nominal tsar of Russia from 1682 to 1696.
The younger son of Tsar Alexis (reigned 1645–76) by his first wife, Mariya Ilinichna Miloslavskaya, Ivan was a chronic invalid, deficient mentally and physically, who suffered from scurvy and poor eyesight and in his later years was partially paralyzed. When his elder brother Tsar Fyodor III died in 1682, Ivan's half brother Peter, the son of Alexis and his second wife, Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina, was named tsar. But Ivan's sister Sophia, determined to maintain the Miloslavsky family in power, encouraged the streltsy (sovereign's bodyguard) to riot and to demand that Ivan become tsar (May 23 [June 2], 1682). Consequently, three days later the boyar duma (or council) proclaimed Ivan and Peter (Peter I) corulers with Ivan as the senior tsar. On June 25 (July 5) both boys were crowned, and Sophia became regent.
Although the Naryshkins overthrew Sophia in 1689, Ivan, who had adopted a conciliatory attitude toward Peter, was allowed to retain his official position until his death. He never participated in governmental affairs, however, and devoted the bulk of his time to prayer, fasting, and pilgrimages.
Peter I
▪ duke or count of Brittany
also called Peter Of Dreux, byname Peter Mauclerc, French Pierre De Dreux, or Pierre Mauclerc
born 1190
died 1250, at sea en route to France
duke or count of Brittany from 1213 to 1237, French prince of the Capetian dynasty, founder of a line of French dukes of Brittany who ruled until the mid-14th century.
Married by his cousin King Philip II Augustus of France to Alix, heiress to Brittany, Peter did homage for the province in 1213 and assumed the title of duke, though he was considered merely a count by the French. He energetically asserted his authority over the Breton lands, annexing new fiefs to the ducal domain, granting privileges to the towns, and regularizing the administration.
As guardian for his son, John I the Red, after Alix's death in 1221, Peter attempted to build up his own power against the day of his son's majority; he extorted concessions from the French regency in 1227 by means of rebellion. He transferred his allegiance from the French to the English king from 1229 until 1234, even though his predecessor, Arthur I, had been murdered by the English. But when John came of age (1237), Peter had to renounce Brittany and henceforth was merely count of Braine.
Called Mauclerc (“Bad Clerk”) either because his early training for the church was abortive or because he quarreled continually with the episcopate, Peter spent much of his life under excommunication and was persuaded to go on a crusade (1239–40) in penance. In 1248 he went to Egypt on another crusade. Wounded in battle, he died on his way home.
▪ emperor of Russia
Introduction
Russian in full Pyotr Alekseyevich, byname Peter the Great, Russian Pyotr Veliky
born June 9 [May 30, Old Style], 1672, Moscow, Russia
died Feb. 8 [Jan. 28, O.S.], 1725, St. Petersburg
tsar of Russia, who reigned jointly with his half-brother Ivan V (1682–96) and alone thereafter (1696–1725) and who in 1721 was proclaimed emperor (imperator). He was one of his country's greatest statesmen, organizers, and reformers.
Peter was the son of Tsar Alexis by his second wife, Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina (Naryshkina, Natalya Kirillovna). Unlike his half-brothers, sons of his father's first wife, Mariya Ilinichna Miloslavskaya, Peter proved a healthy child, lively and inquisitive. It is probably significant to his development that his mother's former guardian, Artamon Sergeyevich Matveyev (Matveyev, Artamon Sergeyevich), had raised her in an atmosphere open to progressive influences from the West.
Youth and accession
When Alexis died in 1676 Peter was only four years old. His elder half-brother, a sickly youth, then succeeded to the throne as Fyodor III; but, in fact, power fell into the hands of the Miloslavskys, relatives of Fyodor's mother, who deliberately pushed Peter and the Naryshkin circle aside. When Fyodor died childless in 1682, a fierce struggle for power ensued between the Miloslavskys and the Naryshkins: the former wanted to put Fyodor's brother, the delicate and feebleminded Ivan V, on the throne; the Naryshkins stood for the healthy and intelligent Peter. Representatives of the various orders of society, assembled in the Kremlin, declared themselves for Peter, who was then proclaimed tsar; but the Miloslavsky faction exploited a revolt of the Moscow streltsy, or musketeers of the sovereign's bodyguard, who killed some of Peter's adherents, including Matveyev. Ivan and Peter were then proclaimed joint tsars; and eventually, because of Ivan's precarious health and Peter's youth, Ivan's 25-year-old sister Sophia was made regent. Clever and influential, Sophia took control of the government; excluded from public affairs, Peter lived with his mother in the village of Preobrazhenskoye, near Moscow, often fearing for his safety. All this left an ineradicable impression on the young tsar and determined his negative attitude toward the streltsy.
One result of Sophia's overt exclusion of Peter from the government was that he did not receive the usual education of a Russian tsar; he grew up in a free atmosphere instead of being confined within the narrow bounds of a palace. While his first tutor, the former church clerk Nikita Zotov, could give little to satisfy Peter's curiosity, the boy enjoyed noisy outdoor games and took especial interest in military matters, his favourite toys being arms of one sort or another. He also occupied himself with carpentry, joinery, blacksmith's work, and printing.
Near Preobrazhenskoye there was a nemetskaya sloboda (“German colony”) where foreigners were allowed to reside. Acquaintance with its inhabitants aroused Peter's interest in the life of other nations, and an English sailboat, found derelict in a shed, whetted his passion for seafaring. Mathematics, fortification, and navigation were the sciences that appealed most strongly to Peter. A model fortress was built for his amusement, and he organized his first “play” troops, from which, in 1687, the Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky Guards regiments were formed—to become the nucleus of a new Russian Army.
Early in 1689 Natalya Naryshkina arranged Peter's marriage to the beautiful Eudoxia (Yevdokiya Fyodorovna Lopukhina). This was obviously a political act, intended to demonstrate the fact that the 17-year-old Peter was now a grown man, with a right to rule in his own name. The marriage did not last long: Peter soon began to ignore his wife, and in 1698 he relegated her to a convent.
In August 1689 a new revolt of the streltsy took place. Sophia and her faction tried to use it to their own advantage for another coup d'état, but events this time turned decisively in Peter's favour. He removed Sophia from power and banished her to the Novodevichy convent; she was forced to become a nun after a streltsy rebellion in 1698. Though Ivan V remained nominally joint tsar with Peter, the administration was now largely given over to Peter's kinsmen, the Naryshkins, until Ivan's death in 1696. Peter, meanwhile continuing his military and nautical amusements, sailed the first seaworthy ships to be built in Russia. His games proved to be good training for the tasks ahead.
External events
At the beginning of Peter's reign, Russia was territorially a huge power, but with no access to the Black Sea, the Caspian, or to the Baltic, and to win such an outlet became the main goal of Peter's foreign policy.
The Azov campaigns (1695–96)
The first steps taken in this direction were the campaigns of 1695 and 1696, with the object of capturing Azov from the Crimean Tatar vassals of Turkey (Ottoman Empire). On the one hand, these Azov campaigns could be seen as fulfilling Russia's commitments, undertaken during Sophia's regency, to the anti-Turkish (Russo-Turkish wars) “Holy League” of 1684 (Austria, Poland, and Venice); on the other they were intended to secure the southern frontier against Tatar raids, as well as to approach the Black Sea. The first campaign ended in failure (1695), but this did not discourage Peter: he promptly built a fleet at Voronezh to sail down the Don River and in 1696 Azov was captured. To consolidate this success Taganrog was founded on the northern shore of the Don Estuary, and the building of a large navy was started.