawn up with astonishing dispatch: for the czarowitz did not return to Moscow till the 13th of February, and his renunciation in favour of the empress Catherine's son is dated the 14th.

The prince on his part signed his renunciation, whereby he acknowledges his exclusion to be just, as having merited it by his own fault and unworthiness; 'And I do hereby swear,' adds he, 'in presence of God Almighty in the Holy Trinity, to submit in all things to my father's will,' &c.

These instruments being signed, the czar went in procession to the cathedral, where they were read a second time, when the whole body of clergy signed their approbation with their seals at the bottom, to a copy prepared for that purpose.103 No prince was ever disinherited in so authentic a manner. There are many states in which an act of this kind would be of no validity; but in Russia, as in ancient Rome, every father has a power of depriving his son of his succession, and this power was still stronger in a sovereign than in a private subject, and especially in such a sovereign as Peter.

But, nevertheless, it was to be apprehended, that those who had encouraged the prince in his opposition to his father's will, and had advised him to withdraw himself from his court, might one day endeavour to set aside a renunciation which had been procured by force, and restore to the eldest son that crown which had been violently snatched from him to place on the head of a younger brother by a second marriage. In this case it was easy to foresee a civil war, and a total subversion of all the great and useful projects which Peter had so much laboured to establish; and therefore the present matter in question was to determine between the welfare of near eighteen millions of souls (which was nearly the number which the empire of Russia contained at that time), and the interest of a single person incapable of governing. Hence it became necessary to find out those who were disaffected, and accordingly the czar a second time threatened his son with the most fatal consequences if he concealed any thing: and the prince was obliged to undergo a judicial examination by his father, and afterwards by the commissioners appointed for that purpose.

One principal article of the charge brought against him, and that which served chiefly to his condemnation, was, a letter from one Beyer, the emperor's resident at the court of Russia, dated at Petersburg, after the flight of the prince. This letter makes mention of a mutiny in the Russian army then assembled at Mecklenburg, and that several officers talked of clapping up Catherine and her son in the prison where the late empress, whom Peter had repudiated, was then confined, and of placing the czarowitz on the throne, as soon as he could be found out and brought back. These idle projects fell to the ground of themselves, and there was not the least appearance that Alexis had ever countenanced them. The whole was only a piece of news related by a foreigner; the letter itself was not directed to the prince, and he had only a copy thereof transmitted him while at Vienna.

But a charge of a more grievous nature appeared against him, namely, the heads of a letter written with his own hand, and which he had sent, while at the court of Vienna, to the senators and prelates of Russia, in which were the following very strong assertions: – 'The continual ill-treatment which I have suffered without having deserved it, have at length obliged me to consult my peace and safety by flight. I have narrowly escaped being confined in a convent, by those who have already served my mother in the same manner. I am now under the protection of a great prince, and I beseech you not to abandon me in this conjuncture.'

The expression, in this conjuncture, which might be construed into a seditious meaning, appeared to have been blotted out, and then inserted again by his own hand, and afterwards blotted out a second time; which shewed it to be the action of a young man disturbed in his mind, following the dictates of his resentment, and repenting of it at the very instant. There were only the copies of these letters found: they were never sent to the persons they were designed for, the court of Vienna having taken care to stop them; a convincing proof that the emperor never intended to break with the czar, or to assist the son to take up arms against his father.

Several witnesses were brought to confront the prince, and one of them, named Afanassief, deposed, that he had formerly heard him speak these words, – 'I shall mention something to the bishops, who will mention it again to the lower clergy, and they to the parish priests, and the crown will be placed on my head whether I will or not.'

His own mistress, Aphrosyne, was likewise brought to give evidence against him. The charge, however, was not well supported in all its parts; there did not appear to have been any regular plan formed, any chain of intrigues, or any thing like a conspiration or combination, nor the least shadow of preparation for a change in the government. The whole affair was that of a son, of a depraved and factious disposition, who thought himself injured by his father, who fled from him, and who wished for his death; but this son was heir to the greatest monarchy in our hemisphere, and in his situation and place he could not be guilty of trivial faults.

After the accusations of his mistress, another witness was brought against him, in relation to the former czarina his mother, and the princess Mary his sister. He was charged with having consulted the former in regard to his flight, and of having mentioned it to the princess Mary. The bishop of Rostow, who was the confidant of all three, having been seized, deposed, that the two princesses, who were then shut up in a convent, had expressed their wishes for a revolution in affairs that might restore them their liberty, and had even encouraged the prince, by their advice, to withdraw himself out of the kingdom. The more natural their resentment was, the more it was to be apprehended. We shall see, at the end of this chapter, what kind of a person the bishop of Rostow was, and what had been his conduct.

The czarowitz at first denied several facts of this nature which were alleged against him, and by this very behaviour subjected himself to the punishment of death, with which his father had threatened him in case he did not make an open and sincere confession.