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PBT1 



PKTKI: i. 



army of Solymau, neir Nice, where they miserably perished, " and a 

 pyramid of bone*," says Gibbon, " informed their companions of Die 

 place of their defeat" Alexis sent troops to succour the three or four 

 thousand tint escaped. Petar had not mcoompuiied them in thii lut 

 expedition, and be remained with the succeeding armiee of the Cm- 

 den. bat wholly undistinguished until the aioge of Antiooh in 1097. 

 The force* under Godfrey were here suffering extreme privatious ; the 

 ioMicn and eren the chief* were deserting. Peter'a enthusiasm, which 

 had excited ao many, could not support himself through these suffer- 

 ing!, and he, together with the celebrated Tanored, attempted to escape, 

 bat were taken and brought back to the camp, where, says Knolle*, 

 they were ' enforced to take a new oath of fidelity and perseverance." 

 After Antioch was taken, he accompanied the crusaders to Jerusalem, 

 when he addressed a discourse to the soldiers on the Mount of Olivet, 

 Nothing further is known of him iu the Crusades, but he returned to 

 Europe, where he founded a monastery near Huy, in the diocese of 

 Liege, where he died peaceably on July 7, 1115, one of the few out of 

 the many thousands whom his fanatic eloquence had led to their 

 destruction during the preceding year*. 



1'Kl Kit I., called the 'Great,' Czar of Russia, was born at Moscow, 

 on the llth of June 1672. Ilia father, Alexis Michaelovich, was twice 

 married : by hi* first wife he had two sons and four daughters ; and 

 one son (the subject of this notice) and one daughter (Natalia Alex- 

 owna) by his second wife. The Czar Alexis commenced the work of 

 improvement among his barbarous subjects ; established manufac- 

 tures, reduced the laws into a code, resisted the usurpations of the 

 clerzy, and invited foreign officers to discipline his armies. He died 

 in 1677, and was succeeded by his eldest son Theodore, a youth of 

 delicate constitution, who died in 1682. leaving no issue. The next 

 brother, Ivan, was subj- ut to epileptic fits, and of so weak intellect 

 that Theodore named Peter as his successor. The Princess Sophia, 

 an ambitions woman, who had intended to reign herself, through the 

 medium of her incompetent brother, being enraged at this appoint- 

 ment, engaged the strelitzes on her side, and fomented an insurrection, 

 which was only appeased by Ivan being proclaimed joint sovereign 

 with Peter, and Sophia as regent. Peter narrowly escaped with his 

 life on this occasion, for, having fled with his mother to the Troiteki 

 convent near Moscow, at the commencement of the insurrection, he 

 was pursued by some of the strelitzes, who found him before the 

 altar, and were only deterred from striking a fatal blow by feelings of 

 reverence or superstition. When Peter was seventeen, his party brought 

 about a marriage between him and the daughter of the boynr Feodor 

 Abralmmavicb, during the absence of Prince Qalitzin, who had been 

 associated by the Princess Sophia with her in the government. On 

 the pregnancy of the Csarina being declared, Qalitzin, whose plans 

 were entirely -deranged by this event, raisrd an insurrection, which 

 however wss soon suppressed, and Ualitzin was banished to Arch- 

 angel, and forfeited his estates. The Princes* Sophia was confined to 

 a convent for the rest of her life, which terminated in 1704. 



From this time (1689) Peter reigned supreme; his brother Ivan 

 never interfered, and died in 1696. Peter was now in the eighteenth 

 year of bis age. He was tall, stout, and well made ; his features were 

 regular, but indicated, when grave, a great degree of severity ; at other 

 times be was lively and sociable, and always full of energy and activity. 

 His education bad been much neglected, and it is said that the Princess 

 Sophia bad encouraged every species of excess by placing about him 

 corrupt compinions. Although there is no doubt that much of his 

 time was passed in debauchery, yet it is a strong proof that a portion 

 of it must have been devoted to better objects, that he immediately 

 commenced the vast undertaking of reforming the whole system of 

 government and the manners of the people, in which he had to 

 encounter the jealousies of every clous of his subjects, who looked 

 upon these changes as subversive of their and ut constitution. Peter's 

 indomitable energy however overcame all obstacles. He first directed 

 his attention to the army, in which department his plans were ably 

 seconded by Generals Le Fort and Patrick Oonlon, who, with other 

 foreigner*, had entered into his service. He himself entered the army 

 as a private soldier, and rose through all the intermediate ranks before 

 be obtained a commission. He caused all the young boyars to follow 

 this example. He made the soldiers lay aside their long coats, shave 

 their beards, and dress their hair, and in a very short time bo bad a 

 corps of 6000 men disciplined and trained on the German plan. The 

 sight of a small vessel built by some Dutchmen in his father's time, 

 on the river which runs through Moscow, made a great impression on 

 him, and he determined to have a navy. He hired Dutch and Venetian 

 fhipwright*, who built some small vessels at Pskov, in which be used 

 to cruise on the Lake Peipus, until that becoming too confined a space 

 for him, he went to Archangel, where he passed two summers cruising 

 on board Koglish and Dutch ships, and learning the duties of a 

 practical seaman. His taste fur everything connected with ships and 

 navigation soon amounted to a passion. He resolved to be no longer 

 depeod< ut on foreigners for his ships, and accordingly sent a number 

 of ytung Russians to Vmice, Leghorn, and Holland, to learn the art 

 of sl,i| -builoing. I'.y these measures his expenditure had been so 



that it was necessary to take some steps towards 

 augmenting the revenue, which he did, through the advice of his 

 foreign councillors, by raising the custom-house duties from 6 to 10 

 I cr cent., which caused ao increase of Dearly 2,000,000 rubles in the 



first year. In 1G96, he besieged and took Azof. During t 

 which followed this first victory by the army and navy of his own 

 creation, some of the discontented boyars and strelitzes conspired to 

 put him to death, but, being betrayed by certain of the confederates, 

 the plot was defeated by their arrest and execution. 



Russia was not at this period represented at any of the courts of 

 Europe, but Peter, being more than ever convinced of the pre-eminence 

 of the Inhabitants of Western Europe over his own barbarous subject*, 

 resolved to visit these countries himself, and for this purpose be 

 despatched an extraordinary embassy to Holland, accompanying it 

 himself incognito, lieforo he set out on bis travels in 1 697, he took 

 the precaution of leaving General Gordon, with 4000 of his guards, in 

 Moscow, with orders to remain in that capital. He only took with him 

 twelve attendants, among whom were bis favourites, Menschikov and 

 Qalitzin. and his dwarf, then a necessary appendage to all great men 

 in Russia. He went straight to Saardam in Holland, took a small 

 lodging with two rooms and a garret, and a shed adjoining. He 

 purchased carpenters' tools and the dress of the dockyard artificers, 

 and there he and his companions spent almost all their time in working 

 as common shipwrights. Peter went by the name of Pieter Timuier- 

 niaii ; he rose early, boiled his own pot, and received wages for liis 

 labour. He was described by a native of Holland as being " very tall 

 and robust, quick, and nimble of foot, rapid in all his actions, his 

 face plump and round, fierce in his look, having brown eyebrows and 

 curling brown hair, and swinging his arms in walking." He spent 

 much time in sailing on the Xuider-Xee, and with his own bonds made 

 a bowsprit for his yacht ; he also assisted at rope-making, sail making, 

 and smiths' work. A bar of iron which he forged at Ulonetz some 

 years later, with his own mark stamped upon it, is preserved in the 

 Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg. In the same spirit of inquiry 

 and eagerness to learn, he visited every manufactory, examining into 

 all the details of each. He attended the hospitals, where he learned 

 to bleed and draw teeth ; he was very fond of practising in a surgical 

 way. From Holland he proceeded to England, where he arrived in 

 J.muary 1698. As his chief object in coming to this country was to 

 learn the theory of ship-building, and the method of making drafts, 

 and laying them off iu the mould-lofts, he did not disguise bis annoy- 

 ance at the crowds which assembled to see him, and at the festivities 

 given in bis honour. 



The Marquis of Carmarthen was appointed by King William to 

 attend upon the Czar, and they are reported to have passed their 

 nights together in drinking pepper and brandy. Peter visited the 

 dockyards of Deptford, Woolwich, and Chatham. At Deptford he lived 

 at Sayes Court, the seat of John Evelyn, who bitterly complains of 

 the havoc which the Czar and bis attendants mode iu his famous 

 gardens : it was a favourite amusement of Peter's to be wheeled about 

 the garden, and especially through a holly-hedge of which Evelyn was 

 very proud, in a wheelbarrow. Peter spent much of his time at 

 Rotherhithe, where a ship was building for him. After bis day's 

 work, he and his companions were in the habit of retiring to a public- 

 houice near Tower-hill, to smoke and drink beer and brandy. The 

 house still bears the sign of the Czar's Head. He went to Portsmouth, 

 to witness a grand naval review aud sham fight. In April he quitted 

 England, taking with him several men of science, engineers, and 

 officers for his army and navy. He spent a short time in Holland, 

 and then proceeded to Vienna to make himself acquainted with the 

 dress, discipline, and tactics of the emperor's army, then considered 

 the beat in Europe ; thence he was preparing to visit Italy, wheu he 

 received news of a rebellion having broken out among the strelitzrg, 

 fomented, it was said, by the priests and the Princess Sophia. Ili- 

 prudenco in leaving General Gordon in Moscow was now made manifest. 

 That officer entirely defeated the rebels, many of whom lost their lives, 

 and others were thrown into prison to await the return of the Czar. 

 Peter quitted Vienna immediately on the receipt of this intelligence, 

 and arrived at Moscow, after an absence of seventeen months. 



The dark aide of Peter's character now showed itself in the savage 

 nature of the punishments inflicted on the rebels; in palliation of 

 which it can only be said that this being the third insurrection during 

 his reign, a severe example was required to deter other malcontents. 

 Ho next ordained that all persons, civil as well as military, should 

 cut off the skirts of their Tartar coats, and shave their beards : a tax 

 was levied on all who disobeyed, which, from the love of the Russians 

 for these appendages, became a fruitful source of revenue. He regu- 

 lated the printing-press, and caused translations to be published of 

 works on various arts and other subjects, established schools for the 

 marine aud the teaching of languages, obliged bis subjects to trade 

 with other countries, which formerly subjected them to the penalty 

 of death, and he altered the calendar, much to the horror of the 

 priest*, ordering that the year 1700 should commence on the 1st of 

 January, instead of the 1st of September, which day used to commence 

 the Russian year. He .also instituted the order of St. Andrew, the 

 patron aint of Itussia. 



In the year 1700 Peter entered into an offensive league with Poland 

 and Denmark against Sweden. HU army was defeated before Narva 

 by Charles XII., on the 19th of November in that year; but far from 

 being dispirited at this event, he was only excited to renewed exertion, 

 and he observed that the Swedes would at length teach bis soldiers to 

 beat thorn. In 1703 he bud the foundation of St. Petersburg ; and in 



