Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener Discretion advised. The year
Speaker 1: is seventeen eighteen, and the Russian jurists are about to
Speaker 1: hand down their verdict. The charge is incredibly serious, treason
Speaker 1: against the Tsar Peter the Great, punishable by death. Some
Speaker 1: of the members of the jury are sweating, but they're
Speaker 1: all pretending not to. They've been instructed that they should
Speaker 1: treat the accused in exactly the same way that they
Speaker 1: would treat any man who comes before them. They should
Speaker 1: not play nice or go gentle on him. They've been
Speaker 1: promised that they won't be punished even if they find
Speaker 1: him guilty. But the jury has reason to be a
Speaker 1: little anxious about the situation because the accused, the man
Speaker 1: standing trial for treason against the Tsar of Russia, is
Speaker 1: the Tsarevich, the son of the Tsar. And so the
Speaker 1: jury handed in their verdict. Tsarevich Alexei, twenty eight years old,
Speaker 1: the heir to the Russian throne, the only one of
Speaker 1: Peter's many children who had survived to adulthood, was guilty.
Speaker 1: Everyone in the courtroom knew what that meant. A sentence
Speaker 1: of death.
Speaker 2: The jurors all prayed that the Emperor would not rescind
Speaker 2: his promise and decide to kill them after all, but
Speaker 2: they also knew that the ultimate fate of Alexei did
Speaker 2: not rest with them. Peter the Great would have to
Speaker 2: sign off on any punishment himself. If he wanted his
Speaker 2: own son and heir killed, then he would have to
Speaker 2: approve it with his own hand. Surely, some in the
Speaker 2: room believed he would never approve it. Yes, Peter and
Speaker 2: Alexey had had their struggles. The boy was weak, the
Speaker 2: son of Peter's unloved first wife. Alexei was an endless
Speaker 2: chooser of flight over fight, too eager to voluntarily abdegate
Speaker 2: his place in the succession. But Peter had also given
Speaker 2: him chance after chance before. Alexey was his own flesh
Speaker 2: and blood. After all. Surely Peter would not allow that
Speaker 2: flesh and blood torn tortuously apart on his watch. But
Speaker 2: then again, Peter the Great didn't get that nickname for nothing.
Speaker 2: Great and terrible are terribly close words when we speak
Speaker 2: of Russian monarchs, and if we've learned one thing over
Speaker 2: the course of this podcast, it's that when it comes
Speaker 2: to royal families. The royal wins out over the family
Speaker 2: with chilling frequently, I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is noble blood.
Speaker 2: The Emperor, who would later be known as Peter the Great,
Speaker 2: came to the throne as Czar Peter the First in
Speaker 2: sixteen eighty two, when he was only ten years old.
Speaker 2: He was co ruler with his older half brother Ivan
Speaker 2: the Fifth, but Ivan was at least partially paralyzed, blind,
Speaker 2: and likely cognitively impaired. They were both basically dominated by
Speaker 2: Peter's older half sister, Sophia, who was regent. All this
Speaker 2: meant that even though Peter was officially Tzar, he didn't
Speaker 2: grow up in the palace. He hung out with his mother,
Speaker 2: who was more open to Western influence than the Russian monarchs.
Speaker 2: In sixteen eighty nine, when Peter was seventeen, his mother
Speaker 2: arranged his marriage to a woman named Eudoxia Lopukina. Peter
Speaker 2: never seemed to love his wife, but one year later,
Speaker 2: on February twenty eighth, sixteen ninety their son and heir,
Speaker 2: Alexei Petrovitch was born. Peter set off fireworks in celebration. Then,
Speaker 2: in sixteen ninety six, Peter's half brother Ivan died, leaving
Speaker 2: Peter as sol Tsar of Russia. Naturally, he had Sophia,
Speaker 2: the former regent, banished to a convent, which was the
Speaker 2: Russian ruler's common solution for unwanted sisters, wives, and generally
Speaker 2: pesky women. Peter was known for a ton of innovations
Speaker 2: in Russia that we don't have the time to list
Speaker 2: in full. But he established the Empire of Russia, so
Speaker 2: he was the first Russian ruler to be not only
Speaker 2: czar but also emperor. He developed Russia's military might, and
Speaker 2: he was considered a modernizing and westernizing force. He modernized
Speaker 2: and even designed the Russian written alphabet, and in seventeen
Speaker 2: oh two established the first Russian newspaper. He also founded
Speaker 2: the city of Saint Petersburg and moved the capital there
Speaker 2: from Moscow. He was a strange man. I can only
Speaker 2: give you some of the strangest highlights. Though standing at
Speaker 2: an almost unheard of six foot seven, he preferred to
Speaker 2: live in little houses with small ceilings called dumiki. His
Speaker 2: cabinet of Curiosities was famous for its bizarre and grotesque
Speaker 2: collection of human and animal fetuses with birth defects. He
Speaker 2: once held a grand event known as the Most Drunken
Speaker 2: Snynod of Fools and Jesters. In an effort to force
Speaker 2: Russian men to accord with the shaven faced fashion of Europe,
Speaker 2: he instituted a beard tax on any Russian who wore
Speaker 2: a beard. If you paid it, you received a coin
Speaker 2: engraved with an actual image of a beard and mustache
Speaker 2: to prove that your style was allowed. A hipster mustache
Speaker 2: loving dream. Not only are mustache special, they're also exclusive.
Speaker 2: He had two wives. First was Eudoxia, whom he was
Speaker 2: never wild about. In sixteen ninety eight, after nearly ten
Speaker 2: years of marriage, he had her banished to surprise a convent.
Speaker 2: Then Peter officially married his second wife, Catherine the First,
Speaker 2: in seventeen o seven. Of course, Peter also had many mistresses,
Speaker 2: including the famous British actress of drury Lane, Letitia Cross.
Speaker 2: Between his two wives, Peter had fifteen legitimate children, although
Speaker 2: only three of them survived to a But even when
Speaker 2: you look at that claim with modern eyes, its heartbreakingly
Speaker 2: short term. Only one child by Catherine the First, Elizabetta Petrovna,
Speaker 2: lived past her twenties. It is hard to imagine the
Speaker 2: grief of Catherine, who had twelve babies and watched ten
Speaker 2: of them die as infants or as very young children.
Speaker 2: And it is hard to imagine what Peter the Great
Speaker 2: must have been thinking in autumn of seventeen fifteen, when
Speaker 2: he was contemplating his heirs for the Russian throne. He
Speaker 2: had only one living son at this point, Tsarevich Alexey,
Speaker 2: the daughter of Eudoxia. Four other sons had died as infants.
Speaker 2: Alexey and his father had always had a strained relationship.
Speaker 2: After setting off fireworks and celebrations for little Alexey's birth,
Speaker 2: Peter largely lost interest in the boy. After all, he
Speaker 2: was the son of Peter's unloved first wife, Eudoxia. When
Speaker 2: Alexey was eight, his father sent his mother off to
Speaker 2: a convent, wrenching him away from her. Alexey was a
Speaker 2: somewhat sickly boy, cowardly and uninterested in military action, not
Speaker 2: qualities that particularly excited Peter about an heir. Alexey was
Speaker 2: so afraid of his father that he once shot himself
Speaker 2: in the hand to avoid having to see him classic Alexey,
Speaker 2: though he missed, burning himself badly, and then he lied
Speaker 2: to his father that it was an accident. He wrote
Speaker 2: that he quote would rather be a galley slave or
Speaker 2: have a burning fever than have to go to see
Speaker 2: a Russian ship launched. His mother in law said that
Speaker 2: quote it is quite useless for his father to force
Speaker 2: him to tend to military matters, as he would rather
Speaker 2: have a rosary than a pistol in his hand. In
Speaker 2: other words, in his father's eyes, he was just kind
Speaker 2: of a bummer. But Peter nonetheless wanted his son to
Speaker 2: become a man he could trust as his successor. Starting
Speaker 2: when Alexey was twelve, Peter took the boy along with
Speaker 2: him on various military sieges as preparation for his future
Speaker 2: as a military leader. When Alexey was seventeen, Peter put
Speaker 2: him in charge of the defense of Moscow. But Alexey
Speaker 2: never took an interest in his father's warring. He was meek.
Speaker 2: He accepted Peter's idea that he marry a German princess
Speaker 2: Charlotte in seventeen eleven, when he was twenty one and
Speaker 2: she seventeen. Alexey doated on their daughter, Natalia, but he
Speaker 2: drank so often and so much that he'd largely ignored
Speaker 2: his wife Charlotte, leaving her to a bedroom where the
Speaker 2: rain came through the roof. In a storm, Peter had
Speaker 2: to reprimand his son to take some care of his wife.
Speaker 2: So by seventeen fifteen it was clear to Peter that
Speaker 2: his son Alexey was a weak candidate to be his
Speaker 2: heir to the empire. But in the autumn of seventeen
Speaker 2: fifteen there was reason to think that Peter's outlook might change.
Speaker 2: Two reasons, in fact, because there were not one, but
Speaker 2: two heavily pregnant women in Russian court. On October twenty third,
Speaker 2: seventeen fifteen, Alexey's wife Charlotte gave birth to their second child,
Speaker 2: a boy. He was named Peter Alexevitch, and one week
Speaker 2: after that, on November ninth, seventeen fifteen, Peter the Great
Speaker 2: wife Catherine, also gave birth to a son, Peter Petrovitch.
Speaker 2: The baby survived his first days, and then weeks and
Speaker 2: then months of life. Peter wrote, God has sent me
Speaker 2: a new recruit. So by the time at seventeen sixteen dawned,
Speaker 2: Peter the Great found himself in a very different position
Speaker 2: than he had been at the beginning of seventeen fifteen,
Speaker 2: there were now two little Peters in Russia, both legitimate
Speaker 2: heirs to his throne, which meant that suddenly, when it
Speaker 2: came to the Russian line of succession, Peter the Great
Speaker 2: had other options. The story of what happened next between
Speaker 2: Peter the Great and his oldest surviving son, Alexei can
Speaker 2: be told in a set of fantastic letters that we
Speaker 2: still have. Between father and son, the whole story is there.
Speaker 2: Alexei's wife, Charlotte, died ten days after giving birth to
Speaker 2: Alexei's son. On her funeral day, Peter the Great gave
Speaker 2: his son a letter, a declaration to my son. It read, you,
Speaker 2: my son, reject all means of making yourself capable of
Speaker 2: governing well after me. I say your incapacity is voluntary,
Speaker 2: because you cannot excuse yourself with want of natural parts
Speaker 2: and strength of body, as if God had not given
Speaker 2: you sufficient share of either. And though your constitution is
Speaker 2: none the strongest, yet it cannot be said that it
Speaker 2: is altogether weak. Peter articulated a philosophy of governing and
Speaker 2: his personal disappointment in his son. He articulated his sadness
Speaker 2: that his son didn't care about war, and described his
Speaker 2: belief that the Russian people would follow a leader like
Speaker 2: Alexi say into forgetting about the importance of war. Peter
Speaker 2: said that physical sickness has nothing to do with a
Speaker 2: sovereign's inclination toward or interest in war, and gave the
Speaker 2: example of his even sicker brother Ivan the Fifth, who
Speaker 2: was nonetheless interested in war, unlike Alexey. The letter ends quote,
Speaker 2: I am a man, and consequently I must die. Peter
Speaker 2: wonders if Alexey is up to the succession and expresses
Speaker 2: that he is not, and offers him a bit more
Speaker 2: time to see if he can rise to the occasion.
Speaker 2: If he doesn't, Peter says, then quote, I will deprive
Speaker 2: you of the succession, as one may cut off a
Speaker 2: useless member. Harsh words, especially to get on the day
Speaker 2: of your wife's funeral. But to me, the most important
Speaker 2: and interesting part in the letter comes after, also the
Speaker 2: most faithful and tragic. Do not fancy that I only
Speaker 2: write this, Peter said, to terrify you. To me, it's
Speaker 2: clear that Peter's great disappointment with his son is all
Speaker 2: about desire. He just wants his son to want the throne.
Speaker 2: Don't want to be disinherited. Peter is saying, if you
Speaker 2: want to rule, if you want to be interested in war,
Speaker 2: that is enough. And the tragedy is that Peter the
Speaker 2: Great and his son Alexey really were in this ships
Speaker 2: passing in the night. It's like they simply could not
Speaker 2: hear each other. If what Peter cared about most was
Speaker 2: Alexey wanting the throne, then the last thing Alexey should
Speaker 2: have done was except the threat of his removal from
Speaker 2: the line of succession. Alexey went running to his advisors,
Speaker 2: and on their count he wrote back to his father
Speaker 2: saying that if you quote will deprive me of the
Speaker 2: succession to the crown of Russia by reason of my incapacity,
Speaker 2: your will be done. I even most urgently beg it
Speaker 2: of you. It's like these two men just cannot see
Speaker 2: each other. It's not an incapacity that Peter hates, and
Speaker 2: his son he gives the positive example of his actually
Speaker 2: much weaker and more incapacitated brother. It's that very proclivity
Speaker 2: to accept meekness and powerlessness, and that was exactly what
Speaker 2: the ever disappointing Alexey did. In the meantime, Peter was
Speaker 2: getting sick, and Alexey was basically just hoping to outlive
Speaker 2: his father and have this whole affair be over. But
Speaker 2: de escalation is not a thing in the Russian court,
Speaker 2: Peter writes back to Alexey, escalating accept the emperorship, says Peter,
Speaker 2: or else become a monk. Peter hopes that threats will
Speaker 2: make Alexey finally snap and want power, but he doesn't
Speaker 2: see his son, just as his son does not see him.
Speaker 2: All threats do is make the boy even meeker. I
Speaker 2: will embrace the monastical state and desire your gracious consent
Speaker 2: to it, Alexey writes back to Peter. It really is
Speaker 2: kind of hard to avoid the conclusion that Alexey really
Speaker 2: would have been a kind of weak ruler who didn't
Speaker 2: really want to rule. But at this point Peter is
Speaker 2: getting really angry at his weak son, and Alexey is
Speaker 2: getting pretty afraid of his father. He really doesn't seem
Speaker 2: to want the throne. The one thing he actually seems
Speaker 2: to want is to be with his mistress, a woman
Speaker 2: named Afrosina. So, in consultation with his advisors, Alexey decides
Speaker 2: to do something really foolish. He runs away. He dresses
Speaker 2: his mistress as a boy page, and they get out
Speaker 2: of Dodge. The pair land in Vienna, and Alexey asks
Speaker 2: his brother in law and bor Charles the sixth to
Speaker 2: conceal him there. It really wasn't the most intelligent move.
Speaker 2: He kept on doing exactly the things that would most
Speaker 2: disappoint his father, and a disappointed Peter was soon an
Speaker 2: enraged one. Of course, the situation couldn't last long, though
Speaker 2: Charles the sixth did agree to let Alexey hide at court.
Speaker 2: The disguise started failing pretty shortly thereafter. Efrisina was pregnant,
Speaker 2: so her disguise as a boy page fell apart. Peter
Speaker 2: found out that Vienna was hiding his son, and now
Speaker 2: the Russian and the Viennese emperors are both realizing that
Speaker 2: this could escalate to an international crisis, so everyone had
Speaker 2: to proceed with delicacy. Peter sent an emissary named Tolstoy,
Speaker 2: not the famous writer, to get Alexey back by any means,
Speaker 2: including outright duplicity if necessary. Naturally, Peter continued to threaten
Speaker 2: Alexey via letter, not that his strategy of threats ever worked.
Speaker 2: He wrote quote, if you return, I will love you
Speaker 2: better than ever. But if you refuse, then I declare
Speaker 2: you traitor, and I assure you I will find the
Speaker 2: means to use you as such. Again, threats never worked
Speaker 2: with Alexey. But the key was the girl, the Mistress,
Speaker 2: that he loved. Because Alexey did truly love her, all
Speaker 2: he wants. Alexey told tolstoy Is to get to marry
Speaker 2: Efrisina and go live in a country cottage together with her.
Speaker 2: Would his father agree to that? It's a nice dream,
Speaker 2: But Alexey had noble blood running through his veins. As
Speaker 2: any listener of this podcast might already know, retiring to
Speaker 2: acute cabin with a wife that you love is not
Speaker 2: really a likely option for an heir to a throne.
Speaker 2: Peter the Great promised that Alexey could marry the Mistress.
Speaker 2: Alexey was not smart enough not to believe him. In
Speaker 2: an earlier letter to his son, Peter had quoted the Bible,
Speaker 2: King David said, all men are liars. This kid did
Speaker 2: not have the strategic mind he would have needed to
Speaker 2: find a way out of his predicament. He could not
Speaker 2: outstrategize his father, and so Alexey agreed to go back
Speaker 2: to Russia. The historian Robert K. Massey, one of the
Speaker 2: most helpful sources for this episode, quotes the response to
Speaker 2: Alexey's choice quote, he will have a coffin instead of
Speaker 2: a wedding. In February seventeen eighteen, the Kremlin was full
Speaker 2: as Alexey publicly confessed to running away to Europe and
Speaker 2: he renounced his claim to the throne. Peter accepted pardoning
Speaker 2: his son on condition that Alexeys share all of his co conspirators.
Speaker 2: It was the beginning of a brutal, bloody retribution that
Speaker 2: Peter enacted on seemingly everyone except Alexey. At first, Peter
Speaker 2: found his ex wife, Eudoxia, who was living in a
Speaker 2: monastery but not as a nun. Her lover was tortured,
Speaker 2: her brother was killed, along with four others condemned to
Speaker 2: death for having helped Alexey flee to Europe, and Alexey
Speaker 2: seemingly didn't care as the people who helped him were investigated, tortured,
Speaker 2: or killed. All he seemed to want to do was
Speaker 2: Mary Afrisina, who, by the way, he wasn't physically with
Speaker 2: due to her pregnancy. He did not bring her back
Speaker 2: to Russia. With him upon his return from Europe. But
Speaker 2: he wrote her loving, longing letters, desperate for her in
Speaker 2: their separation, while she kind of isn't writing that sort
Speaker 2: of letter back. Secretaries write her letters back to him
Speaker 2: once she adds and asks for caviar. But the worst
Speaker 2: for Alexey is yet to come. Peter the Great did,
Speaker 2: for once unlock the keys to his son. He found Efrisina,
Speaker 2: and without subjecting her to any torture at all, she
Speaker 2: betrayed her lover. Yes, she said Alexey wanted Peter dead.
Speaker 2: He spoke of it often. She repeated the claims to
Speaker 2: Alexei's face. It's hard to imagine how much this must
Speaker 2: have pained him. The one thing he seemed to genuinely
Speaker 2: love in this life, the one thing he seemed to
Speaker 2: actually fight for. Who knows what he felt when he
Speaker 2: saw his beloved Africina again and had to watch her
Speaker 2: sell him out. His dreams of a country cottage shimmered
Speaker 2: before him, and then they were wiped out in an instant.
Speaker 2: Maybe whatever will he had left to live left him
Speaker 2: at that moment. After Aforsina's confessions, there was nothing else
Speaker 2: for it. Alexey went on trial Peter called both an
Speaker 2: ecclesiastical court and a secual court. Do not be moved,
Speaker 2: he told them by the fact that you are to
Speaker 2: judge the son of your sovereign, for we swear to
Speaker 2: you that you have absolutely nothing to fear. Of course,
Speaker 2: Peter had also promised Alexey that he could marry Africina
Speaker 2: and go live a cottage core life with her. But
Speaker 2: nonetheless Peter's orders to the jury were clear. Anyone else
Speaker 2: on trial would have been tortured to extract a confession,
Speaker 2: and so was Alexey. He was struck twenty five times
Speaker 2: with a not a kind of whipping torture on June nineteenth.
Speaker 2: Five days later he received fifteen more blows. His back
Speaker 2: was bleeding. The whipping torture had killed stronger men than alexe.
Speaker 2: He confessed to having wished for his father's death, and
Speaker 2: on June twenty fourth, the jury did what it had
Speaker 2: to do after such a confession, found Alexey guilty of
Speaker 2: rebellion against the emperor. So Tsarevich Alexey, heir to the
Speaker 2: Russian throne, was condemned to death, but it was up
Speaker 2: to Peter the Great to decide whether to allow the
Speaker 2: sentence to be carried out. In a tragic or perhaps
Speaker 2: gracious twist of fate, Peter never had to make a decision.
Speaker 2: Alexey fell ill, he requested his father see him, and
Speaker 2: Peter did, reportedly crying alongside his dying son. Alexei died
Speaker 2: on June twenty sixth, seventeen eighteen, at the age of
Speaker 2: twenty eight. No one official acknowledged it explicitly, but it's
Speaker 2: likely he simply did not survive the blows with the
Speaker 2: no Alexey was stronger than he'd always thought, but weaker
Speaker 2: than his father had always wished. Had not signed off
Speaker 2: on condemning his own son to the death penalty, but
Speaker 2: he did allow the torture that almost certainly killed him.
Speaker 2: After Alexey's death, he was mourned like a tsarvich rather
Speaker 2: than a criminal, interred in state. Peter the Great died
Speaker 2: on February eighth, seventeen twenty five, at the age of
Speaker 2: fifty two. He did not name a successor, and after
Speaker 2: he died, the succession was confusing. Of the two baby
Speaker 2: Peters who had given him such hope, his own little
Speaker 2: son had died in seventeen nineteen at age three. His wife,
Speaker 2: Catherine ruled as empress for two years until her own
Speaker 2: death in seventeen twenty seven, and then, maybe in small
Speaker 2: revenge for Alexey, it was his own son Peter, who
Speaker 2: took the throne for not quite three years before he
Speaker 2: died at age fourteen. Peter the Great is not the
Speaker 2: only Russian monarch to have killed his son. Nearly one
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty years earlier, in fifteen eighty one, the
Speaker 2: first Czar of Russia, Ivan the Terrible, had flown into
Speaker 2: a rage and killed his own son and only competent heir,
Speaker 2: when the boy was twenty seven, almost exactly the same
Speaker 2: age as Alexei was when he died. But Peter was
Speaker 2: not raging like Ivan was when he coolly instructed the
Speaker 2: court to treat Alexey as they would any other accused criminal.
Speaker 2: So far as I know, said the historian Jonathan Day,
Speaker 2: there were no other European monarchs who oversaw the torture
Speaker 2: of their own children. What would Peter have done if
Speaker 2: his son had not died. Would he have sent Tint
Speaker 2: his own son to the death penalty? We can't know.
Speaker 2: History can only be left to wonder. But at Alexei's funeral,
Speaker 2: the preacher quoted from the Old Testament, Oh absalom, my son,
Speaker 2: my son. That's the story of Russian Emperor Peter the
Speaker 2: Great killing his son, albeit indirectly. But stick around after
Speaker 2: a brief sponsor break to hear about the women in
Speaker 2: the story. You may be wondering a little bit about
Speaker 2: the women in the story. As for Afrisina, Alexey's beloved mistress,
Speaker 2: intended wife, and ultimate betrayer, her child disappeared from history.
Speaker 2: No one knows whether Alexey and Afrisina's child lived or died,
Speaker 2: or where the child was born. Afrosina got married herself
Speaker 2: and lived another thirty years in Saint Petersburg. As for Eudoxia,
Speaker 2: Peter the Great, unloved first wife and Alexey's mother, who
Speaker 2: had been banished to a convent. Her lover had been
Speaker 2: brutally tortured and her brother was killed over the Alexey affair,
Speaker 2: but she wound up with the last laugh. It was
Speaker 2: her grandson, Peter Alexevitch, who wound up on the throne
Speaker 2: after Catherine the second Wife's death, and when he got there,
Speaker 2: Eudoxia left the convent at last, despite her husband having
Speaker 2: banished her Eudoxia, Wound Up Dying at Court. Noble Blood
Speaker 2: is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from
Speaker 2: Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is hosted by me Danash Schwartz,
Speaker 2: with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, Courtney Sender,
Speaker 2: Amy Hit and Julia Melaney. The show is edited and
Speaker 2: produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producerrima il Kaali and
Speaker 2: executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For
Speaker 2: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.