Page images
PDF
EPUB

not a little to excite these seditions. Care was taken to spread abroad the danger to be feared from the introduction of foreigners to instruct the nation. In short, who would believe, that* the permission which the czar had given to import tobacco into his empire, contrary to the inclination of the clergy, was one of the chief motives of the insurrection? Superstition, the scourge of every country, yet the darling of the multitude, spread itself from the common people to the Strelitzes, who had been scattered on the frontiers of Lithuania: they assembled in a body, and marched towards Moscow, with the intent to place the princess Sophia on the throne, and for ever to prevent the return of a czar who had violated the established customs, by presuming to travel for instruction among foreigners. The forces commanded by Schein and Gordon, who were much better disciplined than the Strelitzes, met them fifteen leagues from Moscow, gave them battle, and entirely defeated them: but this advantage, gained by a foreign general over the ancient militia, among whom were several of the burghers of Moscow, contributed still more to irritate the people.

To quell these tumults, the czar sets out privately from Vienna, passes through Poland, has a private interview with Augustus, concerts measures with that prince for extending the Russian dominions on the side of the Baltic, and at length arrived at Moscow, where he surprised every one

with his presence: he then confers rewards Sept. on the troops who had defeated the Stre1698 litzes, of whom the prisons were now full. If

the crimes of these unhappy wretches were great, their punishment was no less so. Their leaders, with several of their officers and priests, were condemned to death; some were broke upon the wheel, and two women were buried alive; upwards of two thousand of the Strelitzes were executed, part of whom were hung round about the walls of the city, and others put to death in different manners, and their dead bodies remained

Le Fort's MSS.

A most extraordinary instance of the obstinate attachment of the Russians to their old customs, happened in the time of the czar Bassilowitz, and undoubtedly influenced him not a little in the severity with which he treated his people. The king of Poland, Stephen Battori, having recovered Livonia, went himself into that province to establish a new form of government, according to the constant custom there. When any peasant, all of whom were treated as slaves, had committed a fault, he was whipped with a rod till the blood came. The king was willing to commute this barbarous punishment for one that was more moderate; but the peasants, insensible of the favour designed them, threw themselves at his feet, and intreated him not to make any alteration in their ancient customs, because they had experienced, that all innovations, far from procuring them the least redress, had always made their burthens sit the heavier on them.

Memoirs of captain Perry, the engineer, employed by Peter the Great, in Russia, and MSS. of Le Fort.

exposed for two days in the high roads, particularly about the monastry where the princesses Sophia and Eudocia resided. Monuments of stone were erected, on which their crimes and punishments were set forth. A great number of them, who had wives and children at Moscow, were dispersed with their families into Siberia, the kingdom of Astracan, and the country of Asoph. This punishment was of service to the state, as they helped to cultivate and people a large tract of land.

Perhaps, if the czar had not found it absolutely necessary to make such terrible examples, he might have employed part of those Strelitzes whom he put to death, upon the public works; whereas they were now lost both to him and the state: the lives of men ought to be held in great estimation especially in a country where the increase of inhabitants ought to have been the principal care of the legislature: but he thought it necessary to terrify and break the spirit of the nation by executions, and the parade attending them. The entire corps of the Strelitzes, whose number not one of his predecessors had even dared to think of diminishing, was broke for ever, and their very name abolished. This change was effected without any resistance, because matters had been properly prepared beforehand. The Turkish sultan, Osman, as I have already remarked, was deposed and murdered in the same century, only for giving the janissaries room to suspect that he intended to lessen their number. Peter had better success, because he had taken better measures.

Of this powerful and numerous body of the Strelitzes, he left only two feeble regiments, from whom there could no longer be any danger; and yet these, still retaining their old spirit of mutiny, revolted again in Astracan, in the year 1705, but were quickly suppressed.

But while we are relating Peter's severity in this affair of state, let us not forget to commemorate the more than equal humanity he showed some time afterwards, when he lost his favourite Le Fort, who was snatched away by an untimely fate, March 12, N. S. 1699, at the age of 46. He paid him the same funeral honours as are bestowed on the greatest sovereigns, and assisted himself in the procession, carrying a pike in his hand, and marching after the captains, in the rank of a lieutenant,

* Captain Perry, in p. 184 of his Memoirs, says, that these executions being performed in the depth of winter, their bodies were immediately frozen; those who were beheaded, were ordered to be left in the same posture as when executed, in ranks upon the ground, with their heads lying by them; and those who were hanged round the three walls of the city, were left hanging the whole winter, to the view of the people, till the warm weather began to come on in the spring, when they were taken down and buried together in a pit, to prevent infection. This author adds, that there were other gibbets placed on all the public roads leading to Moscow, where others of these rebels were hanged.

† MSS. of Le Fort.

which he held in the deceased general's regiment, hereby setting an example to his nobles, of the respect due to merit and the military rank.

After the death of Le Fort, it appeared plainly, that the changes in the state were not owing to that general, but to the czar himself. Peter had indeed been confirmed in his design, by his several conversations with Le Fort; but he had formed and executed them all without his assistance.

As soon as he had suppressed the Strelitzes, he established regular regiments on the German model, who were all clothed in a short and commodious uniform, in the room of those long and troublesome coats which they used to wear before; and, at the same time, their exercise was likewise more regular.

• The regiment of Preobrazinski guards were already formed: it had taken its name from the first company of fifty men, whom the czar had trained up in his younger days, in his retreat at Preobrazinski, at the time when his sister Sophia governed the state, and the other regiment of guards was also established.

As he had himself passed through the lowest degrees in the army, he was resolved that the sons of his boyards and great men, should serve as common soldiers before they were made officers. He sent some of the young nobility on board his fleet at Woronitz and Asoph, where he obliged them to serve their apprenticeship as a common seamen. No one dared to dispute the commands of a master who had himself set the example. The English and Dutch he had brought over with him were employed in equipping this fleet for sea, in constructing sluices, and building docks, for careening the ships, and to resume the great work of joining the Tanais, or Don, and the Wolga, which had been dropped by Brekel, the German. And now he began to set about his projected reformations in the council of state, in the revenue, in the church, and even in society itself.

The affairs of the revenue had been hitherto administered much in the same manner as in Turkey. Each boyard paid a stipulated sum for his lands, which he raised upon the peasants, his vassals; the czar appointed certain burghers and burgomasters to be his receivers, who were not powerful enough to claim the right of paying only such sums as they thought proper into the public treasury. This new administration of the finances was what cost him the most trouble: he was oblig ed to try several methods before he could fix upon a proper one.

The reformation of the church, which in all other countries is looked upon as so dangerous and difficult an attempt, was not so to him. The patriarchs had at times opposed the authorityof the crown, as well as the Strelitzes; Nicon with insolence, Joachin, one of his successors, in an artful manner.

The bishops had arrogated the power of life and death, a prerogative directly contrary to the spirit

of religion, and the subordination of government. This assumed power, which had been of long standing, was now taken from them. The patriarch Adrian, dying at the close of this century, Peter declared that there should for the future be no other.

This dignity then was entirely suppressed, and the great income belonging thereto was united to the public revenue, which stood in need of this addition. Although the czar did not set himself up as head of the Russian church, as the kings of Great Britain have done in regard to the church of England; yet he was, in fact, absolute master over it, because the synods did not dare either to disobey the commands of a despotic sovereign, or to dispute with a prince who had more knowledge than themselves.

We need only to cast an eye on the preamble to the edict, concerning his ecclesiastical regulations, issued in 1721, to be convinced that he acted at once as master and legislator: "We should deem ourselves guilty of ingratitude to the Most High, if, after having reformed the military and civil orders, we neglected the spiritual, &c. For this cause, following the example of the most ancient kings, who have been famed for piety, we have taken upon us to make certain wholesome regulations, touching the clergy." It is true, he convened a synod for carrying into execution his ecclesiastical decrees, but the members of this synod, at entering upon their office, were to take an oath, the form of which had been drawn up and signed by himself. This was an oath of submission and obedience, and was conceived in the following terms: "I swear to be a faithful and obedient servant and subject to my true and natural sovereign, and to the august successors whom it shall please him to nominate, in virtue of the incontestible right of which he is possessed: I acknowledge him to be the supreme judge of this spiritual college: I swear, by the all-seeing God, that I understand and mean this oath in the full force and sense, which the words convey to those who read or hear it." This oath is much stronger than that of the supremacy in England. The Russian monarch was not, indeed, one of the fathers of the synod, but he dictated their laws; and, though he did not touch the holy censer, he directed the hands that held it.

Previous to this great work, he thought, that in a state like his, which stood in need of being peopled, the celibacy of the monks was contrary to nature and to the public good. It was the ancient custom of the Russian church, for secular priests to marry at least once in their lives; they were even obliged so to do: and formerly they ceased to be priests as soon as they lost their wives. But that a multitude of young people of both sexes should make a vow of living useless in a cloister, and at the expense of others, appeared to him a dangerous institution. He therefore ordered, that no one should be admitted to a monastic life

till they were fifty years old, a time of life very rarely subject to a temptation of this kind; and he forbid any person to be admitted, at any age soever, who was actually in possession of any public employ.

This regulation has been repealed since his death, because the government has thought proper to show more complaisance to the monasteries; but the patriarchal dignity has never been revived, and its great revenues are now appropriated to the payment of the troops.

These alterations at first excited some murmurings. A certain priest wrote, to prove that Peter was antichrist, because he would not admit of a patriarch; and the art of printing, which the czar encouraged in his kingdom, was made use of to publish libels against him: but, on the other hand, there was another priest who started up to prove that Peter could not be antichrist, because the number 666 was not to be found in his name, and that he had not the sign of the Beast. All complaints, however, were soon quieted. Peter, in fact, gave much more to the church than he took from it; for he made the clergy, by degrees, more regular and more learned. He founded three colleges at Moscow, were they teach the languages, and where those who are designed for the priesthood are obliged to study.

One of the most necessary reforms was the suppression, or at least the mitigation of the Three Lents, an ancient superstition of the Greek church, and as prejudicial with respect to those who are employed in public works, and especially to soldiers, as was the old Jewish superstition of not fighting on the sabbath day. Accordingly the czar dispensed with his workmen and soldiers at least, observing these lents, in which, though they were not permitted to eat, they were accustomed to get drunk. He likewise dispensed with their observance of meagre days; the chaplains of the fleet and army were obliged to set the example, which they did without much reluctance.

The calendar, another important object. Formerly, in all the countries of the world, the chiefs of religion had the care of regulating the year, not only on account of the feasts to be observed, but because, in ancient times, the priests were the only persons who understood astronomy.

The year began with the Russians on the 1st of September. Peter ordered, that it should for the future commence the first day of January, as among the other nations of Europe. This alteration was to take place in the year 1700, at the beginning of the century, which he celebrated by a jubilee, and other grand solemnities. It was a matter of surprise to the common people, how the czar should be able to change the course of the sun. Some obstinate persons, persuaded that God had created the world in September, continued their old style: but the alteration took place in all the public offices, in the whole court of chancery,

and in a little time throughout the whole empire. Peter did not adopt the Gregorian calendar, because it had been rejected by the English mathematicians; but which must, nevertheless, be one day received in all countries.

Ever since the 5th century, the time when letters first came into use amongst them, they had been accustomed to write upon long rolls, made either of the bark of trees, or of parchment, and afterwards of paper; and the czar was obliged to publish an edict, ordering every one, for the future, to write after our manner.

The reformation now became general. Their marriages were made formerly after the same manner as in Turkey and Persia, where the bridegroom does not see his bride till the contract is signed, and they can no longer go from their words. This custom may do well enough among those people, where polygamy prevails, and where the women are always shut up; but it is a very bad one in countries where a man is confined to one wife, and where divorces are seldom allowed.

The czar was willing to accustom his people to the manners and customs of the nations which he had visited in his travels, and from whence he had taken the masters who were now instructing them.

It appeared necessary that the Russians should not be dressed in a different manner from those who were teaching thern the arts and sciences; because the aversion to strangers, which is but too natural to mankind, is not a little kept up by a difference of dress. The full dress, which at that time partook of the fashions of the Poles, the Tartars, and the ancient Hungarians, was, as we have elsewhere observed, very noble; but the dress of the burghers and common people resembled those jackets plaited round the waste, which are still given to the poor children in some of the French hospitals.* In general, the robe was formerly the dress of all nations, as being a garment that required the least trouble and art; and, for the same reason, the beard was suffered to grow. czar met with but little difficulty in introducing our mode of dress, and the custom of shaving among his courtiers; but the people were more obstinate, and he found himself obliged to lay a tax on long coats and beards. Patterns of close bodied coats were hung up in public places; and whoever refused to pay the tax were obliged to suffer their robes and their beards to be curtailed: all this was done in a jocular manner, and this air of pleasantry prevented seditions.

The

It has ever been the aim of legislators to render mankind more sociable; but it is not sufficient to effect this end, that they live together in towns, there must be a mutual intercourse of civility. This intercourse sweetens all the bitterness of life. The czar, therefore, introduced those assemblies

* Somewhat like those of our blue coat boys in England.

which the Italians call ridotti. To these assemblies he invited all the ladies of his court, with their daughters; and they were to appear dressed after the fashions of the southern nations of Europe. He was even himself at the pains of drawing up rules for all the little decorums to be observed at these social entertainments. Thus, even

to good breeding among his subjects, all was his own work, and that of time.

To make his people relish these innovations the better, he abolished the word golut, slave, always made use of by the Russians when they addressed their czar, or presented any petition to him; and ordered, that, for the future, they should make use of the word raab, which signifies subject. This alteration in no wise diminished the obedience due to the sovereign, and yet was the most ready means of conciliating their affections. Every month produced some new change or institution. He carried his attention even to the ordering painted posts to be set up in the road between Moscow and Woronitz, to serve as milestones at the distance of every verst; that is to say, every seven hundred paces, and had a kind of caravanseras, or public inns, built at the end of every twentieth verst.

While he was thus extending his cares to the common people, to the merchants, and to the traveller, he thought proper to make an addition to the pomp and splendour of his own court; for though he hated pomp or show in his own person, he thought it necessary in those about him; he therefore instituted the order of St. Andrew,* in imitation of the several orders with which all the courts of Europe abound. Golowin, who succeeded Le Fort in the dignity of high admiral, was the first knight of this order. It was esteemed a high reward to have the honour of being admitted a member. It was a kind of badge that entitled the person who bore it to the respect of the people. This mark of honour costs nothing to the sovereign, and flatters the self-love of a subject, without rendering him too powerful.

These many useful innovations were received with applause by the wiser part of the nation; and the murmurings and complaints of those who adhered to the ancient customs were drowned in the acclamations of men of sound judgment.

While Peter was thus beginning a new creation in the interior part of his state, he concluded an advantageous truce with the Turks, which gave him the liberty to extend his territories on another side. Mustapha the Second, who had been defeated by prince Eugene, at the battle of Zeuta, in 1697, stripped of the Morea by the Venetians, and unable to defend Asoph, was obliged to make

peace with his victorious enemies, which Jan. 26, peace was, concluded at Carlowitz, be1699. tween Peterwaradin and Salankamon

places made famous by his defeats. Te-' 20th Sept. 1698. It is to be observed, that I always follow the new style in my dates.

meswaer was made the boundary of the German possessions, and of the Ottoman dominions. Kaminieck was restored to the Poles; the Morea, and some towns in Dalmatia, which had been taken by the Venetians, remained in their hands for some time; and Peter the First continued in possession of Casaph, and of a few forts built in its neighbourhood.

It was not possible for the czar to extend his dominions on the side of Turkey, without drawing upon him the forces of that empire, before divided, but now united. His naval projects were too vast for the Palus Mæotis, and the settlements on the Caspian Sea would not admit of a fleet of men of war: he therefore turned his views towards the Baltic Sea, but without relinquishing those in regard to the Tanais and Wolga.

CHAPTER. XI.

War with Sweden. The battle of Narva.

A GRAND scene was now opened on the 1700. frontiers of Sweden. One of the principal causes of all the revolutions which happened from Ingria, as far as Dresden, and which laid waste so many countries for the space of eighteen years, was the abuse of the supreme power, by Charles XI. king of Sweden, father of Charles XII. This is a fact which cannot be too often repeated, as it concerns every crowned head, and the subjects of every nation. Almost all Livonia with the whole of Esthonia, had been ceded by the Poles to Charles XI. king of Sweden, who succeeded Charles X. exactly at the time of the treaty of Oliva. It was ceded in the customary manner, with a reservation of rights and privileges. Charles XI. showing little regard to these privileges, John Reinhold Patkul, a gentleman of Livonia, came to Stockholm in 1692, at the head of six deputies from the province, and laid their complaints at the foot of the throne, in respectful, but strong terms.* Instead of an answer, the deputies were ordered to be imprisoned, and Patkul was condemned to lose his honour and his life. But he lost neither, for he made his escape to the country of Vaud, in Swisserland, where he remained some time; when he afterwards was informed, that Augustus, elector of Saxony, had promised, at his accession to the throne of Poland, to recover the provinces that had been wrested from that kingdom; he hastened to Dresden, to represent to that prince, how easily he might make himself master of Livonia, and revenge upon a king only

*Norberg, chaplain and confessor to Charles XII. says, in his history, "That he had the insolence to complain of oppressions, and that he was condemned to lose his honour and life." This is speaking like the highpriest of despotism. He should have observed, that no one can deprive a citizen of his honour for doing his duty.

seventeen years of age, the losses that Poland had sustained by his ancestors.

At this very time czarPeter entertained thoughts of seizing upon Ingria and Carelia. These provinces had formerly belonged to the Russians, but the Swedes had made themselves masters of them by force of arms, in the time of the false Demetriuses, and had retained the possession of them by treaties: another war and new treaties might restore them again to Russia. Patkul went from Dresden to Moscow, and, by exciting up the two monarchs to avenge his private causes, cemented a close union between them, and directed their preparations for invading all the places situated to the east and south of Finland.

Just at this period the new king of Denmark, Frederick IV. entered into an alliance with the czar and the king of Poland, against Charles, the young king of Sweden, who seemed in no condition to withstand their united forces. Patkul had the satisfaction of besieging the Swedes in Riga, the capital of Livonia, and directing the attack in quality of major general.

The czar marched near twenty thousand men into Ingria. It is true, that, in this numerous army, he had not more than twelve thousand good soldiers, being those he had disciplined himself; namely, the two regiments of guards, and some few others, the rest being a badly armed militia, with some Cossacks and Circassian Tartars; but he carried with him a train of an hundred and forty-five pieces of cannon. He laid siege to Narva, a small town in Ingria, that had a very commodious harbour, and it was generally thought the place would prove an easy conquest.

Sept. It is known to all Europe, how Charles XII. when not quite eighteen years of age, made head against all his enemies, and attacked them one after another; he entered Denmark, put an end to the war in that kingdom in less than six weeks, sent succours to Riga, obliged the enemy to raise the siege, and marched against the Russians encamped before Narva, through the midst of ice and snow, in the month of November.

The czar, who looked upon Narva as already in his possession, was gone to Novogorod, and had taken with him his favourite, Menzikoff, then a

lieutenant in the company of bombarNov. 18. diers, of the Preobazinski regiment, and

afterwards raised to the rank of field marshal and prince; a man whose singular fortunes entitle him to be spoken of more at large in another place.

Peter left the command of the army, with his instructions for the siege, with the prince of Croy; whose family came from Flanders, and who had lately entered into the czar's service.* Prince Dolgorouki acted as commissary of the army. The jealousy between those two chiefs, and the absence of the czar, were partly the occasion of the unparalleled defeat at Narva.

* See the History of Charles XII.

Charles XII. having landed at Pernau, în Livonia, with his troops, in the month of October advanced northward to Revel, where he defeated an advanced body of Russians. He continued his march, and meeting with another body, routed that likewise. The runaways returned to the camp before Narva, which they filled with consternation. The month of November was now far advanced; Narva, though unskilfully besieged, was on the point of surrendering. The young king of Sweden had not at that time above nine thousand men with him, and could bring only six pieces of cannon to oppose to an hundred and forty-five, with which the Russian entrenchments were defended. All the relations of that time, and all historians without exception, concur in making the Russian army then before Narva amount to eighty thousand men. The memoirs with which I have been furnished say sixty thousand; be that as it may, it is certain that Charles had not quite nine thousand; and that this battle was one of those which have proved, that the greatest victories have been frequently gained by inferior numbers, ever since the famed one of Arbelles.*

Charles did not hesitate one moment to attack with his small troop this army, so greatly superior; and, taking advantage of a violent wind, and a great storm of snow, which blew directly in the faces of the Russians, he Nov. 30. attacked their entrenchments under co

ver of some pieces of cannon, which he had posted advantageously for the purpose. The Russians had not time to form themselves in the midst of that cloud of snow, that beat full in their faces, and astonished by the discharge of cannon, that they could not see, and never imagined how small a number they had to oppose.

The duke de Croy attempted to give his orders, but prince Dolgorouki would not receive them. The Russian officers rose upon the German officers; the duke's secretary, with Colonel Lyon, and several others, were murdered. Every one abandoned his post; and tumult, confusion, and a panic of terror, spead through the whole army. The Swedish troops had nothing more to do, but to cut in pieces those who were flying. Some threw themselves into the river Narva, where great numbers were drowned; others threw down their arms, and fell upon their knees before the conquering Swedes.

The duke de Croy, general Alland, and the rest of the general officers, dreading the Russians more than the Swedes, went in a body and surrendered themselves prisoners to count Steinbok. The king of Sweden now made himself master of all the artillery. Thirty-thousand of the vanquished enemy laid down their arms at his feet, and filed off

* A town on the river Lycus, in the province of Assyria, now called Curdestan, where Alexander the Great fought his third and decisivo battle, with Darius, king of Persia.

« PreviousContinue »