A Few Intrigues

For seventy-one years after Peter the Great's death Russia was ruled almost exclusively by women. Having had his first son imprisoned and killed (some say with his own hands) and losing his second son to a premature natural death, Peter, left without a male heir, decreed that the emperor could name his successor as he pleased without regard to hereditary concerns, and thus did his second wife, Catherine I, succeed him to the throne. She ruled from 1725 until 1727, followed by Peter the Great's grandson Peter II who died of smallpox in 1730 at the age of seventeen. The throne then passed to Anna, the corpulent daughter of Peter the Great's half-brother Ivan. She ruled until 1740, nominating her older sister's grandson, the two-month old Ivan VI, to succeed her. At first the Empress Anna's favorite, Ernst Bìren, was named regent but he was deposed within three weeks and Ivan VI's mother (who was also called Anna) was given the regency. After a year the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, Peter the Great's last surviving child, seized power and had the one-year old Ivan VI locked up in the Schlìsselburg Fortress with instructions to kill him if he tried to escape. Which just goes to show that a royal birth does not necessarily entitle one to a life of ballroom dancing, military parades, and a quiet retirement in Monte Carlo.*