Alexis of Russia
Alexei Mikhailovich[a] (Russian: Алексей Михайлович,[b] IPA: [ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ]; 29 March [O.S. 19 March] 1629 – 8 February [O.S. 29 January] 1676), also known as Alexis,[1] was Tsar of all Russia from 1645 until his death in 1676.[2]
For the heads of the Russian Orthodox Church of the same name, see Patriarch Alexy of Moscow (disambiguation).
Alexis
Алексей Михайлович
12 July 1645 – 29 January 1676
28 September 1645
29 March 1629
Moscow, Russia
8 February 1676 (aged 46)
Moscow, Russia
- Tsarevich Dmitri Alexeevich
- Tsarevna Yevdokia Alekseevna
- Tsarevna Marfa Alekseyevna
- Tsarevich Alexei Alexeevich
- Sofia Alexeevna, Regent of Russia
- Tsarevna Ekaterina Alexeevna
- Tsarevna Maria Alexeevna
- Fyodor III
- Tsarevna Feodosia Alexeyevna
- Tsarevich Simeon Alexeyevich
- Ivan V
- Peter I
- Tsarevna Natalya Alexeevna
He was the first tsar to sign laws on his own authority and his council passed the Sobornoye Ulozheniye of 1649, which strengthened the bonds between autocracy and the lower nobility.[3]
In religious matters, he sided closely with Patriarch Nikon during the schism in the Russian Orthodox Church which saw unpopular liturgical reforms.[2][3]
While finding success in foreign affairs, his reign saw several wars with Iran, Poland (from whom left-bank Ukraine and Smolensk were annexed) and Sweden, as well as internal instabilities such as the Salt Riot in Moscow and the Cossack revolt of Stenka Razin in southern Russia. At the time of his death, Russia spanned almost 8.1 million km2 (3.1 million sq mi).
Early life and reign[edit]
Born in Moscow on 29 March [O.S. 19 March] 1629,[2] the son of Tsar Michael and Eudoxia Streshneva,[4] the sixteen-year-old Alexis acceded to the throne after his father's death on 12 July 1645. In August, the Tsar's mother died, and following a pilgrimage to Sergiyev Posad he was crowned on 28 September in the Dormition Cathedral.[5] He was committed to the care of his tutor Boris Morozov, a shrewd boyar open to Western ideas.[6]
Morozov pursued a peaceful foreign policy, securing a truce with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and carefully avoiding complications with the Ottoman Empire. His domestic policy aimed at limiting the privileges of foreign traders and abolishing useless and expensive court offices. On 17 January 1648, Morozov procured the marriage of the tsar with Maria Miloslavskaya, himself marrying her sister Anna, ten days later,[6] both the daughters of Ilya Danilovich Miloslavsky.
Alexis empowered Morozov to conduct reforms in reducing social tensions, however his measure of tripling the tax burden (arrears for the two years preceding 1648 was demanded) saw heightened popular discontent.[3] Morozov was regarded as a corrupt, self-seeking boyar and was accused of sorcery and witchcraft. In May 1648 Muscovites rose against his faction in the Salt Riot, and the young Tsar was compelled to dismiss them and exile Morozov to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. Four months later, Morozov secretly returned to Moscow to regain some of his power.[7]
The popular discontent demonstrated by the riot was partially responsible for Alexis' 1649 issuance of a new legal code, the Sobornoye Ulozhenie.[2]
Later reign[edit]
Military reform[edit]
In 1648, using the experience of creating regiments of the foreign system during the reign of his father, Alexis began reforming the army.
The main direction of the reform was the mass creation of New Order Regiments: Reiters, Soldiers, Dragoons and Hussars.[8] These regiments formed the backbone of the new army of Tsar Alexis. To fulfill the reform goals, a large number of European military specialists were hired for service. This became possible because of the end of the Thirty Years' War, which created a colossal surplus of military professionals in Europe.[9]
Personal description[edit]
In 1666, his doctor Samuel Collins described Alexis (then aged 37) as having "a sanguine complexion with light brown hair, his beard uncut. He is tall and fat of a majestical deportment, severe in his anger, bountiful, charitable".[16]
Alexis's first marriage to Miloslavskaya was harmonious and felicitous. They had thirteen children (five sons and eight daughters) in twenty-one years of marriage, and she died only weeks after her thirteenth childbirth. Four sons survived her (Alexei, Fyodor, Semyon and Ivan), but within six months of her death two of these were dead, including Alexei, the 15-year-old heir to the throne. The couple's children were:
Alexis remarried on 1 February 1671 to Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina (1 September 1651 – 4 February 1694). She had been brought up in the house of Artamon Matveyev, whose wife was the Scottish-descended Mary Hamilton. Their children were: