THE PRINCESS'S DOWNFALL.
1684-1869
Sophia at the height of her power--Military expeditions--The Cham of
Tartary--Mazeppa--Origin and history--His famous punishment--Subsequent
history--The war unsuccessful--Sophia's artful policy--Rewards and
honors to the army--The opposition--Their plans--Reasons for the
proposed marriage--The intended wife--Motives of politicians--Results
of Peter's marriage--Peter's country house--Return of Galitzin--The
princess's alarm--The Cossacks--Sophia's plot--The commander of the
Guards--Prince Galitzin--Details of the plot--Manner in which the plot
was discovered--Messengers dispatched--The sentinels--The detachment
arrives--Peter's place of refuge--Sophia's pretenses--The
Guards--Sophia attempts to secure them--They adhere to the cause of
Peter--Sophia's alarm--Her first deputation--Failure of the
deputation--Sophia appeals to the patriarch--His mission
fails--Sophia's despair--Her final plans--She is repulsed from the
monastery--The surrender of Thekelavitaw demanded--He is brought to
trial--He is put to the torture--His confessions--Value of them--Modes
of torture applied--Various punishments inflicted--Galitzin is
banished--His son shares his fate--Punishment of Thekelavitaw--Decision
in respect to Sophia--Peter's public entry into Moscow--He gains sole
power--Character and condition of John--Subsequent history of Sophia
The Princess Sophia was now in full possession of power, so that she
reigned supreme in the palaces and in the capital, while, of course,
the ordinary administration of the affairs of state, and the relations
of the empire with foreign nations, were left to Galitzin and the other
ministers. It was in 1684 that she secured possession of this power,
and in 1689 her regency came to an end, so that she was, in fact, the
ruler of the Russian empire for a period of about five years.
During this time one or two important military expeditions were set on
foot by her government. The principal was a campaign in the southern
part of the empire for the conquest of the Crimea, which country,
previous to that time, had belonged to the Turks. Poland was at that
period a very powerful kingdom, and the Poles, having become involved
in a war with the Turks, proposed to the Russians, or Muscovites, as
they were then generally called, to join them in an attempt to conquer
the Crimea. The Tartars who inhabited the Crimea and the country to
the northeastward of it were on the side of the Turks, so that the
Russians had two enemies to contend with.
The supreme ruler of the Tartars was a chieftain called a Cham. He was
a potentate of great power and dignity, superior, indeed, to the Czars
who ruled in Muscovy. In fact, there had been an ancient treaty by
which this superiority of the Cham was recognized and acknowledged in a
singular way--one which illustrates curiously the ideas and manners of
those times. The treaty stipulated, among other things, that whenever
the Czar and the Cham should chance to meet, the Czar should hold the
Cham's stirrup while he mounted his horse, and also feed the horse with
oats out of his cap.
In the war between the Muscovites and the Tartars for the possession of
the Crimea, a certain personage appeared, who has since been made very
famous by the poetry of Byron. It was Mazeppa, the unfortunate
chieftain whose frightful ride through the tangled thickets of an
uncultivated country, bound naked to a wild horse, was described with
so much graphic power by the poet, and has been so often represented in
paintings and engravings.
Mazeppa was a Polish gentleman. He was brought up as a page in the
family of the King of Poland. When he became a man he mortally
offended a certain Polish nobleman by some improprieties in which he
became involved with the nobleman's wife. The husband caused him to be
seized and cruelly scourged, and then to be bound upon the back of a
wild, ungovernable horse. When all was ready the horse was turned
loose upon the Ukrain, and, terrified with the extraordinary burden
which he felt upon his back, and uncontrolled by bit or rein, he rushed
madly on through the wildest recesses of the forest, until at length he
fell down exhausted with terror and fatigue. Some Cossack peasants
found and rescued Mazeppa, and took care of him in one of their huts
until he recovered from his wounds.
Mazeppa was a well-educated man, and highly accomplished in the arts of
war as they were practiced in those days. He soon acquired great
popularity among the Cossacks, and, in the end, rose to be a chieftain
among them, and he distinguished himself greatly in these very
campaigns in the Crimea, fought by the Muscovites against the Turks and
Tartars during the regency of the Princess Sophia.
If the war thus waged by the government of the empress had been
successful, it would have greatly strengthened the position of her
party in Moscow, and increased her own power; but it was not
successful. Prince Galitzin, who had the chief command of the
expedition, was obliged, after all, to withdraw his troops from the
country, and make a very unsatisfactory peace; but he did not dare to
allow the true result of the expedition to be known in Moscow, for fear
of the dissatisfaction which, he felt convinced, would be occasioned
there by such intelligence; and the distance was so great, and the
means of communication in those days were so few, that it was
comparatively easy to falsify the accounts. So, after he had made
peace with the Tartars, and began to draw off his army, he sent
couriers to Moscow to the Czars, and also to the King in Poland, with
news of great victories which he had obtained against the Tartars, of
conquests which he made in their territories, and of his finally having
compelled them to make peace on terms extremely favorable. The
Princess Sophia, as soon as this news reached her in Moscow, ordered
that arrangements should be made for great public rejoicings throughout
the empire on account of the victories which had been obtained.
According to the custom, too, of the Muscovite government, in cases
where great victories had been won, the council drew up a formal letter
of thanks and commendations to the officers and soldiers of the army,
and sent it to them by a special messenger, with promotions and other
honors for the chiefs, and rewards in money for the men. The princess
and her government hoped, by these means, to conceal the bad success of
their enterprise, and to gain, instead of losing, credit and strength
with the people.
But during all this time a party opposed to Sophia and her plans had
been gradually forming, and it was now increasing in numbers and
influence every day. The men of this party naturally gathered around
Peter, intending to make him their leader. Peter had now grown up to
be a young man. In the next chapter we shall give some account of the
manner in which his childhood and early youth were spent; but he was
now about eighteen years old, and the party who adhered to him formed
the plan of marrying him. So they proceeded to choose him a wife.
The reasons which led them to advocate this measure were, of course,
altogether political. They thought that if Peter were to be married,
and to have children, all the world would see that the crown must
necessarily descend in his family, since John had no children, and he
was so sickly and feeble that it was not probable that even he himself
would long survive. They knew very well, therefore, that the marriage
of Peter and the birth of an heir would turn all men's thoughts to him
as the real personage whose favor it behooved them to cultivate; and
this, they supposed, would greatly increase his importance, and so add
to the strength of the party that acted in his name.
It turned out just as they had anticipated. The wife whom the
councilors chose for Peter was a young lady of noble birth, the
daughter of one of the great boiars, as they were called, of the
empire. Her name was Ottokessa Federowna. The Princess Sophia did all
in her power to prevent the match, but her efforts were of no avail.
Peter was married, and the event greatly increased his importance among
the nobles and among the people, and augmented the power and influence
of his party. In all cases of this kind, where a contest is going on
between rival claimants to a throne, or rival dynasties, there are some
persons, though not many, who are governed in their conduct, in respect
to the side which they take, by principles of honor and duty, and of
faithful adherence to what they suppose to be the right. But a vast
majority of courtiers and politicians in all countries and in all ages
are only anxious to find out, not which side is right, but which is
likely to be successful. Accordingly, in this case, as the marriage of
Peter made it still more probable than it was before that he would in
the end secure to his branch of the family the supreme power, it
greatly increased the tendency among the nobles to pay their court to
him and to his friends. This tendency was still more strengthened by
the expectation which soon after arose, that Peter's wife was about to
give birth to a son. The probability of the appearance of a son and
heir on Peter's side, taken in connection with the hopeless
childlessness of John, seemed to turn the scales entirely in favor of
Peter's party. This was especially the case in respect to all the
young nobles as they successively arrived at an age to take an interest
in public affairs. All these young men seemed to despise the
imbecility, and the dark and uncertain prospects of John, and to be
greatly charmed with the talents and energy of Peter, and with the
brilliant future which seemed to be opening before him. Thus even the
nobles who still adhered to the cause of Sophia and of John had the
mortification to find that their sons, as fast as they came of age, all
went over to the other side.
Peter lived at this time with his young wife at a certain country
palace belonging to him, situated on the banks of a small river a few
miles from Moscow. The name of this country-seat was Obrogensko.
Such was the state of things at Moscow when Prince Galitzin returned
from his campaigns in the Crimea. The prince found that the power of
Sophia and her party was rapidly waning, and that Sophia herself was in
a state of great anxiety and excitement in respect to the future. The
princess gave Galitzin a very splendid reception, and publicly rewarded
him for his pretended success in the war by bestowing upon him great
and extraordinary honors. Still many people were very suspicious of
the truth of the accounts which were circulated. The partisans of
Peter called for proofs that the victories had really been won. Prince
Galitzin brought with him to the capital a considerable force of
Cossacks, with Mazeppa at their head. The Cossacks had never before
been allowed to come into Moscow; but now, Sophia having formed a
desperate plan to save herself from the dangers that surrounded her,
and knowing that these men would unscrupulously execute any commands
that were given to them by their leaders, directed Galitzin to bring
them within the walls, under pretense to do honor to Mazeppa for the
important services which he had rendered during the war. But this
measure was very unpopular with the people, and, although the Cossacks
were actually brought within the walls, they were subjected to such
restrictions there that, after all, Sophia could not employ them for
the purpose of executing her plot, but was obliged to rely on the
regular Muscovite troops of the imperial Guard.
The plot which she formed was nothing else than the assassination of
Peter. She saw no other way by which she could save herself from the
dangers which surrounded her, and make sure of retaining her power.
Her brother, the Czar John, was growing weaker and more insignificant
every day; while Peter and his party, who looked upon her, she knew,
with very unfriendly feelings, were growing stronger and stronger. If
Peter continued to live, her speedy downfall, she was convinced, was
sure. She accordingly determined that Peter should die.
The commander-in-chief of the Guards at this time was a man named
Theodore Thekelavitaw. He had been raised to this exalted post by
Sophia herself on the death of Couvansky. She had selected him for
this office with special reference to his subserviency to her
interests. She determined now, accordingly, to confide to him the
execution of her scheme for the assassination of Peter.
When Sophia proposed her plan to Prince Galitzin, he was at first
strongly opposed to it, on account of the desperate danger which would
attend such an undertaking. But she urged upon him so earnestly the
necessity of the case, representing to him that unless some very
decisive measures were adopted, not only would she herself soon be
deposed from power, but that he and all his family and friends would be
involved in the same common ruin, he at length reluctantly consented.
The plan was at last fully matured. Thekelavitaw, the commander of the
Guards, selected six hundred men to go with him to Obrogensko. They
were to go in the night, the plan being to seize Peter in his bed.
When the appointed night arrived, the commander marshaled his men and
gave them their instructions, and the whole body set out upon their
march to Obrogensko with every prospect of successfully accomplishing
the undertaking.
But the whole plan was defeated in a very remarkable manner. While the
commander was giving his instructions to the men, two of the soldiers,
shocked with the idea of being made the instruments of such a crime,
stole away unobserved in the darkness, and ran with all possible speed
to Obrogensko to warn Peter of his danger. Peter leaped from his bed
in consternation, and immediately sent to the apartments where his
uncles, the brothers of his mother, were lodging, to summon them to
come to him. When they came, a hurried consultation was held. There
was some doubt in the minds of Peter's uncles whether the story which
the soldiers told was to be believed. They thought it could not
possibly be true that so atrocious a crime could be contemplated by
Sophia. Accordingly, before taking any measures for sending Peter and
his family away, they determined to send messengers toward the city to
ascertain whether any detachment of Guards was really coming toward
Obrogensko.
These messengers set off at once; but, before they had reached half way
to Moscow, they met Thekelavitaw's detachment of Guards, with
Thekelavitaw himself at the head of them, stealing furtively along the
road. The messengers hid themselves by the wayside until the troop had
gone by. Then hurrying away round by a circuitous path, they got
before the troop again, and reached the palace before the assassins
arrived. Peter had just time to get into a coach, with his wife, his
sister, and one or two other members of his family, and to drive away
from the palace before Thekelavitaw, with his band, arrived. The
sentinels who were on duty at the gates of the palace had been much
surprised at the sudden departure of Peter and his family, and now they
were astonished beyond measure at the sudden appearance of so large a
body of their comrades arriving at midnight, without any warning, from
the barracks in Moscow.
[Illustration: The escape.]
Immediately on his arrival at the palace, Thekelavitaw's men searched
every where for Peter, but of course could not find him. They then
questioned the sentinels, and were told that Peter had left the palace
with his family in a very hurried manner but a very short time before.
No one knew where they had gone.
There was, of course, nothing now for Thekelavitaw to do but to return,
discomfited and alarmed, to the Princess Sophia, and report the failure
of their scheme.
In the mean time Peter had fled to the Monastery of the Trinity, the
common refuge of the family in all cases of desperate danger. The news
of the affair spread rapidly, and produced universal excitement.
Peter, from his retreat in the monastery, sent a message to Sophia,
charging her with having sent Thekelavitaw and his band to take his
life. Sophia was greatly alarmed at the turn which things had taken.
She, however, strenuously denied being guilty of the charge which Peter
made against her. She said that the soldiers under Thekelavitaw had
only gone out to Obrogensko for the purpose of relieving the guard.
This nobody believed. The idea of taking such a body of men a league
or more into the country at midnight for the purpose of relieving the
guard of a country palace was preposterous.
The excitement increased. The leading nobles of the country began to
flock to the monastery to declare their adhesion to Peter, and their
determination to sustain and protect him. Sophia, at the same time,
did all that she could do to rally her friends. Both sides endeavored
to gain the good-will of the Guards. The princess caused them to be
assembled before her palace in Moscow, and there she appeared on a
balcony before them, accompanied by the Czar John; and the Czar made
them a speech--one, doubtless, which Sophia had prepared for him. In
this speech John stated to the Guards that his brother Peter had
retired to the Monastery of the Trinity, though for what reason he knew
not. He had, however, too much reason to fear, he said, that he was
plotting some schemes against the state.
"We have heard," he added, "that he has summoned you to repair thither
and attend him, but we forbid your going on pain of death."
Sophia then herself addressed the Guards, confirming what John had
said, and endeavoring artfully to awaken an interest in their minds in
her favor. The Guards listened in silence; but it seems that very
little effect was produced upon them by these harangues, for they
immediately afterward marched in a body to the monastery, and there
publicly assured Peter of their adhesion to his cause.
Sophia was now greatly alarmed. She began to fear that all was lost.
She determined to send an embassage to Peter to deprecate his
displeasure, and, if possible, effect a reconciliation. She employed
on this commission two of her aunts, her father's sisters, who were, of
course, the aunts likewise of Peter, and the nearest family relatives,
who were equally the relatives of herself and of him. These ladies
were, of course, princesses of very high rank, and their age and family
connection were such as to lead Sophia to trust a great deal to their
intercession.
She charged these ladies to assure Peter that she was entirely innocent
of the crime of which she was suspected, and that the stories of her
having sent the soldiers to his palace with any evil design were
fabricated by her enemies, who wished to sow dissension between herself
and him. She assured him that there had been no necessity at all for
his flight, and that he might now at any time return to Moscow with
perfect safety.
Peter received his aunts in a very respectful manner, and listened
attentively to what they had to say; but, after they had concluded
their address to him, he assured them that his retreat to the monastery
was not without good cause: and he proceeded to state and explain all
the circumstances of the case, and to show so many and such conclusive
proofs that a conspiracy to destroy him had actually been formed, and
was on the eve of being executed, that the princesses could no longer
doubt that Sophia was really guilty. They were overwhelmed with grief
in coming to this conviction, and they declared, with tears in their
eyes, that they would not return to Moscow, but would remain at the
monastery and share the fortunes of their nephew.
When Sophia learned what had been the result of her deputation she was
more alarmed than ever. After spending some time in perplexity and
distress, she determined to apply to the patriarch, who was the head of
the Church, and, of course, the highest ecclesiastical dignitary in the
empire. She begged and implored him to act as mediator between her and
her brother, and he was at length so moved by her tears and entreaties
that he consented to go.
This embassage was no more successful than the other. Peter, it seems,
was provided with proof, which he offered to the patriarch, not only of
the reality of the conspiracy which had been formed, but also of the
fact that, if it had been successful, the patriarch himself was to have
been taken off, in order that another ecclesiastic more devoted to
Sophia's interests might be put in his place. The patriarch was
astonished and shocked at this intelligence, and was so much alarmed by
it that he did not dare to return to Sophia to make his report, and
decided, as the ladies had done before him, to take up his abode with
Peter in the monastery until the crisis should be passed.
The princess was now almost in a state of despair. Prince Galitzin, it
is true, still remained with her, and there were some others in the
palace who adhered to her cause. She called these few remaining
friends together, and with them held a sorrowful and anxious
consultation, in order to determine what should now be done. It was
resolved that Thekelavitaw and one or two others who were deeply
implicated in the plot for the assassination of Peter should be secured
in a place of close concealment in the palace, and then, that the
princess herself, accompanied by Galitzin and her other leading
friends, should proceed in a body to the Monastery of the Trinity, and
there make a personal appeal to Peter, in hopes of appeasing him, and
saving themselves, if possible, from their impending fate. This plan
they proceeded to carry into effect; but before Sophia, and those who
were with her, had reached half way to the palace, they were met by a
nobleman who had been sent from the monastery to intercept them, and
order them, in Peter's name, to return to Moscow. If the princess were
to go on, she would not be received at the monastery, the messenger
said, but would find the gates closed against her.
So Sophia and her train turned, and despairingly retraced their steps
to Moscow.
The next day an officer, at the head of a body of the Guards three
hundred in number, was dispatched from the monastery to demand of the
Princess Sophia, at her palace, that she should give up Thekelavitaw,
in order that he might be brought to trial on a charge of treason.
Sophia was extremely unwilling to comply with this demand. She may
naturally be supposed to have desired to save her instrument and agent
from suffering the penalties of the crime which she herself had planned
and had instigated him to attempt; but the chief source of her extreme
reluctance to surrender the prisoner was her fear of the revelations
which he would be likely to make implicating her. After hesitating for
a time, being in a state during the interval of great mental distress
and anguish, she concluded that she must obey, and so Thekelavitaw was
brought out from his retreat and surrendered. The soldiers immediately
took him and some other persons who were surrendered with him, and,
securing them safely with irons, they conveyed them rapidly to the
monastery.
Thekelavitaw was brought to trial in the great hall of the monastery,
where a court, consisting of the leading nobles, was organized to hear
his cause. He was questioned closely by his judges for a long time,
but his answers were evasive and unsatisfactory, and at length it was
determined to put him to torture, in order to compel him to confess his
crime, and to reveal the names of his confederates. This was a very
unjust and cruel mode of procedure, but it was in accordance with the
rude ideas which prevailed in those times.
The torture which was applied to Thekelavitaw was scourging with a
knout. The knout was a large and strong whip, the lash of which
consists of a tough, thick thong of leather, prepared in a particular
way, so as greatly to increase the intensity of the agony caused by the
blows inflicted with it. Thekelavitaw endured a few strokes from this
dreadful instrument, and then declared that he was ready to confess
all; so they took him back to prison and there heard what he had to
say. He made a full statement in respect to the plot. He said that
the design was to kill Peter himself, his mother, and several other
persons, near connections of Peter's branch of the family. The
Princess Sophia was the originator of the plot, he said, and he
specified many other persons who had taken a leading part in it.
These statements of the unhappy sufferer may have been true or they may
have been false. It is now well known that no reliance whatever can be
placed upon testimony that is extorted in this way, as men under such
circumstances will say any thing which they think will be received by
their tormentors, and be the means of bringing their sufferings to an
end.
However it may have been in fact in this case, the testimony of
Thekelavitaw was believed. On the faith of it many more arrests were
made, and many other persons were put to the torture to compel them to
reveal additional particulars of the plot. It is said that one of the
modes of torment of the sufferers in these trials consisted in first
shaving the head and tying it in a fixed position, and then causing
boiling water to be poured, drop by drop, upon it, which in a very
short time produced, it is said, an exquisite and dreadful agony which
no mortal heroism could long endure.
After all these extorted confessions had been received, and the persons
accused by the wretched witnesses had been secured, the court was
employed two days in determining the relative guilt of the different
criminals, and in deciding upon the punishments. Some of the prisoners
were beheaded; others were sentenced to perpetual imprisonment; others
were banished. The punishment of Prince Galitzin was banishment for
life to Siberia. He was brought before the court to hear his sentence
pronounced by the judges in form. It was to this effect, namely, "That
he was ordered to go to Karga, a town under the pole, there to remain,
as long as he lived, in disgrace with his majesty, who had,
nevertheless, of his great goodness, allowed him threepence a day for
his subsistence; but that his justice had ordained all his goods to be
forfeited to his treasury."
Galitzin had a son who seems to have been implicated in some way with
his father in the conspiracy. At any rate, he was sentenced to share
his father's fate. Whether the companionship of his son on the long
and gloomy journey was a comfort to the prince, or whether it only
redoubled the bitterness of his calamity to see his son compelled to
endure it too, it would be difficult to say. The female members of the
family were sent with them too.
As soon as the prince had been sent away, officers were dispatched to
take possession of his palace, and to make an inventory of the property
contained in it. The officers found a vast amount of treasure. Among
other things, they discovered a strong box buried in a vault, which
contained an immense sum of money. There were four hundred vessels of
silver of great weight, and many other rich and costly articles. All
these things were confiscated, and the proceeds put into the imperial
treasury.
Thekelavitaw, the commander-in-chief of the Guards, had his head cut
off. The subordinate officer who had the immediate command of the
detachment which marched out to Obrogensko was punished by being first
scourged with the knout, then having his tongue cut out, and then being
sent to Siberia in perpetual banishment, with an allowance for his
subsistence of one third the pittance which had been granted to
Galitzin. Some of the private soldiers of the detachment were also
sentenced to have their tongues cut out, and then to be sent to Siberia
to earn their living there by hunting sables.
Peter was not willing that the Princess Sophia, being his sister,
should be publicly punished or openly disgraced in any way, so it was
decreed that she should retire to a certain convent, situated in a
solitary place a little way out of town, where she could be closely
watched and guarded. Sophia was extremely unwilling to obey this
decree, and she would not go to the convent of her own accord. The
commander of the Guards was thereupon directed to send a body of armed
men to convey her there, with orders to take her by force if she would
not go willingly; so Sophia was compelled to submit, and, when she was
lodged in the convent, soldiers were placed not only to keep sentinel
at the doors, but also to guard all the avenues leading to the place,
so as effectually to cut the poor prisoner off from all possible
communication with any who might be disposed to sympathize with her or
aid her. She remained in this condition, a close prisoner, for many
years.
Two days after this--every thing connected with the conspiracy having
been settled--it was determined that Peter should return to Moscow. He
made a grand triumphant entry into the city, attended by an armed
escort of eighteen thousand of the Guards. Peter himself rode
conspicuously at the head of the troops on horseback. His wife and his
mother followed in a coach.
On arriving at the royal palace, he was met on the staircase by his
brother John, who was not supposed to have taken any part in Sophia's
conspiracy. Peter greeted his brother kindly, and said he hoped that
they were friends. John replied in the same spirit, and so the two
brothers were reinstated again as joint possessors, nominally, of the
supreme power, but, now that Sophia was removed out of the way, and all
her leading friends and partisans were either beheaded or banished, the
whole control of the government fell, in fact, into the hands of Peter
and of his counselors and friends.
John, his brother Czar, was too feeble and inefficient to take any part
whatever in the management of public affairs. He was melancholy and
dejected in spirit, in consequence of his infirmities and sufferings,
and he spent most of his time in acts of devotion, according to the
rites and usages of the established church of the country, as the best
means within his knowledge of preparing himself for another and happier
world. He died about seven years after this time.
The Princess Sophia lived for fifteen years a prisoner. During this
period several efforts were made by those who still adhered to her
cause to effect her release and her restoration to power, but they were
all unsuccessful. She remained in close confinement as long as she
lived.