Feodor, having witnessed the bitter feuds which arose from this custom in his father's time, resolved to choose a wife from another nation. As he had already formed an ardent attachment to a Polish lady, inclination as well as politics led him to this decision. The clericals were violently opposed to the innovation. In spite of the anathemas of the church, however, the young Czar married the lady of his choice.
After a reign of six years he died, leaving no heir, but he had six sisters and one brother. This brother, however, being an imbecile, Feodor had chosen before his death his half-brother Peter, the son of his father by his wife, Natalia, to be his successor, and thus we come to the great page in Russian history covered by the reign of Peter the Great, which began in 1689 and lasted till 1725.
Peter was not allowed to come to the throne peaceably, for the family of the first wife of his father resolved, if possible, to retain the succession. Sophia, the eldest daughter of Alexis, sister of the late Czar, was a princess of great beauty and talent, united with courage equal to any emergency, and she contested the crown, first in the name of her idiot brother and then in her own. The family of the second wife were equally active in pressing the claims of Peter, then a boy then years old.
Previous article Next article
From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
