Background
Alexei was on the 28th of February 1690 born in Moscow. He was the son of Tsar Peter I and the Tsar's first wife, Eudoxia Lopukhina.
Alexei was on the 28th of February 1690 born in Moscow. He was the son of Tsar Peter I and the Tsar's first wife, Eudoxia Lopukhina.
From the ages of 6 to 9, Alexei was educated by his tutor Vyazemsky, but after the removal of his mother by Peter the Great to the Suzdal Intercession Convent, Alexei was confined to the care of educated foreigners, who taught him history, geography, mathematics and French.
At the end of 1709, Alexei went to Dresden for one year. There, he finished lessons in French, German, mathematics and fortification.
In 1703, Alexei was ordered to follow the army to the field as a private in a bombardier regiment.
In 1704, he was present at the capture of Narva. At this period, the preceptors of the Tsarevich had the highest opinion of his ability. Peter had wished his son and heir to dedicate himself to the service of new Russia, and demanded from him unceasing labour in order to maintain Russia's new wealth and power. Painful relations between father and son, quite apart from the prior personal antipathies, were therefore inevitable. It was an additional misfortune for Alexei that his father should have been too busy to attend to him just as he was growing up from boyhood to manhood. He was left in the hands of reactionary boyars and priests, who encouraged him to hate his father and wish for the death of the Tsar.
In 1708 Peter sent Alexei to Smolensk to collect provender and recruits, and after that to Moscow to fortify it against Charles XII of Sweden.
Immediately on his return from Finland, Alexei was dispatched by his father to Staraya Russa and Lake Ladoga to see to the building of new ships. This was the last commission entrusted to him, since Peter had not been satisfied with his son's performance and his lack of enthusiasm. Nevertheless, Peter made one last effort to "reclaim" his son.
On 26 August 1716 Peter wrote to Alexei from abroad, urging him, if he desired to remain tsarevich, to join him and the army without delay. Rather than face this ordeal, Alexei fled to Vienna and placed himself under the protection of his brother-in-law, the emperor Charles VI, who sent him for safety first to the Tirolean fortress of Ehrenberg (near Reutte), and finally to the castle of Sant'Elmo at Naples. He was accompanied throughout his journey by Afrosinia. That the emperor sincerely sympathized with Alexei, and suspected Peter of harbouring murderous designs against his son, is plain from his confidential letter to George I of Great Britain, whom he consulted on this delicate affair. Peter felt insulted: the flight of the tsarevich to a foreign potentate was a reproach and a scandal, and he had to be recovered and brought back to Russia at all costs. This difficult task was accomplished by Count Peter Tolstoi, the most subtle and unscrupulous of Peter's servants.
Alexei would only consent to return on his father solemnly swearing, that if he came back he should not be punished in the least, but cherished as a son and allowed to live quietly on his estates and marry Afrosinia.
On 31 January 1718, the tsarevich reached Moscow. Peter had already determined to institute a searching inquisition in order to get at the bottom of the mystery of the flight. On 18 February a "confession" was extorted from Alexei which implicated most of his friends, and he then publicly renounced the succession to the throne in favour of the baby grand-duke Peter Petrovich. A brutal reign of terror ensued, in the course of which the ex-tsaritsa Eudoxia was dragged from her monastery and publicly tried for alleged adultery, while all who had in any way befriended Alexei were impaled or broken on the wheel while having their flesh torn with red-hot pincers or their bare backs or bare feet slowly roasted over burning coals, and were otherwise lingeringly done to death. All this was done to terrorize the reactionaries and isolate the tsarevich.
On 19 June, the weak and ailing tsarevich received twenty-five strokes with the knout, and then, on the 24th, he was subject to fifteen more. On 26 June, Alexei died in the Petropavlovskaya fortress in Saint Petersburg, two days after the senate had condemned him to death for conspiring rebellion against his father, and for hoping for the cooperation of the common people and the armed intervention of his brother-in-law, the emperor.
Alexei Petrovich Romanov was a Russian Tsarevich. He is remembered for his difficult relationships with his father, Tsar Peter I.
The personality of the Tsarevich attracted the attention of writers, and in XIX and many historians (A. Tolstoy, "Peter the First. " D. Mordovtsev, "The Shadow of Herod. (Idealists and Realists)", D. S. Merezhkovsky, "Antichrist Peter and Alexey ")
Alexei is depicted in the famous picture of N. N. Ge "Peter interrogates Tsarevich Alexei in Peterhof" (1871).
In the feature film of Vladimir Petrov "Peter the Great" (1937)
In the feature film Vitaly Melnikov "Tsarevich Alexei" (1997)
Alexei married Princess Charlotte of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, whose family was connected by marriage to many of the great families of Europe (i. e. , Charlotte's sister Elizabeth was married to Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, ruler of the Habsburg Monarchy). He met with Princess Charlotte, both were pleased with each other and the marriage went forward. In theory, Alexei could have refused the marriage, and he had been encouraged by his father to at least meet his intended.
The marriage contract was signed in September. The wedding was celebrated at Torgau, the palace of the Queen of Poland, on 14 October 1711. One of the terms of the marriage contract agreed to by Alexei was that while any forthcoming children were to be raised in the Orthodox faith, Charlotte herself was allowed to retain her Protestant faith (an agreement that did not sit well at all with Alexei's followers).
As for the marriage itself, the first 6 months went well but quickly became a failure within 6 months. Alexis was drunk constantly and Alexei pronounced his bride "pock-marked" and "too thin". He insisted on separate apartments and ignored her in public.
After the birth of his first daughter Natalia in 1714, Alexei brought his long-time Finnish serf mistress Afrosinia to live in the palace.
On 11 October 1715, Charlotte died, after giving birth to a son, the grand-duke Peter, the future Emperor Peter II.
(30 May 1672 – 8 February 1725)
( 9 August 1669, Moscow – 7 September 1731, Moscow)
(28 August 1694, Wolfenbüttel – 2 November 1715, Saint Petersburg)
(3 March 1714 – 3 November 1728)
(23 October 1715 – 30 January 1730)
