RUSSIA IN EUROPE, 125 



duke of Great Novgorod, from whom he is said to have taken 300 cart 

 loads of gold and silver. His prosperous reign of forty years gave a 

 new aspect to Russia. 



His grandson, the famous John Basilowitz, or Vassillieviteh II, hav- 

 ing cleared his country of the intruding Tartars, subdued the king- 

 doms of Kasan and Astracan Tartary, in Asia, and annexed them to 

 the Russian dominions. By his cruelty, however, he obliged the, in- 

 habitants of some of his finest provinces, particularly Livonia and 

 Esthonia, to throw themselves under the protection of the Poles and 

 Swedes. Before the time of this John II, the sovereign of Russia 

 took the title of Velike Knez, " great prince," great lord, or great 

 chief; which the Christian nations afterwards rendered by that of 

 great duke. The title of Tzar, or, as we call it, Czar (a word which 

 signifies king, or emperor) was added to that of the Russian sove- 

 reigns. Upon the death of John Basilowitz, the Russian succession 

 \vas filled by a set of weak cruel princes ; and their territories were 

 torn in pieces by civil wars. In 1597, Boris Godonow assassinated 

 Demetri, or Demetrius, the lawful heir, and usurped the throne. A 

 young monk took the name of Demetrius, pretending to be that 

 prince who had escaped from his murderers ; and with the assistance 

 of the Poles, and a considerable party (which every tyrant has against 

 him) he drove out the usurper and seized the crown himself. The 

 imposture was discovered as soon as he came to the sovereignty, 

 because the people were not pleased with him ; and he was murder- 

 ed. Three other false Demetriuses started up, one after another. 



These impostures prove the despicable stale of ignorance in which 

 the Russians were immerged. The country became by turns a prey 

 to the Poles and the Swedes, but was at length delivered by the good 

 sense of the boyars, impelled by their despair, so late as the year 

 1613. The independency of Russia was then on the point of being 

 extinguished. Uladislaus, son of Sigismund II, of Poland, had been 

 declared czar ; but the tyranny of the Poles was such, that it produc- 

 ed a general rebellion of the Russians, who drove the Poles out of 

 Moscow, where they had for some time defended themselves with 

 unexampled courage. Phillaretes, archbishop of Rostow, whose wife 

 was. descended from the ancient sovereigns of Russia, had been sent 

 ambassador to Poland by Demetrius, one of the Russian tyrants, and 

 there was detained prisoner, under pretence that his countrymen had 

 rebelled against Uladislaus. The boyars met in a body ; and such 

 was their veneration for Philaretes, and his wife, whom the tyrant 

 had shut up in a nunnery, that they elected their son Michael 

 Feodorowitz, of the house of Romanoff, a youth of fifteen years of 

 age, to be their sovereign. The father being exchanged for some 

 Polish prisoners, returned to Russia ; and being created patriarch by 

 his son, reigned in the right of Michael with great prudence and 

 uccess. He defeated the attempts of the Poles to replace Uladislaus 

 i'pon the throne, and likewise the claim of a brother of Gustavus 

 Adolphus. The claims of the Swedes and Poles upon Russia occa- 

 sioned a war between those two nations, which gave Michael a kind 

 of breathing-time ; and he made use of it for the benefit of his sub- 

 jects. He reigned thirty-three years ; and by his wisdom, and the 

 mildness of his character, restored ease and tranquillity to his sub- 

 jects. 



Alexius succeeded his father Michael. He appears to have been 

 a prince of great genius. He recovered Smolensko, Kiow, and the 



