THE TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION OF ALEXIS AND DEATH
OF THE TZAR.
From 1718 to 1725.
The Tzar's Second Visit to Holland.--Reception in France.--Description
of Catharine.--Domestic Grief.--Conduct of Alexis.--Letters from His
Father.--Flight To Germany.--Thence to Naples.--Envoys Sent to Bring
Him Back.--Alexis Excluded from the Succession.--His Trial for
Treason.--Condemnation and Unexpected Death.--New Efforts of the Tzar
for the Welfare of Russia.--Sickness of Peter.--His Death.--Succession
of the Empress Catharine.--Epitaph to the Emperor.
From Holland the tzar went to Paris. Great preparations were made
there for his reception, and apartments in the Louvre were gorgeously
fitted up for the accommodation of him and his suite. But Peter,
annoyed by parade, declined the sumptuous palace, and, the very
evening of his arrival, took lodgings at the Hotel de Lesdiguieres. To
those who urged his acceptance of the saloons of the Louvre he
replied,
"I am a soldier. A little bread and beer satisfy me. I prefer small
apartments to large ones. I have no desire to be attended with pomp
and ceremony, nor to give trouble to so many people."
Every hour of his stay in Paris was employed in studying the
institutions of the realm, and the progress made in the arts and
sciences. Standing by the tomb of Richelieu, which is one of the
finest pieces of sculpture in Europe, he exclaimed,
"Thou great man! I would have given thee one half of my dominions to
learn of thee how to govern the other half."
All the trades and manufactures of the capital he examined with the
greatest care, and took back with him to St. Petersburg a large number
of the most skillful artists and mechanics. Leaving France he returned
to Amsterdam, where he rejoined Catharine, and proceeded with her to
Berlin. A haughty German lady, piqued, perhaps, that a woman not of
noble birth should be an empress, thus describes the appearance of
Catharine at that time:
"The tzarina is short and lusty, remarkably coarse, without grace and
animation. One need only see her to be satisfied of her low birth. At
the first blush one would take her for a German actress. Her clothes
looked as if bought at a doll shop; every thing was so old fashioned
and so bedecked with silver and tinsel. She was decorated with a dozen
orders, portraits of saints, and relics, which occasioned such a
clatter that when she walked one would suppose that an ass with bells
was approaching. The tzar, on the contrary, was tall and well made.
His countenance is handsome, but there is something in it so rude that
it inspires one with dread. He was dressed like a seaman, in a frock,
without lace or ornament."[14]
[Footnote 14: Memoires de la Margrave de Bareith.]
On Peter's return to Russia, he was compelled to meet and grasp a
trouble which for fifteen years had embittered his life. His son,
Alexis, had ever been a thorn in his father's side. He was not only
indolent and dissipated, but he was utterly opposed to all his
father's measures for reform, and was continually engaged in underhand
measures to head a party against him. Upon the death of the unhappy
princess of Wolfenbuttle, wife of this worthless prince, the grieved
and indignant father wrote to him as follows:
"I shall wait a little while longer to see if there be any hopes of
your reform. If not, I shall cut you off from the succession as one
lops off a dead branch. Do not think that I wish to intimidate you;
and do not place too much reliance upon the fact that you are my only
son.[15] If I am willing to lay down my own life for Russia, do you
think that I shall be willing to sacrifice my country for you? I would
rather transmit the crown to an entire stranger worthy of the trust,
than to my own child unworthy of it."
[Footnote 15: The empress gave birth to a son shortly after this
letter was written.]
This letter produced no effect upon the shameless debauchee. He
continued unchecked in his career of infamy. In acknowledging the
receipt of his father's letter, he contemptuously replied that he had
no wish for the crown, and that he was ready at any time to take an
oath that he would renounce it for ever. Matters were in this position
when the tzar left for Denmark. He had hardly arrived in Copenhagen
when he received dispatches informing him that his son was gathering
around him all the disaffected, and was seriously endangering the
tranquillity of the State. Once more the anxious father wrote to him
in these words:
"I observe in your letter that you say not a word of the affliction
your conduct has caused me for so many years. A father's admonitions
seem to produce no impression upon you. I have prevailed on myself to
write you once more, and for the last time. Those _bushy beards_ bind
you to their purposes. They are the persons whom you trust, who place
their hopes in you; and you have no gratitude to him who gave you
life. Since you were of age have you ever aided your father in his
toils? Have you not opposed every thing I have done for the good of my
people? Have I not reason to believe that should you survive me you
will destroy all that I have accomplished? Amend your life. Render
yourself worthy of the succession, or turn monk. Reply to this either
in person or in writing. If you do not I shall treat you as a
criminal."
The reply of Alexis, was laconic indeed. It consisted of just four
lines, and was as follows:
"Your letter of the 19th I received yesterday. My illness prevents me
from writing at length. I intend to embrace the monastic life, and I
request your gracious consent to that effect."
Seven months passed away, during which the tzar heard nothing
directly from his son, though the father kept himself informed of his
conduct. As Peter was returning from France he wrote to his son
reproaching him for his long silence, and requesting him, if he wished
to amend his ways and secure his father's favor, to meet him at
Copenhagen; but that if, on the contrary, he preferred to enter a
convent, which was the only alternative, he should inform him by the
return courier, that measures might be adopted to carry the plan
immediately into effect.
This brought matters to a crisis. The last thing the bloated debauchee
wished was to enter a convent. He was equally averse to a sober life,
and dared not meet his father lest he should be placed under arrest.
He consequently made no reply, but pretending that he was to set out
immediately for Copenhagen, he secured all the treasure he could lay
his hands upon and fled to Germany, to the court of the Emperor
Charles VI., who, it will be remembered, was his brother-in-law,
having married a sister of his deceased wife. Here he told a
deplorable story of the cruelty of his father, of the persecutions to
which he was exposed, and that to save his life he had been compelled
to flee from Russia.
The emperor, knowing full well that the young man was an infamous
profligate, was not at all disposed to incur the displeasure of Peter
by apparently espousing the cause of the son against the father. He
consequently gave the miscreant such a cold reception that he found
the imperial palace any thing but a pleasant place of residence, and
again he set out on his vagabond travels. The next tidings his father
heard of him were that he was in Naples, spending, as ever, his
substance in riotous living. A father's heart still yearned over the
miserable young man, and compassion was blended with disappointment
and indignation. He immediately dispatched two members of his court,
M. Romanzoff, captain of the royal guards, and M. Toltoi, a privy
counselor, to Naples, to make a last effort to reclaim his misguided
son. They found the young man in the chateau of Saint Elme, and
presented to him a letter from his father. It was dated Spa, July 1,
1717, and contained the following words:
"I write to you for the last time. Toltoi and Romanzoff will make
known to you my will. If you obey me, I assure you, and I promise
before God, that I will not punish you, but if you will return to me I
will love you better than ever. But if you will not return to me, I
pronounce upon you, as your father, in virtue of the power I have
received from God, my eternal malediction; and, as your sovereign, I
assure you that I shall find means to punish you, in which I trust God
will assist me."
It required the most earnest persuasion, and even the intervention of
the viceroy of Naples, to induce Alexis to return to Russia. The
miserable man had a harem of abandoned women with him, with whom he
set out on his return. They arrived in Moscow the 13th of February,
1718, and on that very day Peter had an interview with his son. No one
knows what passed in that interview. The rumor of the arrival of
Alexis spread rapidly through the city, and it was supposed that a
reconciliation had taken place. But the next morning, at the earliest
dawn, the great bell of Moscow rang an alarm, the royal guards were
marshaled and the privy counselors of the emperor were summoned to the
Kremlin.
Alexis was led, without his sword and as a prisoner, into the presence
of his father. At the same time, all the high ecclesiastics of the
church were assembled, in solemn conclave, in the cathedral church.
Alexis fell upon his knees before his father, confessed his faults,
renounced all claim to the succession and entreated only that his life
might be spared. The tzar led his son into an adjoining room, where
they for some time remained alone. He then returned to his privy
council and read a long statement, very carefully drawn up, minutely
recapitulating the conduct of Alexis, his indolence, his shameless
libertinism, his low companionship, his treasonable designs, and
exhibiting his utter unfitness, in all respects, to be entrusted with
the government of an empire. This remarkable document was concluded
with the following words:
"Now although our son, by such criminal conduct, merits the punishment
of death, yet our paternal affection induces us to pardon his crimes
and to exempt him from the penalty which is his due. But considering
his unworthiness, as developed in the conduct we have described, we
can not, in conscience, bequeath to him the throne of Russia,
foreseeing that, by his vicious courses, he would degrade the glory of
our nation, endanger its safety and speedily lose those provinces
which we have recovered from our foes with so much toil and at so vast
an expense of blood and treasure. To inflict upon our faithful
subjects the rule of such a sovereign, would be to expose them to a
condition worse than Russia has ever yet experienced. We do therefore,
by our paternal authority, in virtue of which, by the laws of our
empire, any of our subjects may disinherit a son and give his
succession to such other of his sons as he pleases, and, in quality of
sovereign prince, in consideration of the safety of our dominions, we
do deprive our son, Alexis, for his crimes and unworthiness, of the
succession after us to our throne of Russia, and we do constitute and
declare successor to the said throne after us our second son, Peter.
"We lay upon our said son, Alexis, our paternal curse if ever, at any
time, he pretends to, or reclaims 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, our
will, to acknowledge our son Peter as lawful successor, and to confirm
the whole by oath before the holy altar upon the holy gospel, kissing
the cross. And all those who shall ever oppose this, our will, and
shall dare to consider our son, Alexis, as successor, we declare
traitors to us and to their country. We have ordered these presents
to be everywhere promulgated, that no person may pretend ignorance.
Given at Moscow, February 3d, 1718."
This document was then taken to the cathedral, where all the higher
ecclesiastics had been assembled, and was read to them. Nothing was
omitted which could invest the act with solemnity, There is every
evidence that the heart of the father was rent with acutest anguish in
all these proceedings. Nothing could have been more desirable to him
than to transmit the empire his energies had rendered so illustrious,
to his own son to carry on the enterprises his father had commenced.
But to place eighteen millions of people in the hands of one who had
proved himself so totally unworthy, would have been the greatest
cruelty. The exclusion of Alexis from the succession was the noblest
act of Peter's life.
But new facts were soon developed which rendered it impossible for the
unhappy father to stop even here. Evidence came to light that Alexis
had been plotting a conspiracy for the dethronement of his father, and
for the seizure of the crown by violence. His mother, whom the tzar
had repudiated, and his energetic aunt, Mary, both of whom were in a
convent, were involved in the plot. He had applied to his
brother-in-law, the Emperor of Germany, for foreign troops to aid him.
There were many restless spirits in the empire, turbulent and
depraved, the boon companions of Alexis, who were ready for any deeds
of desperation which might place Alexis on the throne. The second son
of the emperor, the child of Catharine, was an infant of but a few
months old. The health of Peter was infirm and his life doubtful. It
was manifest that immediately upon the death of the tzar, Alexis would
rally his accomplices around him, raise the banner of revolt against
the infant king, and that thus the empire would be plunged into all
the horrors of a long and bloody civil war.
Peter having commenced the work of self-sacrifice for the salvation of
Russia, was not disposed to leave that work half accomplished. All
knew that the infamous Alexis would shrink from no crime, and there
was ample evidence of his treasonable plots. The father now
deliberately resolved to arraign his son for high treason, a crime
which doomed him to death. Aware of the awful solemnity of such a
moment, and of the severity with which his measures and his motives
would be sifted by posterity, he proceeded with the greatest,
circumspection. A high court of justice was organized for the trial,
consisting of two chambers, the one ecclesiastical, the other secular.
On the 13th of June, 1718, the court was assembled, and the tzar
presented to them the documentary evidence, which had been carefully
obtained, of his son's treasonable designs, and thus addressed them:
"Though the flight of Alexis, the son of the tzar, and a part of his
crimes be already known, yet there are now discovered such unexpected
and surprising attempts, as plainly show with what baseness and
villainy he endeavored to impose on us, his sovereign and father, and
what perjuries he hath committed against Almighty God, all which shall
now be laid before you. Though, according to all laws, civil and
divine, and especially those of this empire, which grant fathers
absolute jurisdiction over their children, we have full power to judge
our son according to our pleasure, yet, as men are liable to prejudice
in their own affairs, and as the most eminent physicians rely not on
their own judgment concerning themselves, but call in the advice of
others, so we, under the awful fear of displeasing God, make known our
disease, and apply to you for a cure. As I have promised pardon to my
son in case he should declare to me the truth, and though he has
forfeited this promise by concealing his rebellious designs, yet, that
we may not swerve from our obligation, we pray you to consider this
affair with seriousness, and report what punishment he deserves
without favor or partiality either to him or me. Let not the
reflection that you are passing sentence on the son of your prince
have any influence on you, but administer justice without respect of
persons. Destroy not your own souls and mine, by doing any thing
which may injure our country or upbraid our consciences in the great
and terrible day of judgment."
The evidence adduced against the young prince, from his own
confession, and the depositions which had been taken, were very
carefully considered, nearly a month being occupied in the solemnities
of deliberation. A verdict was finally rendered in the form of a
report to the emperor. It was a long, carefully-worded document,
containing a statement of the facts which the evidence substantiated
against the culprit. The conclusion was as follows:
"It is evident, from the whole conduct of the son of the tzar, that he
intended to take the crown from the head of his father and place it
upon his own, not only by a civil insurrection, but by the assistance
of a foreign army which he had actually requested. He has therefore
rendered himself unworthy of the clemency promised by the emperor;
and, since all laws, divine, ecclesiastical, civil and military,
condemn to death, without mercy, not only those who attempt rebellion
against their sovereign, but those who are plotting such attempts,
what shall be our judgment of one who has conspired for the commission
of a crime almost unparalleled in history--the assassination of his
sovereign, who was his own father, a father of great indulgence, who
reared his son from the cradle with more than paternal tenderness,
who, with incredible pains, strove to educate him for government, and
to qualify him for the succession to so great an empire? How much more
imperatively does such a crime merit death.
"It is therefore with hearts full of affliction, and eyes streaming
with tears, that we, as subjects and servants, pronounce this sentence
against the son of our most precious sovereign lord, the tzar.
Nevertheless, it being his pleasure that we should act in this
capacity, we, by these presents, declare our real opinion, and
pronounce this sentence of condemnation with a pure conscience as we
hope to answer at the tribunal of Almighty God. We submit, however,
this sentence to the sovereign will and revisal of his imperial
majesty, our most merciful sovereign."
This sentence was signed by all the members of the court, one hundred
and eighty in number; and on the 6th of July it was read to the guilty
prince in the castle where he was kept confined. The miserable young
man, enfeebled in body and mind by debaucheries, was so overwhelmed
with terror, as his death warrant was read, that he was thrown into
convulsions. All the night long fit succeeded fit, as, delirious with
woe, he moaned upon his bed. In the morning a messenger was dispatched
to the tzar to inform him that his son was seriously sick; in an hour
another messenger was sent stating that he was very dangerously sick;
and soon a third messenger was dispatched with the intelligence that
Alexis could not survive the day, and was very anxious to see his
father. Peter, scarce less wretched than his miserable son, hastened
to his room. The dying young man, at the sight of his father, burst
into tears, confessed all his crimes, and begged his father's blessing
in this hour of death. Tears coursed down the cheeks of the stern
emperor, and he addressed his dying child in terms so pathetic, and so
fervently implored God's pardon for him, that the stoutest hearts were
moved and loud sobbings filled the room.
It was midday of the 7th of July, 1718. The prince was confined in a
large chamber of a stone castle, which was at the same time a palace
and a fortress. There lay upon the couch the dying Alexis, bloated by
the excesses of a life of utter pollution, yet pale and haggard with
terror and woe. The iron-hearted father, whose soul this sublime
tragedy had-melted, sat at his side weeping like a child. The guards
who stood at the door, the nobles and ecclesiastics who had
accompanied the emperor, were all unmanned, many sobbing aloud,
overwhelmed by emotions utterly uncontrollable. This scene stamps the
impress of almost celestial greatness upon the soul of the tzar. He
knew his son's weakness, incompetency and utter depravity, and even in
that hour of agony his spirit did not bend, and he would not sacrifice
the happiness of eighteen millions of people through parental
tenderness for his debauched and ruined child.
About six o'clock in the evening the wretched Alexis breathed his
last, and passed from the tribunals of earth to the judgment-seat of
God. The emperor immediately seemed to banish from his mind every
remembrance of his crimes, and his funeral was attended with all the
customary demonstrations of affection and respect. Peter, fully aware
that this most momentous event of his life would be severely
criticised throughout the world, sent a statement of the facts to all
the courts of Europe. In his letter, which accompanied these
statements, he says:
"While we were debating in our mind between the natural emotions of
paternal clemency on one side, and the regard we ought to pay to the
preservation and the future security of our kingdom on the other, and
pondering what resolution to take in an affair of so great difficulty
and importance, it pleased the Almighty God, by his especial will and
his just judgment, and by his mercy to deliver us out of that
embarrassment, and to save our family and kingdom from the shame and
the dangers by abridging the life of our said son Alexis, after an
illness with which he was seized as soon as he had heard the sentence
of death pronounced against him.
"That illness appeared at first like an apoplexy; but he afterwards
recovered his senses and received the holy sacraments; and having
desired to see us, we went to him immediately, with all our counselors
and senators; and then he acknowledged and sincerely confessed all his
said faults and crimes, committed against us, with tears and all the
marks of a true penitent, and begged our pardon, which, according to
Christian and paternal duty, we granted him; after which on the 7th
of July, at six in the evening, he surrendered his soul to God."
The tzar endeavored to efface from his memory these tragic scenes by
consecrating himself, with new energy, to the promotion of the
interests of Russia. Utterly despising all luxurious indulgence, he
lived upon coarse fare, occupied plainly-furnished rooms, dressed in
the extreme of simplicity and devoted himself to daily toil with
diligence, which no mechanic or peasant in the realm could surpass.
The war still continued with Sweden. On the night of the 29th of
November, of this year, 1718, the madman Charles XII. was instantly
killed by a cannon ball which carried away his head as he was leaning
upon a parapet, in the siege of Fredericshall in Norway. The death of
this indomitable warrior quite changed the aspect of European affairs.
New combinations of armies arose and new labyrinths of intrigue were
woven, and for several years wars, with their usual successes and
disasters, continued to impoverish and depopulate the nations of
Europe. At length the tzar effected a peace with Sweden, that kingdom
surrendering to him the large and important provinces of Livonia,
Esthonia, Ingria and Carelia. This was an immense acquisition for
Russia.
With the utmost vigilance the tzar watched the administration of all
the internal affairs of his empire, punishing fraud, wherever found,
with unrelenting severity. The enterprise which now, above all others,
engaged his attention, was to open direct communication, by means of
canals, between St. Petersburg and the Caspian Sea. The most skillful
European engineers were employed upon this vast undertaking, by which
the waters of Lake Ladoga were to flow into the Volga, so that the
shores of the Baltic and distant Persia might be united in maritime
commerce. The sacred Scriptures were also, by command of the emperor,
translated into the Russian language and widely disseminated
throughout the empire. The Russian merchants were continually
receiving insults, being plundered and often massacred by the
barbaric tribes on the shores of the Caspian. Peter fitted out a grand
expedition from Astrachan for their chastisement, and went himself to
that distant city to superintend the important operations. A war of
twelve months brought those tribes into subjection, and extended the
Russian dominion over vast and indefinite regions there.
Catharine, whom he seemed to love with all the fervor of youth,
accompanied him on this expedition. Returning to St. Petersburg in
1724, Peter resolved to accomplish a design which he for some time had
meditated, of placing the imperial crown upon the brow of his beloved
wife. Their infant son had died. Their grandson, Peter, the son of
Alexis, was still but a child, and the failing health of the tzar
admonished him that he had not many years to live. Reposing great
confidence in the goodness of Catharine and in the wisdom of those
counselors whom, with his advice, she would select, he resolved to
transmit the scepter, at his death, to her. In preparation for this
event, Catharine was crowned Empress on the 18th of May, 1724, with
all possible pomp.
The city of Petersburg had now become one of the most important
capitals of Europe. Peter was not only the founder of this city, but,
in a great measure, the architect. An observatory for astronomical
purposes was reared, on the model of that in Paris. A valuable library
was in the rapid progress of collection, and there were several
cabinets formed, filled with the choicest treasures of nature and art.
There were now in Russia a sufficient number of men of genius and of
high literary and scientific attainment to form an academy of the arts
and sciences, the rules and institutes of which the emperor drew up
with his own hand.
While incessantly engaged in these arduous operations, the emperor was
seized with a painful and dangerous sickness--a strangury--which
confined him to his room for four months. Feeling a little better one
day, he ordered his yacht to be brought up to the Neva, opposite his
palace, and embarked to visit some of his works on Lake Ladoga. His
physicians, vainly remonstrating against it, accompanied him. It was
the middle of October. The weather continuing fine, the emperor
remained upon the water, visiting his works upon the shore of the lake
and of the Gulf of Finland, until the 5th of November. The exposures
of the voyage proved too much for him, and he returned to Petersburg
in a state of debility and pain which excited the greatest
apprehensions.
The disease made rapid progress. The mind of the emperor, as he
approached the dying hour, was clouded, and, with the inarticulate
mutterings of delirium, he turned to and fro, restless, upon his bed.
His devoted wife, for three days and three nights, did not leave his
side, and, on the 28th of January, 1725, at four o'clock in the
afternoon, he breathed his last, in her arms.
Before the dethronement of his reason, the tzar had assembled around
his bed the chief dignitaries of the empire, and had requested them,
as soon as he should be dead, to acknowledge the Empress Catharine as
their sovereign. He even took the precaution to exact from them an
oath that they would do this. Peter died in the fifty-third year of
his age. None of the children whom he had by his first wife survived
him. Both of the sons whom he had by the Empress Catharine were also
dead. Two daughters still lived. After the Empress Catharine, the next
heir to the throne was his grandson, Peter, the orphan child of the
guilty Alexis.
Immediately upon the death of the emperor, the senate assembled and
unanimously declared Catharine Empress of Russia. In a body, they
waited upon Catharine with this announcement, and were presented to
her by Prince Menzikoff. The mourning for the tzar was universal and
heartfelt. The remains were conveyed to the tomb with all the
solemnities becoming the burial of one of the greatest monarchs earth
has ever known. Over his remains the empress erected a monument
sculptured by the most accomplished artists of Italy, containing the
following inscription:
HERE LIETH
ALL THAT COULD DIE OF A MAN IMMORTAL,
PETER ALEXOUITZ;
IT IS ALMOST SUPERFLUOUS TO ADD
GREAT EMPEROR OF RUSSIA;
A TITLE
WHICH, INSTEAD OF ADDING TO HIS GLORY,
BECAME GLORIOUS BY HIS WEARING IT.
LET ANTIQUITY BE DUMB,
NOR BOAST HER ALEXANDER OR HER CÆSAR.
HOW EASY WAS VICTORY
TO LEADERS WHO WERE FOLLOWED BY HEROES,
AND WHOSE SOLDIERS FELT A NOBLE DISDAIN
AT BEING THOUGHT LESS VIGILANT THAN THEIR GENERALS!
BUT HE,
WHO IN THIS PLACE FIRST KNEW REST,
FOUND SUBJECTS BASE AND INACTIVE,
UNWARLIKE, UNLEARNED, UNTRACTABLE,
NEITHER COVETOUS OF FAME NOR FEARLESS OF DANGER-CREATURES
WITH THE NAMES OF MEN,
BUT WITH QUALITIES RATHER BRUTAL THAN RATIONAL
YET EVEN THESE
HE POLISHED FROM THEIR NATIVE RUGGEDNESS,
AND, BREAKING OUT LIKE A NEW SUN
TO ILLUMINE THE MINDS OF A PEOPLE,
DISPELLED THEIR NIGHT OF HEREDITARY DARKNESS,
AND, BY FORCE OF HIS INVINCIBLE INFLUENCE,
TAUGHT THEM TO CONQUER
EVEN THE CONQUERORS OF GERMANY.
OTHER PRINCES HAVE COMMANDED VICTORIOUS ARMIES;
THIS COMMANDER CREATED THEM.
EXULT, O NATURE! FOR THINE WAS THIS PRODIGY.
BLUSH, O ART! AT A HERO WHO OWED THEE NOTHING;