COM8TANT1XE PAVLOV1CH. 



CON8TANT1NUS, FLAVIUS VALEIUU& 



ow happily ; four years afterwards the parties separated by mutual 

 COMOOL In 17W Coostiniiw* took part in the camiign of Suvorov 

 .a Itely. and duplayed a daring bravery, but DO gret telente for 

 n j On the death of hi* father the Emperor Paul he wa* 

 fir for revenge, and was only persuaded to be quiet by hi* respect 

 for hi* brother Alexander, which was carried to an extent altogether 

 remarkable in so wild and wayward a character, and even exposed him 

 at limss to th dun* of servility. He earned his proudest military 

 laurels aa the field of AusteriiU in 180S. where, at the bead of the 

 isnrvs composed of ten battalion* and eighteen squadrons of 

 the guard, he nithstood with fiery energy the charge of Bern*dotte, 

 and wha victory was impossible, retreated in good order. In all the 

 .uheequeot p risen of the contest against Napoleon which terminated 

 so triumphantly for Kuasia, he maintained the reputation of a brave 

 and hardy soldier. At it* cloM when Alexander succeeded, in spite 

 of a formidable diplomatic opposition in establishing a kingdom of 

 PoUnd under liuwian sway, Constantino wa* named the Commander- 

 in-chief of the Polish troops, or generalissimo of Poland. No appoint- 

 weal could have been more unfortunate if it was intended to can y 

 out in good faith the constitution which bad been promiied and 

 guaranteed to tb* now kingdom. The generaliaiimo's antipathy to 

 ibe onnstitution wa* however not so extreme as to induce him to 

 refuse a voice in the chambers, when ho waa very unexpectedly elected 

 deputy for Pnga, the suburb of Warsaw, whose destruction by 

 Suvorov form* one of the most frightful pages in Polish history. He 

 took his seat, and even affected to oppose on some occasion* tlie 

 me>ures of the government on local question*; but this was, a* 

 might be expected, only an ebullition of wayward humour, aud be 

 withdrew when the increasing majorities of the chambers against tlie 

 government showed that soon one or the other must give war. In 

 fact th* generalissimo, who was brother of the emperor, had a greater 

 influence in the government of Poland than the nominal Viceroy 

 Zaiaxcict, an old sol Her of Napoleon's, and it was his management of 

 the army, which he brought into excellent discipline, but with a 

 sternness and severity that revolted the feelings of the officers, which 

 gave rue to mucli of the discontent that prevailed in Poland. In 

 Ib20 the criiis came, and Alexander, incensed at the manner in which 

 the Pole* availed themselves of their constitution, dissolved the 

 chamber*. 



In tlie same year the charms of a Polish lady led Constantino to a 

 step which chsuged his own destiny and perhaps that of Kus-ia. The 

 Countess Joanna Qrudzynska was a fragile beauty, in delicate health, 

 who seemed little likely to win the regard of a rough and bjisterous 

 soldier. Constantino saw her, and became so fascinated that he deter- 

 mined to overcome every obstacle that lay in the way of making her 

 hi* wife. A decree of the Holy Synod of the Greek Church confirmed 

 an imperial ukase, by which the emperor's brother was, on the 1st of 

 April 1320, divorced from the Princess of Saxe Coburg, with liberty 

 to marry again. By a decree of the same date, the Emperor Alexander 

 ordained however that only the issue of marriages in the imperial 

 family which were sanctioned by the reigning emperor should enjoy 

 th* right of succession to the throne. It was known therefore, when 

 in the course of May the marriage of the grand-duke to the countess 

 took place, that their children would not belong to the imperial 

 family; but the rights of the grand-duke himself were supposed to 

 remain intact, and he was then the presumptive heir to the czar. 

 Nothing wa* known to the contrary till the unexpected death of 

 aUtander at Taganrog, on the 1st of December 1825. When the 

 news reached Si. Petersburg the Grand- Duke Nicholas called together 

 the Cuunoil of the Empire to take the oath to the Emperor Constan- 

 tine, who wa* then absent at Warsaw, where from generalissimo he 

 had become viceroy of Poland. The council produced a packet 

 deposited with them, on which wis written, in the Emperor Alexan- 

 der* band, that in the event of his death it waa to bo opened before 

 proceeding to any other business ; and the seal wag solemnly broken. 

 A letter from Constantiue to hi* brother wa* found within, dated in 

 January 1822 : " Conscious," so ran the letter, "that I do not poawsB 

 the genius, the talent*, or the strength necessary to qualify me for the 

 dignity of sovereign, to which my birth would give m a right, I 

 real JO"* imperial Majesty to transfer that right to him to whom 

 t belongs after me, and thus ensure the stability of the empire. By 

 ** yaaanciation I shall add a new force to the engagement which I 

 poateJMonely and solemnly contracted on the occasion of my divorce 

 . JJ fir l W V' There wa* a reply by Alexander to thi* com- 

 BonioaUoo, simply, without a word of comment, accepting the offer it 

 eoovejrd; and. nually, a declaration that in pursuance of it the 

 Grand Duke Nicholas was to ascend the throne of Russia. Copies of 

 *^iJ!T n *" U b * d bl * u ^P " 4 * 1 w'n "> Synod and other bodies. 

 yet >icbolae appeared to have been till then unacquainted with their 

 xtoteno*. NicboU* declined to accept the crown, and >ent his 

 rrr ' * to njCoMteati*>* to resume hi* birthright ; but at 

 iKfaael Bet a messenger from Warsaw conveying Constantino s 

 mblislili persistence in hi* resolution, and turned back in ha-te to 

 arsbmrg. It wa* indeed time to put an cod to the interregnum, 

 ' l*etd more than twenty day*. A republican co- 

 Ume been spreading among the officers of the 

 its nunificfttioDsi h%d iidd>D*>d th* 

 ider. The ringleaders determined to 



avail the motive* of the uncertainty of the tuccetsion to excite con- 

 fusion. 



When Nicholas finally ordered the oath to be taken to himself as 

 emperor, they spread a report that he wu defrauding his brother ol 

 hi* rights, and that Constantino wa* on the march from Warsaw to 

 defeat his insidious design*. Growing bolder ai they met with some 

 iucoeea, they raised the cry of " Long live Constantino and Constitu- 

 tion ! " and it it said that the private soldier* who joined it imagined 

 that the word ' constitution,' which i* a foreign word iu Uussian, aud 

 ha* a feminine termination, was the name of Constantino's wife the 

 Polish countess. The formidable revolt which grew from the refusal 

 of the regiment* to take the oath to Nicholas, in consequence of tlie-e 

 false representations, wa* crushed by the firmness and presence of 

 luiml of the new emperor. The coronation of Nicholas was appointed 

 to take place at Moscow, and on the evening before it Nicholas wa* 

 greeted with the unexpected intelligence that Constantiue had come 

 spontaneously to do him honour. The next day saw the remarkable 

 sight of the elder brother walking iu the younger brother's corona- 

 tion procession, and taking the oath of hornago more remarkable 

 still that the difference of sge was so great no less than seventeen 

 year*, Nicholas Laving been born in the year iu which Constantino 

 was married. 



Constantino returned to Poland from the coronation at Moscow, 

 and from that moment he wa* more than ever the matter at Warsaw. 

 Constantino was perhaps not naturally savage, and hit marriage had 

 made him more disposed to be affable, but his good nature cjuld not 

 be counted on for a moment ; when reviewing his troops he would 

 often at the sight of some trifle not to his mind, fly into a 

 furious passion, aud for the venial offence of an individual, intlict 

 some annoying punishment on a body of 40,000 men. In hi* eyes, 

 too, no consideration at all was due to thoss) who forgut what he 

 regarded as the duty of unconditional obedience to the sovereign. 

 He was sometimes de.ib. rately cruel himself, and he suffered deliberate 

 cruelties in others to those who had thus put themselves in his opinion 

 beyond the pale of mercy. The proud aud spirited Poles, who in 

 their own opinion owed no allegiance at all to th Russian en, 

 endured all this remarkably lung, but the whole of Poland win- 

 for a conflagration when the French revolution of iMiU apph. 

 match. It is said that a conspiracy which Constantino fancied I. 

 discovered was fictitious, but ou the night of the 2yth of November 

 1830, there could be no doubt that a real insurrection burnt out. 

 The palace of the Belvedere near Warsaw, iu which he resided, pro- 

 tected by a girdle of moats, was entered by :i bjdy of iusmymt 

 be only encapt d with his life by the protection of some of his 1'ulieh 

 guard.'. In the course of the next few days he is accused of having 

 committed au imprudeuco by meeting with the insurgents on terms 

 i lity, but the result was that he was allowed to leave Poland 

 without any serious obstacle. Nicholas rejected peremptorily the 

 terms of the Poles, and in the war which commenced Constantino 

 bore a very insignificant part, lie was present at the battle of 

 Qruchow, but not in command, and it is said that he could not avoid 

 expressing some satisfaction at the conduct of the P..li-li army, which 

 had become under his training one of the best disciplined armies of 

 Europe, Soon after ho was obliged to withdraw with the troops 

 under him before a division commanded by his brother-in-law tlie 

 Polish general Chlapowsky, aud an attack of cholera carried him off 

 at Witepok, on the 27th of June 1831. His wife who had borno for 

 some time the title of Princess of Lowioa, died on the 2Uth of 

 November in the same year, at the palace of Tsarakoo Selo. His first 

 wife the Princess Juliana, the aunt of Queen Victoria, is still Ir. 



CONSTANT! .N US, KLA'VIUS VALE'KIUS, called the Great, the 

 son of Constautius Chlorus, was born in A.D. 274. He was brought 

 up at the court of Diocletian, aud served early with the armii-s in 

 various expeditions. Being in Britain at the time of hit father's 

 death, he wa* proclaimed emperor by the soldiers, but hu prudently 

 referred his nomination to Qnltfriua, who acknowledged him only as 

 Csear, and governor of the provinces which had long been administered 

 by his father. Constantino passing over into Gaul to oppose the 

 Frank* who had entered that province, defeated them a* well a* the 

 AlemanuL 1I behaved with great inhumanity to the prisoner*, and 

 gave up their chieftains to the wild beasts as a public spectacle. 

 (Eutropms, x.) Meanwhile Maxeutius, the son of Maxiuiiauus, canned 

 a revolt at Koine while Qalerius waa absent in the Rut, and Maxi- 

 inianu* himself having cow* to Home, resumed the title of emperor, 

 and took Maxeutius an his colleague. Severn*, whom Galerius ordered 

 to put down tuU insurrection, wa* betrayed by his troops, taken 

 prisoner, and put to death by Maximiauus. The latter however 

 fearing the vengeance of Galerius, thought of strengthening 1 

 by au alliance with Coustantine, whom he went to me t in (..ml, and 

 gave him his daughter Fausta in marriage. From that tiiue Con- 

 stantino was acknowledged as Emperor by the \Vest Soon afU-r 

 Maxiinianus having quarrelled with his son Maxeutiun, left Kom tor 

 Panuouia, where he met Qalerius and Diocletian, who had leit his 

 retirement of Salona for the purpose of appointing Licinius a new 

 Ctosar, in the room of Severn- 1 . There were theu in the empire no 

 leu than six emperors and ( icsars, namely, Maximianus, Maxi-ntius, 

 Galerius, Constantino, Maximinus, and Liciuius. Gnlerius soon after 

 acknowledged both Constantino and Maximinus, as emperor* and 



