- Alexis I of Russia
Infobox Monarch
name =Tsar Alexis I
title =Tsar of all Russia
reign =12 July ,1645 -29 January ,1676
coronation =28 September ,1645
othertitles =
full name =Alexis Mikhailovich Romanov
predecessor =Mikhail
successor =Feodor III
consort =i)Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya
ii)Nataliya Kyrillovna Naryshkina
issue =see Family and children
dynasty =Romanov
father =Mikhail
mother =Eudoxia Streshneva
date of birth =March 9 ,1629
place of birth =Moscow
date of death =29 January ,1676
place of death =Moscow|Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov ( _ru. Алексей Михайлович) (March 9 ,1629 (O.S.) –January 29 ,1676 (O.S.)) was theTsar ofRussia during some of the most eventful decades of the mid-17th century. On the eve of his death in 1676, theTsardom of Russia spanned almost 2 billion acres.Early life and reign
Born in
Moscow onMarch 8 ,1629 , the son of Tsar Mikhail I andEudoxia Streshneva , Alexei acceded to the throne at the age of sixteen after his father's death on12 July 1645 . He was committed to the care of theboyar Boris Morozov , a shrewd and sensible guardian sufficiently enlightened to recognize the needs of his country, and by no means inaccessible to Western ideas.Morozov's foreign policy was pacificatory. He secured a truce with
Poland and carefully avoided complications with theOttoman Empire . His domestic policy was scrupulously fair and aimed at relieving the public burdens by limiting the privileges of foreign traders and abolishing a great many useless and expensive court offices. OnJanuary 17 ,1648 Morozov procured the marriage of the tsar withMaria Miloslavskaya , himself marrying her sister, Anna, ten days later, both daughters ofIlya Danilovich Miloslavsky (1594 – 1668).Morozov was very unpopular however, regarded as a typical self-seeking 17th-century boyar, and was generally detested and accused of sorcery and
witchcraft . In May 1648 the people ofMoscow rose against them in the so-calledSalt Riot , and the young Tsar was compelled to dismiss them and exile Boris to theKirillo-Belozersky Monastery . Suffering from the forced separation, Alexei sent many tender letters to his mentor, and urged the guards to treat him as civilly as possible.His associates and policies
The successful issue of the Moscow riots was the occasion of disquieting disturbances all over the tsardom culminating in dangerous rebellions at Pskov and Great
Novgorod , with which the government was so unable to cope that they surrendered, practically granting the malcontents their own terms. One man only had displayed equal tact and courage at Great Novgorod, the metropolitan Nikon, who in consequence became in 1651 the Tsar's chief minister.In 1653 the weakness and disorder of Poland, which had just emerged from the
Khmelnytsky Uprising , encouraged Alexei to attempt to recover from her rival the old Rus’ lands. OnOctober 1 1653 a national assembly met at Moscow to sanction the war and find the means of carrying it out, and in April 1654 the army was blessed by Nikon (now patriarch). The campaign of 1654 was an uninterrupted triumph, and scores of towns, including the important fortress ofSmolensk , fell into the hands of the Russians. It was also during this war that UkrainianHetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky appealed to Tsar Alexei for protection from the Poles, and got it in the form of theTreaty of Pereyaslav which brought about Russian dominance of theCossack Hetmanate in Left-BankUkraine .In January 1655 the rout of Akhmatov arrested their progress; but in the summer of the same year, the sudden invasion by
Charles X of Sweden for the moment swept the Polish state out of existence; the Russians, unopposed, quickly appropriated nearly everything which was not already occupied by the Swedes, and when at last the Poles offered to negotiate, the whole grand-duchy ofLithuania was the least of the demands of Alexei. Fortunately for Poland, the Tsar and the king ofSweden now quarrelled over the apportionment of the spoils, and at the end of May 1656 Alexei, stimulated by the emperor and the other enemies of Sweden, declared war.Great things were expected of the Swedish war, but nothing came of it.
Dorpat was taken, but countless multitudes were lost in vain beforeRiga . In the meantime Poland had so far recovered herself as to become a much more dangerous foe than Sweden, and, as it was impossible to wage war with both simultaneously, the Tsar resolved to rid himself of the Swedes first. This he did by thePeace of Kardis (July 2 ,1661 ), whereby Russia retroceded all her conquests. The Polish war dragged on for six years longer and was then concluded by a truce, nominally for thirteen years, which proved the most durable of treaties.By the
Treaty of Andrusovo (February 11 ,1667 )Vitebsk ,Polotsk and PolishLivonia were restored to Poland, but the infinitely more importantSmolensk andKiev remained in the hands of Russia together with the whole eastern bank of theDnieper River. This truce was the achievement ofAfanasy Ordin-Nashchokin , the first Russian chancellor and diplomat in the modern sense, who after the disgrace of Nikon became the Tsar's first minister till 1670, when he was superseded by the equally ableArtamon Matveyev , whose beneficent influence prevailed to the end of Alexei's reign.When
Charles I of England was beheaded by the Parliamentarians underOliver Cromwell in 1649, an outraged Alexei broke off diplomatic relations with England and accepted Royalist refugees in Moscow. He also provided financial assistance to "the widow of that glorious martyr."Assessment
It is the crowning merit of the Tsar Alexei that he discovered so many great men (like
Fyodor Rtishchev , Ordin, Matveyev, the best of Peter's precursors) and suitably employed them. He was not a man of superior strength of character, or he would never have submitted to the dictation of Nikon. But, on the other hand, he was naturally, if timorously, progressive, or he would never have encouraged the great reforming boyar Matveyev. His last years, notwithstanding the terrible rebellion ofStenka Razin , were deservedly tranquil.Alexei's letters have earned him a place in the history of
Russian literature , as assessed byD.S. Mirsky :A few private letters and an instruction to his falconers is all we have of him. But it is sufficient for
Sergey Platonov to proclaim him the most attractive of Russian monarchs. He acquired the moniker "Tishayshy", which means "most quiet" or "most peaceful". Certain aspects ofRussian Orthodoxy , not its most purely spiritual, but its aesthetic and worldly aspects, found in him their most complete expression. The essence of Alexei's personality is a certain spiritualEpicureanism , manifested in an optimistic Christian faith, in a profound, but unfanatical, attachment to the traditions and ritual of the Church, in a desire to see everyone round him happy and at peace, and in a highly developed capacity to extract a quiet and mellow enjoyment from all things. [D.S.Mirsky, "A History of Russian Literature". Northwestern University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8101-1679-0. Page 27.]Family and children
Alexei's first marriage to Miloslavskaya was a success, and she bore him thirteen children in twenty-one years of marriage: five sons and eight daughters, and died weeks after her thirteenth childbirth. Four sons survived her, (Alexei, Fyodor, Semyon, and Ivan) but within six months two of these had died, including Alexei, the sixteen-year-old heir to the throne.
Their children were:
*Tsarevich Dmitri Alexeevich (1648–1649)
*Tsarevna Yevdokia Alexeevna (1650–1712)
*Tsarevna Marfa Alexeevna (1652–1707)
*Tsarevich Alexei Alexeevich (1654–1670)
*Tsarevna Anna Alexeevna (1655–1659)
*Tsarevna Sofia Alexeevna (1657–1704)
*Tsarevna Ekaterina Alexeevna (1658–1718)
*Tsarevna Maria Alexeevna (1660–1723)
*Fyodor III (1661–1682)
*Tsarevna Feodosia Alexeevna (1662–1713)
*Simeon (1665 — 1669)
*Ivan V (1666–1696)
*Tsarevna Yevdokia Alexeevna (1669–1669)Alexei remarried on
February 1 ,1671 ,Nataliya Kyrillovna Naryshkina (September 1 ,1651 -February 4 ,1694 ), of Tatar nobility. She was brought up in the house ofArtamon Matveyev and was a ward of his wife, the Scottish-descended Mary Hamilton.Their children were:
*Peter I (1672–1725)
*Tsarevna Natalya Alexeevna (1673–1716)
*Tsarevna Fyodora Alexeevna (1674–1677)----
ee also
*
Tsars of Russia family tree Notes
References
*
Grigory Kotoshikhin 's "On Russia during the reign of Alexey Mikhailovich" (1665) is a key source on domestic life of the tsar and his court.
*Yury Krizhanich 's treatises from 1660s are also very informative.Sovereign Rulers of Russia----
*1911
*mirsky
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