PETER II 



Sea oh the S. His first task was a 

 military reconstruction directed by 

 Patrick Gordon. A war with 

 Turkey gave him the port of Azov, 

 1696, and the opportunity for 

 creating a Russian navy. His next 

 step was to dispatch a number of 

 scions of noble families to observe 

 and study the manners and me- 

 thods of W. Europe. He followed 

 this up in 1697 by himself making 

 the great tour, visiting European 

 courts and working with his own 

 hands in the shipyards of Holland 

 and England. He returned to 

 Russia to complete the suppression 

 of a revolt raised by the party 

 hostile to western innovations, and 

 he brought with him engineers, 

 artisans, and scientists. 



In 1699, after the accession in 

 Sweden of Charles XII (q.v.), he 

 formed a coalition with Poland and 

 Denmark for a partition of the 

 Baltic provinces of Sweden, which 

 should establish Russia on that 

 sea. Charles, however, crushed Den- 

 mark, shattered Peter's huge army 

 at Narva (q.v. ), and then turned on 

 Poland. Peter was left at leisure to 

 found his new capital of Peters- 

 burg, and to apply the lessons of 

 Narva to the organization of his 

 army. When Charles again turned 

 upon Russia, he was drawn deep 

 into the country, and his army was 

 annihilated at Poltava in 1709, 

 though he himself escaped over the 

 Turkish border and presently in- 

 duced Turkey to declare war upon 

 Peter. In the course of the war 

 the tsr, with his army, was en- 

 ticed into a trap, and would have 

 been annihilated but for the diplo- 

 matic skill of his mistress after- 

 wards his wife and his successor 

 Catherine, who procured a treaty 

 by which Peter gave up Azov. 



He now made himself master of 

 Finland, and after the death of 

 Charles imposed upon Sweden a 

 peace which transferred to Russia 

 the Baltic provinces which Peter 

 desired in 1721. A S.E. expansion 

 at the expense of Persia was his next 

 project, which carried the Russian 

 borders to the Caspian and the 

 Caucasus ; but his further ambi- 

 tions were stayed by his death, 

 Jan. 28, 1725. He was succeeded 

 on the throne by his widow, 

 Catherine I, whom he had married 

 in 1712. 



Bibliography. History of the 

 Russian Empire under Peter <the 

 Great, F. M. Voltaire, Eng. trans. 

 1703 ; Peter the Great, K. Wali- 

 szewski, Eng. trans. M. Loyd, 2nd 

 cd. 1898 ; History of Russia from 

 Peter the Great to Alexander II, 

 W. R. Morfill, 1902. 



Peter H (1715-30). Tsar of 

 Russia. Son of Alexis, the only 

 son of Peter the Great, he was born 



Peter II, 

 Tsai of Russia 



Peter III, 

 Tsar of Russia 



6085 



Oct. 11, 1715, and succeeded 

 Catherine I in 1727. He fell under 

 the influence of Menshikov, one of 

 whoso daugh- 

 ters he mar- 

 r i e d, and 

 exiled Anna 

 Ivanovna, 

 duchess of 

 Courland, the 

 legitimate heir 

 to the throne. 

 At the insti- 

 gation of Ivan 

 Dolgoruki, 

 Peter threw 

 off the yoke imposed on him by 

 Menshikov, whom he exiled to 

 Siberia with his family. He died 

 Jan. 29, 1730. 



Peter HI (1728-62). Tsar of 

 Russia. Born at Kiel, Jan. 29, 

 1728, he was the son of Anne, 

 eldest daugh- 

 ter of Peter 

 the Great. He 

 ascended the 

 throne Jan. 5, 

 1762, and im- 

 mediately re- 

 versed Rus- 

 sian policy by 

 concluding a 

 peace with 

 Frederick II 

 of Prussia. Never a favourite with 

 his subjects, he was the victim of 

 a plot not unknown to his consort, 

 who proclaimed herself empress as 

 Catherine II, July 14, 1762. Peter 

 was strangled a few days later. 



Peter (1844-1921). King of the 

 Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. Son 

 of Alexander I, prince of Serbia, 

 1842-58, Peter 

 Karageorge- 

 vitch was born 

 at Belgrade, 

 July 11, 1844. 

 Exiled with 

 the rest of the 

 family, he re- 

 ceived a mili- 

 tary education 

 at St. Cyr, and 

 fought with 

 distinction in the foreign legion 

 during the Franco-Prussian War, 

 and in 1875 as a leader of the 

 Herzegovinian insurgents. He 

 married, in 1883, Zorka, daughter 

 of Nicholas I of Montenegro. 



On the extinction of the Obreno- 

 vitch dynasty by the assassination 

 of King Alexander Obrenovitch, 

 June 10, 1903, Peter was elected 

 king by the National Assembly on 

 June 15. He was not in a strong 

 enough position to deal justice 

 to the murderers of his predecessor, 

 and the new monarchy was not 

 recognized by Great Britain until 

 1906. In June, 1914, he committed 

 the regency of the kingdom to the 



Peter, 

 King of the Serbs 



PETERBOROUGH 



crown prince Alexander, his second 

 son, but was with the army during 

 the first part of the Great War, 

 accompanying it in the retreat of 

 1915-16 to Greece, where he spent 

 his second exile. On the recon- 

 quest of Serbia and its extension 

 into the kingdom of the Serbs, 

 Croats, and Slovenes, known as 

 Yugo-Slavia, Peter returned to 

 Belgrade, where he died Aug. 16, 

 1921. See Karageorgevitch ; 

 Serbia ; Yugo-Slavia ; consult also 

 Pierre I, roi de Serbie, R. 

 Chambry, 1917. 



Peter THE HERMIT. Medieval 

 preacher, known for his connexion 

 with the first crusade. Little is 

 known of him save that he was a 

 priest at Amiens when Pope 

 Urban II, in 1095, declared a 

 crusade. Peter was one of the most 

 successful of the wandering preach- 

 ers who went through France 

 urging its claims. He led one band 

 of crusaders from Cologne to Con- 

 stantinople, and after some vicis- 

 situdes reached the Holy Land. 

 He is said to have died hi 1115. 

 The medieval writers ascribe to 

 Peter a larger share in originating 

 the crusade than was actually the 

 case. See Crusades. 



Peterborough. City and mun. 

 borough of Northamptonshire, 

 England. It stands on the Nene, 76 

 m. from London, 

 and is served 

 by the G.N., 

 Midland, G.E., 

 and L. & N.W. 

 Rlys., being an 

 important rly. 

 centre. The 

 cathedral of S. Peterborough 

 Peter occupies arms 



the site of a Saxon edifice. It was 

 begun about 11 1 8 as the church of a 

 monastery, took over 100 years to 

 build, and contains examples of 

 several styles of architecture. The 

 magnificent west front was restored 

 after 1895. The nave is a noble 

 piece of work, while another feature 

 is the rebuilt central tower. Made 

 a cathedral when a bishopric was 

 established here in 1541, it con- 

 tains the tomb of Catherine of 

 Aragon. There are some remains 

 of the monastery, including the 

 cloisters, and connected with the 

 cathedral are some interesting 

 buildings, among them two gate- 

 ways (above one of which is the 

 chapel of S. Nicholas), and the 

 chapel of S. Thomas Becket. Other 

 buildings include the church of S. 

 John Baptist, a 15th century build- 

 ing, the grammar school, town 

 hall, a 17th century edifice, and a 

 museum. The staple industries are 

 the making of railway stock and 

 farm implements. ; There is a 

 trade in agricultural produce, and 



