COXe’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.
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perfons belonging to the court; and the Boiars, See, anfwered unanimoufly, The Tza-rovitch and Great-duke Peter is, by the choice of all the dates and people of the Mus-covite empire, Tzar and Great-duke of all Great, Little, and White Ruflia.”
We may remark upon thefe extracts, that being compiled by the friends of Peter,even if they did not contradict each other, their authority would be exceedingly excep-tionable ; nor could their filence, with refpedt to any oppofition, be confidered as.a dif-fident tedimony that the Suffrages in favour of Peter were unanimous; becaufe his ad-herents would never record any particulars tending in the fmalled degree to invalidatehis pretenfions, or fupport thofe of Ivan. Befides, when we recoiled the power of thefamily of Milolaffki during the reign of Feodor, the influence which Prince Vaffili Ga-litzin mud have acquired from his office of prime minider, and particularly the infinu-ating manners and popularity of Sophia, (all of whom were bound, not only by thedronged ties of filtered, but even for their common fecurity, to fupport the caufe ofIvan,) it is not probable, that the nomination of Peter was as unanimous as it is repre-fented. And indeed it is certain *, that a nobleman, named Sumbalof, objected to thevalidity of the election, becaufe the younger brother was preferred to the elder; that hisremondrance was followed by thofe of many others, and that even the Patriarch Joa-chim , v/ho is edeemed by Muller a drong advocate of Peter, foon afterwards embracedthe party of Ivan : thefe circumdances feem to imply that Peter was not raifed to thethrone by the unanimous voice of the nation ; but that the fuffrages of the affembly hadbeen furprized by the fecret machinations of the Nariikins.
Peter, however, by whatfoever means his nomination was obtained, received as foieSovereign, the fealty of his fubjefts; and the government was entruded to his motherNatalia. But the party in oppofition to Peter was drong and powerful; his electionwas not as yet confirmed by the whole body of Strelitz, who, to ufe the fpirited expref-fion of a Ruffian author, poffeffed above fourteen thoufand armed votes f ; and theirpeculiar fituation at this important juncture rendered them fit indruments of a newrevolution.
Jud before Feodor’s demife, nine of thefe regiments, quartered at Mofcow, having,tumultuoufly affembled, demanded redr^fs of ill-treatment received from their colonels,and an inflant difeharge of all their arrears. Prince George Dolgorucki, their chief,having ordered one of the ringleaders to be feized, dripped, and punifhed with theknoot, an immediate infurreftion was the confequence; the executioners were infulted,and the prifoners re'fcued J. On the day fubffiquent to the interment of Feodor, thefoldiers proceeded in a large body to the Kremlin, and prefented a petition againd nineof their colonels, who being delivered to them by the minidry, were publicly whippedand difeharged §. Ivan Milolaffki inflamed the difeontents of this mutinous body, andthough confined to his-chamber by a pretended ficknefs, contrived to hold feveral inter-views with the ringleaders, who affembled at night in his palace. Sophia is alfo accufedof being prefent at thefe meetings, of didributing money to the principal infurgents, andof exafperating them againd the family of Narifkin. On the morning of the 15th ofMay, a report being fpread that Peter was not unanimoufly elefted, the drums beat toarms by order of Ivan Milolaffki, and the Strelitz being tumultuoufly affembled, twoperfons of his party entered their quarters, crying, “ The hour of vengeance is at hand,Ivan Alexievitch is affaffinated, and the Narifkins are maders of Ruffia; revenge themurder of the Tzarovitch.” The foldiers, inflamed to fury by thefe exclamations,
* Sumorokof, p. 5 S~~ 57 4 f 1 4'9^* bewafFnete ftimme, Sumorokof, p. 19.
marched