Alexis was married in the same manner as his father, and from among the
young women presented, he chose the one who appeared the most amiable in
his eyes. He married a daughter of the boyard Meloslauski, in 1647; his
second wife, whom he married in 1671, was of the family of Nariskin, and
his favourite Morosow was married to another. There cannot be a more
suitable title found for this favourite than that of vizier, for he
governed the empire in a despotic manner; and, by his great power,
excited several commotions among the strelitzes and the populace, as
frequently happens at Constantinople.
The reign of Alexis was disturbed by bloody insurrections, and by
domestic and foreign wars. A chief of the Don Cossacks, named
Stenko-Rasin, endeavoured to make himself king of Astracan, and was for
a long time very formidable; but, being at length defeated and taken
prisoner, he ended his life by the hands of the executioner; like all
those of this stamp, who have nothing to expect but a throne or a
scaffold. About twelve thousand of his adherents are said to have been
hanged on the high road to Astracan. In this part of the world, men
being uninfluenced by morality, were to be governed only by rigour; and
from this severity, frequently carried on to a degree of cruelty, arose
slavery, and a secret thirst of revenge.
Alexis had a war with the Poles that proved successful, and terminated
in a peace, which secured to him the possession of Smolensko, Kiow, and
the Ukraine: but he was unfortunate against the Swedes, and the
boundaries of the Russian empire were contracted within a very narrow
compass on that side of the kingdom.
The Turks were at that time his most formidable enemies: they invaded
Poland, and threatened the dominions of the czar that bordered upon Crim
Tartary, the ancient Taurica Chersonesus. In 1671, they took the
important city of Kaminiek, and all that belonged to Poland in the
Ukraine. The Cossacks of that country, ever averse to subjection, knew
not whether they belonged to the Turks, Poland, or Russia. Sultan
Mahomet IV. who had conquered the Poles, and had just imposed a tribute
upon them, demanded, with all the haughtiness of an Ottoman victor, that
the czar should evacuate his possessions in the Ukraine, but received as
haughty a denial from that prince. Men did not know at that time how to
disguise their pride, by an outside of civility. The sultan, in his
letter, styled the sovereign of the Russias only Christian Hospodar, and
entitled himself 'most gracious majesty, king of the universe.' The czar
replied in these terms, 'that he scorned to submit to a Mahometan dog,
and that his scimetar was as good as the grand seignior's sabre.'
Alexis at that time formed a design which seemed to presage the
influence which the Russian empire would one day obtain in the Christian
world. He sent ambassadors to the pope, and to almost all the great
sovereigns in Europe, excepting France (which was in alliance with the
Turks), in order to establish a league against the Ottoman Porte. His
ambassadors at the court of Rome succeeded only in not being obliged to
kiss the pope's toe; and in other courts they met with only unprofitable
good wishes; the quarrels of the Christian princes between themselves,
and the jarring interests arising from those quarrels, having constantly
prevented them from uniting against the common enemy of Christianity.
In the mean time, the Turks threatened to chastise the Poles, who
refused to pay their tribute: czar Alexis assisted on the side of Crim
Tartary, and John Sobieski, general of the crown, wiped off his
country's stain in the blood of the Turks, at the famous battle of
Choczim,[19] in 1674, which paved his way to the throne. Alexis
disputed this very throne with him, and proposed to unite his extensive
dominions to Poland, as the Jagellons had done; but in regard to
Lithuania, the greatness of his offer was the cause of its being
rejected. He is said to have been very deserving of the new kingdom, by
the manner in which he governed his own. He was the first who caused a
body of laws to be digested in Russia, though imperfect; and introduced
both linen and silk manufactures, which indeed were not long kept up;
nevertheless, he had the merit of their first establishment. He peopled
the deserts about the Wolga and the Kama, with Lithuanian, Polish, and
Tartarian families, whom he had taken prisoners in his wars: before his
reign, all prisoners of war were the slaves of those to whose lot they
fell. Alexis employed them in agriculture: he did his utmost endeavours
to introduce discipline among his troops. In a word, he was worthy of
being the father of Peter the Great; but he had no time to perfect what
he had begun, being snatched away by a sudden death, at the age of
forty-six, in the beginning of the year 1677, according to our style,
which is eleven days forwarder than that of Russia.
FOEDOR, or THEODORE ALEXIOWITZ.
Upon the death of Alexis, son of Michael, all fell again into confusion.
He left, by his first marriage, two princes, and six princesses.
Theodore, the eldest, ascended the throne at fifteen years of age. He
was a prince of a weak and sickly constitution, but of merit superior to
his bodily infirmities. His father Alexis had caused him to be
acknowledged his successor, a year before his death: a conduct observed
by the kings of France from Hugh Capet down to Lewis the Young, and by
many other crowned heads.
The second son of Alexis was Iwan, or John, who was still worse treated
by nature than his brother Theodore, being almost blind and dumb, very
infirm, and frequently attacked with convulsions. Of six daughters, born
of this first marriage, the only one who made any figure in Europe was
the princess Sophia, who was remarkable for her great talents; but
unhappily still more so for the mischief she intended against Peter the
Great.
Alexis, by his second marriage with another of his subjects, daughter of
the boyard Nariskin, had Peter and the princess Nathalia. Peter was born
the 30th of May (or the 10th of June new stile), in the year 1672, and
was but four years old when he lost his father. As the children of a
second marriage were not much regarded in Russia, it was little expected
that he would one day mount the throne.
It had ever been the character of the family of Romanow to civilize
their state. It was also that of Theodore. We have already remarked, in
speaking of Moscow, that this prince encouraged the inhabitants of that
city to build a great number of stone houses. He likewise enlarged that
capital, and made several useful regulations in the general police; but,
by attempting to reform the boyards, he made them all his enemies:
besides, he was not possessed of sufficient knowledge, vigour, or
resolution, to venture upon making a general reformation. The war with
the Turks, or rather with the Crim Tartars, in which he was constantly
engaged with alternate success, would not permit a prince of his weak
state of health to attempt so great a work. Theodore, like the rest of
his predecessors, married one of his own subjects, a native of the
frontiers of Poland; but having lost her in less than a year after
their nuptials, he took for his second wife, in 1682, Martha Matweowna,
daughter of the secretary Nariskin.[20] Some months after this marriage,
he was seized with the disorder which ended his days, and died without
leaving any children. As the czars married without regard to birth, they
might likewise (at least at that time) appoint a successor without
respect to primogeniture. The dignity of consort and heir to the
sovereign seemed to be entirely the reward of merit; and, in that
respect, the custom of this empire was much preferable to the customs of
more civilized states.
Theodore, before he expired, seeing that his brother Iwan was by his
natural infirmities incapable of governing, nominated his younger
brother Peter, heir to the empire of Russia. Peter, who was then only in
his tenth year, had already given the most promising hopes.
If, on the one hand, the custom of raising a subject to the rank of
czarina, was favourable to the females, there was another which was no
less hard upon them; namely, that the daughters of the czars were very
seldom married, but were most of them obliged to pass their lives in a
monastery.
The princess Sophia, third daughter of czar Alexis, by his first
marriage, was possessed of abilities, equally great and dangerous.
Perceiving that her brother Theodore had not long to live, she did not
retire to a convent; but finding herself situated between two brothers,
one of whom was incapable of governing, through his natural inability;
and the other, on account of his youth, she conceived the design of
placing herself at the head of the empire. Hence, in the last hours of
czar Theodore, she attempted to act the part that Pulcheria had formerly
played with her brother, the emperor Theodosius.