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ALEXIUS MIKHAILOVICH (1629-1676) , See also:tsar of Muscovy, the son of Tsar See also:Michael See also:Romanov and Eudoxia Stryeshnevaya, was See also:born on the 9th of See also:March 1629. A youth at his See also:father's See also:death (1645), he was committed to the care of the boyarin Boris Ivanovich Morozov, a shrewd and sensible See also:guardian, sufficiently enlightened to recognize the needs of his See also:country, and by no means inaccessible to Western ideas. Morozov's See also:foreign policy was pacificatory. He secured the truce with See also:Poland and carefully avoided complications with the See also:Porte. His domestic policy was severely equitable, and aimed at relieving the public burdens by limiting the privileges of foreign traders and abolishing a See also:great many useless and expensive See also:court offices. On the 17th of See also:January 1648 he procured the See also:marriage of the tsar with Maria Miloslavskaya, himself marrying her See also:sister, See also:Anna, ten days later. The
Miloslayskis were typical self-seeking 17th See also:century boyars, whose extortions made them generally detested. In May 1648 the See also:people of See also:Moscow See also:rose against them, and the See also:young tsar was compelled to dismiss both them and their See also:patron Morozov. The successful issue of the Moscow riots was the occasion of disquieting disturbances all over the tsardom culminating in dangerous rebellions at See also:Pskov and Great See also:Novgorod, with which the See also:government was so unable to See also:cope that they surrendered, practically granting the malcontents their own terms. One See also:man only had displayed equal tact and courage at Great Novgorod, the See also:metropolitan See also:Nikon (q.v.), who in consequence became in 1651 the tsar's See also:chief See also:minister. In 1653 the weakness and disorder of Poland, which had just emerged, bleeding at every See also:pore, from the See also:savage Cossack See also:war, encouraged Alexius to See also:attempt to recover from her See also:secular See also:rival the old See also:Russian lands. On the 1st of See also:October 1653 a See also:national See also:assembly met at Moscow to See also:sanction the war and find the means of carrying it on, and in See also:April 1654 the See also:army was blessed by Nikon (now See also:patriarch). The See also:campaign of 1654 was an uninterrupted See also:triumph, and scores of towns, including the important fortress of See also:Smolensk, See also:fell into the hands of the Muscovites. In January 1655 the rout of Ochmatov arrested their progress; but in the summer of the same See also:year, the sudden invasion by See also:Charles X. of See also:Sweden for the moment swept the See also:Polish See also:state out of existence; the Muscovites, unopposed, quickly appropriated nearly everything which was not already occupied by the Swedes, and when at last the Poles offered to negotiate, the whole See also:grand-duchy of Lithuania was the least of the demands of Alexius. Fortunately for Poland, the tsar and the See also:- KING
- KING (O. Eng. cyning, abbreviated into cyng, cing; cf. O. H. G. chun- kuning, chun- kunig, M.H.G. kiinic, kiinec, kiinc, Mod. Ger. Konig, O. Norse konungr, kongr, Swed. konung, kung)
- KING [OF OCKHAM], PETER KING, 1ST BARON (1669-1734)
- KING, CHARLES WILLIAM (1818-1888)
- KING, CLARENCE (1842–1901)
- KING, EDWARD (1612–1637)
- KING, EDWARD (1829–1910)
- KING, HENRY (1591-1669)
- KING, RUFUS (1755–1827)
- KING, THOMAS (1730–1805)
- KING, WILLIAM (1650-1729)
- KING, WILLIAM (1663–1712)
king of Sweden now quarrelled over the See also:apportionment of the spoil, and at the end of May 1656 Alexius, stimulated by the See also:emperor and the other enemies of Sweden, declared war against her. Great things were expected of the See also:Swedish war, but nothing came of it. Dorpat was taken, but countless multitudes were lost in vain before See also:Riga. In the meantime Poland had so far recovered herself as to become a much more dangerous foe than Sweden, and, as it was impossible to wage war with both simultaneously, the tsar resolved to rid himself of the Swedes first. This he did by the See also:peace of Kardis (See also:July 2, 1661), whereby Muscovy retroceded all her conquests. The Polish war dragged on for six years longer and was then concluded by a truce, nominally for thirteen years, which proved the most durable of See also:treaties. By the truce of Andrussowo (See also:February It, 1667) See also:Vitebsk, See also:Polotsk and Polish See also:Livonia were restored to Poland, but the infinitely more important Smolensk and See also:Kiev remained in the hands of the See also:Muscovite together with the whole eastern See also:bank of the See also:Dnieper. This truce was the achievement of Athanasy See also:Orduin-Nashchokin, the first Russian See also:chancellor and diplomatist in the See also:modern sense, who after the disgrace of Nikon became the tsar's first minister till 1670, when he was superseded by the equally able Artamon See also:Matvyeev, whose beneficent See also:influence prevailed to the end of the reign. It is the crowning merit of the ever amiable and courteous tsar Alexius that he discovered so many great men (like Nikon, Orduin, Matvyeev, the best of See also:- PETER
- PETER (Lat. Petrus from Gr. irfpos, a rock, Ital. Pietro, Piero, Pier, Fr. Pierre, Span. Pedro, Ger. Peter, Russ. Petr)
- PETER (PEDRO)
- PETER, EPISTLES OF
- PETER, ST
Peter's precursors) and suitably employed them. He was not a man of See also:superior strength of See also:character, or he would never have submitted to the dictation of Nikon. But, on the other See also:hand; he was naturally, if timorously, progressive, or he would never have encouraged the great reforming boyarin Matvyeev. His See also:education was necessarily narrow; yet he was learned in his way, wrote verses, and even began a See also:history of his own times. His 'last years, notwithstanding the terrible See also:rebellion of Stenka See also:Razin, were deservedly tranquil. By his first See also:consort he had thirteen See also:children, of whom two sickly sons and eight healthy daughters survived him. By his second consort, Natalia Naruishkina, he had two children, the tsarevich Peter and the tsarevna Natalia.
See See also:Robert Nisbet See also:Bain, The First Romanovs (See also:London, 1905).
(R. N.
End of Article: ALEXIUS MIKHAILOVICH (1629-1676)
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