THE PRINCE ALEXIS.
1690-1716
Birth of Alexis--His father's hopes--Advantages enjoyed by
Alexis--Marriage proposed--Account of the wedding--Alexis returns to
Russia--Cruel treatment of his wife--Her hardships and sufferings--The
Czar's displeasure--Birth of a son--Cruel neglect--The Czar sent
for--Death-bed scene--Grief of the attendants--The princess's
despair--High rank no guarantee for happiness--Peter's
ultimatum--Letter to Alexis--Positive declarations contained in it--The
real ground of complaint--Alexis's excuses--His reply to his father--He
surrenders his claim to the crown--Another letter from the Czar--New
threats--More positive declarations--Alexis's answer--Real state of his
health--His depraved character--The companions and counselors of
Alexis--Priests--Designs of Alexis's companions--General policy of an
opposition--The old Muscovite party--Views of Alexis--Peter at a
loss--One more final determination--Farewell conversation--Alexis's
duplicity--Letter from Copenhagen--Alternative offered--Peter's
unreasonable severity--Alexis made desperate--Alexis's resolution
The reader will perhaps recollect that Peter had a son by his first
wife, an account of whose birth was given in the first part of this
volume. The name of this son was Alexis, and he was destined to become
the hero of a most dreadful tragedy. The narrative of it forms a very
dark and melancholy chapter in the history of his father's reign.
Alexis was born in the year 1690. In the early part of his life his
father took great interest in him, and made him the centre of a great
many ambitious hopes and projects. Of course, he expected that Alexis
would be his successor on the imperial throne, and he took great
interest in qualifying him for the duties that would devolve upon him
in that exalted station. While he was a child his father was proud of
him as his son and heir, and as he grew up he hoped that he would
inherit his own ambition and energy, and he took great pains to inspire
him with the lofty sentiments appropriate to his position, and to train
him to a knowledge of the art of war.
But Alexis had no taste for these things, and his father could not, in
any possible way, induce him to take any interest in them whatever. He
was idle and spiritless, and nothing could arouse him to make any
exertion. He spent his time in indolence and in vicious indulgences.
These habits had the effect of undermining his health, and increasing
more and more his distaste for the duties which his father wished him
to perform.
The Czar tried every possible means to produce a change in the
character of his son, and to awaken in him something like an honorable
ambition. To this end he took Alexis with him in his journeys to
foreign countries, and introduced him to the reigning princes of
eastern Europe, showed him their capitals, explained to him the various
military systems which were adopted by the different powers, and made
him acquainted with the principal personages in their courts. But all
was of no avail. Alexis could not be aroused to take an interest in
any thing but idle indulgences and vice.
At length, when Alexis was about twenty years of age, that is, in the
year 1710, his father conceived the idea of trying the effect of
marriage upon him. So he directed his son to make choice of a wife.
It is not improbable that he himself really selected the lady. At any
rate, he controlled the selection, for Alexis was quite indifferent in
respect to the affair, and only acceded to the plan in obedience to his
father's commands.
The lady chosen for the bride was a Polish princess, named Charlotta
Christina Sophia, Princess of Wolfenbuttel, and a marriage contract,
binding the parties to each other, was executed with all due formality.
Two years after this marriage contract was formed the marriage was
celebrated. Alexis was then about twenty-two years of age, and the
princess eighteen. The wedding, however, was by no means a joyful one.
Alexis had not improved in character since he had been betrothed, and
his father continued to be very much displeased with him. Peter was at
one time so angry as to threaten that, if his son did not reform his
evil habits, and begin to show some interest in the performance of his
duties, he would have his head shaved and send him to a convent, and so
make a monk of him.
How far the princess herself was acquainted with the facts in respect
to the character of her husband it is impossible to say, but every body
else knew them very well. The emperor was in very bad humor. The
princess's father wished to arrange for a magnificent wedding, but the
Czar would not permit it. The ceremony was accordingly performed in a
very quiet and unostentatious way, in one of the provincial towns of
Poland, and after it was over Alexis went home with his bride to her
paternal domains.
The marriage of Alexis to the Polish princess took place the year
before his father's public marriage with his second wife, the Empress
Catharine.
As Peter had anticipated, the promises of reform which Alexis had made
on the occasion of his marriage failed totally of accomplishment.
After remaining a short time in Poland with his wife, conducting
himself there tolerably well, he set out on his return to Russia,
taking his wife with him. But no sooner had he got back among his old
associates than he returned to his evil ways, and soon began to treat
his wife with the greatest neglect and even cruelty. He provided a
separate suite of apartments for her in one end of the palace, while he
himself occupied the other end, where he could be at liberty to do what
he pleased without restraint. Sometimes a week would elapse without
his seeing his wife at all. He purchased a small slave, named
Afrosinia, and brought her into his part of the palace, and lived with
her there in the most shameless manner, while his neglected wife, far
from all her friends, alone, and almost broken-hearted, spent her time
in bitterly lamenting her hard fate, and gradually wearing away her
life in sorrow and tears.
She was not even properly provided with the necessary comforts of life.
Her rooms were neglected, and suffered to go out of repair. The roof
let in the rain, and the cold wind in the winter penetrated through the
ill-fitted windows and doors. Alexis paid no heed to these things;
but, leaving his wife to suffer, spent his time in drinking and
carousing with Afrosinia and his other companions in vice.
During all this time the attention of the Czar was so much engaged with
the affairs of the empire that he could not interfere efficiently.
Sometimes he would upbraid Alexis for his undutiful and wicked
behavior, and threaten him severely; but the only effect of his
remonstrances would be to cause Alexis to go into the apartment of his
wife as soon as his father had left him, and assail her in the most
abusive manner, overwhelming her with rude and violent reproaches for
having, as he said, made complaints to his father, or "told tales," as
he called it, and so having occasioned his father to find fault with
him. This the princess would deny. She would solemnly declare that
she had not made any complaints whatever. Alexis, however, would not
believe her, but would repeat his denunciations, and then go away in a
rage.
This state of things continued for three or four years. During that
time the princess had one child, a daughter; and at length the time
arrived when she was to give birth to a son; but even the approach of
such a time of trial did not awaken any feeling of kind regard or
compassion on the part of her husband. His neglect still continued.
No suitable arrangements were made for the princess, and she received
no proper attention during her confinement. The consequence was, that,
in a few days after the birth of the child, fever set in, and the
princess sank so rapidly under it that her life was soon despaired of.
When she found that she was about to die, she asked that the Czar might
be sent for to come and see her. Peter was sick at this time, and
almost confined to his bed; but still--let it be remembered to his
honor--he would not refuse this request. A bed, or litter, was placed
for him on a sort of truck, and in this manner he was conveyed to the
palace where the princess was lying. She thanked him very earnestly
for coming to see her, and then begged to commit her children, and the
servants who had come with her from her native land, and who had
remained faithful to her through all her trials, to his protection and
care. She kissed her children, and took leave of them in the most
affecting manner, and then placed them in the arms of the Czar. The
Czar received them very kindly. He then bade the mother farewell, and
went away, taking the children with him.
All this time, the room in which the princess was lying, the
antechamber, and all the approaches to the apartment, were filled with
the servants and friends of the princess, who mourned her unhappy fate
so deeply that they were unable to control their grief. They kneeled
or lay prostrate on the ground, and offered unceasing petitions to
heaven to save the life of their mistress, mingling their prayers with
tears, and sobs, and bitter lamentations.
The physicians endeavored to persuade the princess to take some
medicines which they had brought, but she threw the phials away behind
the bed, begging the physicians not to torment her any more, but to let
her die in peace, as she had no wish to live.
She lingered after this a few days, spending most of her time in
prayer, and then died.
At the time of her death the princess was not much over twenty years of
age. Her sad and sorrowful fate shows us once more what unfortunately
we too often see exemplified, that something besides high worldly
position in a husband is necessary to enable the bride to look forward
with any degree of confidence to her prospects of happiness when
receiving the congratulations of her friends on her wedding-day.
The death of his wife produced no good effect upon the mind of Alexis.
At the funeral, the Czar his father addressed him in a very stern and
severe manner in respect to his evil ways, and declared to him
positively that, if he did not at once reform and thenceforth lead a
life more in conformity with his position and his obligations, he would
cut him off from the inheritance to the crown, even if it should be
necessary, on that account, to call in some stranger to be his heir.
The communication which the Czar made to his son on this occasion was
in writing, and the terms in which it was expressed were very severe.
It commenced by reciting at length the long and fruitless efforts which
the Czar had made to awaken something like an honorable ambition in the
mind of his son, and to lead him to reform his habits, and concluded,
substantially, as follows:
"How often have I reproached you with the obstinacy of your temper and
the perverseness of your disposition! How often, even, have I
corrected you for them! And now, for how many years have I desisted
from speaking any longer of them! But all has been to no purpose. My
reproofs have been fruitless. I have only lost my time and beaten the
air. You do not so much as strive to grow better, and all your
satisfaction seems to consist in laziness and inactivity.
"Having, therefore, considered all these things, and fully reflected
upon them, as I see I have not been able to engage you by any motives
to do as you ought, I have come to the conclusion to lay before you, in
writing, this my last determination, resolving, however, to wait still
a little longer before I come to a final execution of my purpose, in
order to give you one more trial to see whether you will amend or no.
If you do not, I am fully resolved to cut you off from the succession.
"Do not think that because I have no other son I will not really do
this, but only say it to frighten you. You may rely upon it that I
will certainly do what I say; for, as I spare not my own life for the
good of my country and the safety of my people, why should I spare you,
who will not take the pains to make yourself worthy of them? I shall
much prefer to transmit this trust to some worthy stranger than to an
unworthy son.
"(Signed with his majesty's own hand),
"PETER."
The reader will observe, from the phraseology of these concluding
paragraphs, what is made still more evident by the perusal of the whole
letter, that the great ground of Peter's complaint against his son was
not his immorality and wickedness, but his idleness and inefficiency.
If he had shown himself an active and spirited young man, full of
military ardor, and of ambition to rule, he might probably, in his
private life, have been as vicious and depraved as he pleased without
exciting his father's displeasure. But Peter was himself so full of
ambition and energy, and he had formed, moreover, such vast plans for
the aggrandizement of the empire, many of which could only be commenced
during his lifetime, and must depend for their full accomplishment on
the vigor and talent of his successor, that he had set his heart very
strongly on making his son one of the first military men of the age;
and he now lost all patience with him when he saw him stupidly
neglecting the glorious opportunity before him, and throwing away all
his advantages, in order to spend his time in ease and indulgence, thus
thwarting and threatening to render abortive some of his father's
favorite and most far-reaching plans.
The excuse which Alexis made for his conduct was the same which bad
boys often offer for idleness and delinquency, namely, his ill health.
His answer to his father's letter was as follows. It was not written
until two or three weeks after his father's letter was received, and in
that interim a son was born to the Empress Catharine, as related in the
last chapter. It is to this infant son that Alexis alludes in his
letter:
"MY CLEMENT LORD AND FATHER,--
"I have read the writing your majesty gave me on the 27th of October,
1715, after the interment of my late spouse.
"I have nothing to reply to it but that if it is your majesty's
pleasure to deprive me of the crown of Russia by reason of my
inability--your will be done. I even earnestly request it at your
majesty's hands, as I do not think myself fit for the government. My
memory is much weakened, and without it there is no possibility of
managing affairs. My mind and body are much decayed by the distempers
to which I have been subject, which renders me incapable of governing
so many people, who must necessarily require a more vigorous man at
their head than I am.
"For which reason I should not aspire to the succession of the crown of
Russia after you--whom God long preserve--even though I had no brother,
as I have at present, whom I pray God also to preserve. Nor will I
ever hereafter lay claim to the succession, as I call God to witness by
a solemn oath, in confirmation whereof I write and sign this letter
with my own hand.
"I give my children into your hands, and, for my part, desire no more
than a bare maintenance so long as I live, leaving all the rest to your
consideration and good pleasure.
"Your most humble servant and son,
"ALEXIS."
The Czar did not immediately make any rejoinder to the foregoing
communication from his son. During the fall and winter months of that
year he was much occupied with public affairs, and his health,
moreover, was quite infirm. At length, however, about the middle of
June, he wrote to his son as follows:
"MY SON,--As my illness hath hitherto prevented me from letting you
know the resolutions I have taken with reference to the answer you
returned to my former letter, I now send you my reply. I observe that
you there speak of the succession as though I had need of your consent
to do in that respect what absolutely depends on my own will. But
whence comes it that you make no mention of your voluntary indolence
and inefficiency, and the aversion you constantly express to public
affairs, which I spoke of in a more particular manner than of your ill
health, though the latter is the only thing you take notice of? I also
expressed my dissatisfaction with your whole conduct and mode of life
for some years past. But of this you are wholly silent, though I
strongly insisted upon it.
"From these things I judge that my fatherly exhortations make no
impression upon you. For this reason I have determined to write this
letter to you, and it shall be the last.
"I don't find that you make any acknowledgment of the obligation you
owe to your father who gave you life. Have you assisted him, since you
came to maturity of years, in his labors and pains? No, certainly.
The world knows that you have not. On the other hand, you blame and
abhor whatever of good I have been able to do at the expense of my
health, for the love I have borne to my people, and for their
advantage, and I have all imaginable reason to believe that you will
destroy it all in case you should survive me.
"I can not let you continue in this way. Either change your conduct,
and labor to make yourself worthy of the succession, or else take upon
you the monastic vow. I can not rest satisfied with your present
behavior, especially as I find that my health is declining. As soon,
therefore, as you shall have received this my letter, let me have your
answer in writing, or give it to me yourself in person. If you do not,
I shall at once proceed against you as a malefactor.--(Signed) PETER."
To this communication Alexis the next day returned the following reply:
"MOST CLEMENT LORD AND FATHER,--
"I received yesterday in the morning your letter of the 19th of this
month. My indisposition will not allow me to write a long answer. I
shall enter upon a monastic life, and beg your gracious consent for so
doing.
"Your most humble servant and son,
"ALEXIS."
There is no doubt that there was some good ground for the complaints
which Alexis made with respect to his health. His original
constitution was not vigorous, and he had greatly impaired both his
mental and physical powers by his vicious indulgences. Still, his
excusing himself so much on this ground was chiefly a pretense, his
object being to gain time, and prevent his father from coming to any
positive decision, in order that he might continue his life of
indolence and vice a little longer undisturbed. Indeed, it was said
that the incapacity to attend to the studies and perform the duties
which his father required of him was mainly due to his continual
drunkenness, which kept him all the time in a sort of brutal stupor.
Nor was the fault wholly on his side. His father was very harsh and
severe in his treatment of him, and perhaps, in the beginning, made too
little allowance for the feebleness of his constitution. Neither of
the two were sincere in what they said about Alexis becoming a monk.
Peter, in threatening to send him to a monastery, only meant to
frighten him; and Alexis, in saying that he wished to go, intended only
to circumvent his father, and save himself from being molested by him
any more. He knew very well that his becoming a monk would be the last
thing that his father would really desire.
Besides, Alexis was surrounded by a number of companions and advisers,
most of them lewd and dissolute fellows like himself, but among them
were some much more cunning and far-sighted than he, and it was under
their advice that he acted in all the measures that he took, and in
every thing that he said and did in the course of this quarrel with his
father. Among these men were several priests, who, like the rest,
though priests, were vile and dissolute men. These priests, and
Alexis's other advisers, told him that he was perfectly safe in
pretending to accede to his father's plan to send him to a monastery,
for his father would never think of such a thing as putting the threat
in execution. Besides, if he did, it would do no harm; for the vows
that he would take, though so utterly irrevocable in the case of common
men, would all cease to be of force in his case, in the event of his
father's death, and his succeeding to the throne. And, in the mean
time, he could go on, they said, taking his ease and pleasure, and
living as he had always done.
Many of the persons who thus took sides with Alexis, and encouraged him
in his opposition to his father, had very deep designs in so doing.
They were of the party who opposed the improvements and innovations
which Peter had introduced, and who had in former times made the
Princess Sophia their head and rallying-point in their opposition to
Peter's policy. It almost always happens thus, that when, in a
monarchical country, there is a party opposed to the policy which the
sovereign pursues, the disaffected persons endeavor, if possible, to
find a head, or leader, in some member of the royal family itself, and
if they can gain to their side the one next in succession to the crown,
so much the better. To this end it is for their interest to foment a
quarrel in the royal family, or, if the germ of a quarrel appears,
arising from some domestic or other cause, to widen the breach as much
as possible, and avail themselves of the dissension to secure the name
and the influence of the prince or princess thus alienated from the
king as their rallying-point and centre of action.
This was just the case in the present instance. The old Muscovite
party, as it was called, that is, the party opposed to the reforms and
changes which Peter had made, and to the foreign influences which he
had introduced into the realm, gathered around Alexis. Some of them,
it was said, began secretly to form conspiracies for deposing Peter,
raising Alexis nominally to the throne, and restoring the old order of
things. Peter knew all this, and the fears which these rumors excited
in his mind greatly increased his anxiety in respect to the course
which Alexis was pursuing and the exasperation which he felt against
his son. Indeed, there was reason to believe that Alexis himself, so
far as he had any political opinions, had adopted the views of the
malcontents. It was natural that he should do so, for the old order of
things was much better adapted to the wishes and desires of a selfish
and dissolute despot, who only valued his exaltation and power for the
means of unlimited indulgence in sensuality and vice which they
afforded. It was this supposed bias of Alexis's mind against his
father's policy of reform that Peter referred to in his letter when he
spoke of Alexis's desire to thwart him in his measures and undo all
that he had done.
When he received Alexis's letter informing him that he was ready to
enter upon the monastic life whenever his father pleased, Peter was for
a time at a loss what to do. He had no intention of taking Alexis at
his word, for in threatening to make a monk of him he had only meant to
frighten him. For a time, therefore, after receiving this reply, he
did nothing, but only vented his anger in useless imprecations and
mutterings.
Peter was engaged at this time in very important public affairs arising
out of the wars in which he was engaged with some foreign nations, and
important negotiations which were going on with others. Not long after
receiving the short letter from Alexis last cited, he was called upon
to leave Russia for a time, to make a journey into central Europe.
Before he went away he called to see Alexis, in order to bid him adieu,
and to state to him once more what he called his final determination.
Alexis, when he heard that his father was coming, got into his bed, and
received him in that way, as if he were really quite sick.
Peter asked him what conclusion he had come to. Alexis replied, as
before, that he wished to enter a monastery, and that he was ready to
do so at any time. His father remonstrated with him long and earnestly
against this resolution. He represented in strong terms the folly of a
young man like himself, in the prime of his years, and with such
prospects before him, abandoning every thing, and shutting himself up
all his days to the gloomy austerities of a monastic life; and he
endeavored to convince him how much better it would be for him to
change his course of conduct, to enter vigorously upon the fulfillment
of his duties as a son and as a prince, and prepare himself for the
glorious destiny which awaited him on the Russian throne.
Finally, the Czar said that he would give him six months longer to
consider of it, and then, bidding him farewell, went away.
As soon as he was gone Alexis rose from his bed, and went away to an
entertainment with some of his companions. He doubtless amused them
during the carousal by relating to them what had taken place during the
interview with his father, and how earnestly the Czar had argued
against his doing what he had begun originally with threatening to make
him do.
The Czar's business called him to Copenhagen. While there he received
one or two letters from Alexis, but there was nothing in them to denote
any change in his intentions, and, finally, toward the end of the
summer, the Czar wrote him again in the following very severe and
decided manner:
"Copenhagen, Aug. 26th, 1716.
"MY SON,--Your first letter of the 29th of June, and your next of the
30th of July, were brought to me. As in them you speak only of the
condition of your health, I send you the present letter to tell you
that I demanded of you your resolution upon the affair of the
succession when I bade you farewell. You then answered me, in your
usual manner, that you judged yourself incapable of it by reason of
your infirmities, and that you should choose rather to retire into a
convent. I bade you seriously consider of it again, and then send me
the resolution you should take. I have expected it for these seven
months, and yet have heard nothing of you concerning it. You have had
time enough for consideration, and, therefore, as soon as you shall
receive my letter, resolve on one side or on the other.
"If you determine to apply yourself to your duties, and qualify
yourself for the succession, I wish you to leave Petersburg and to come
to me here within a week, so as to be here in time to be present at the
opening of the campaign; but if, on the other hand, you resolve upon
the monastic life, let me know when, where, and on what day you will
execute your resolution, so that my mind may be at rest, and that I may
know what to expect of you. Send me back your final answer by the same
courier that shall bring you my letter.
"Be particular to let me know the day when you will set out from
Petersburg, if you conclude to come to me, and, if not, precisely when
you will perform your vow. I again tell you that I absolutely insist
that you shall determine upon something, otherwise I shall conclude
that you are only seeking to gain time in order that you may spend it
in your customary laziness.--PETER."
When we consider that Alexis was at this time a man nearly thirty years
of age, and himself the father of a family, we can easily imagine that
language like this was more adapted to exasperate him and make him
worse than to win him to his duty. He was, in fact, driven to a
species of desperation by it, and he so far aroused himself from his
usual indolence and stupidity as to form a plan, in connection with
some of his evil advisers, to make his escape from his father's control
entirely by secretly absconding from the country, and seeking a retreat
under the protection of some foreign power. The manner in which he
executed this scheme, and the consequences which finally resulted from
it, will be related in the next chapter.