Alexei, son of Peter the Great

 

 On this day - 26th June 1718 

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 Alexei, son of Peter the Great, dies from torture after being sentenced to death by his father 

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 Many monarchs throughout history have killed family members.

Henry VIII, for example, b-headed two wives, and a few cousins.
Elizabeth I had her cousin Mary Queen of Scots eXecuted.

However, the actions of Russian tsar Peter the Great, beats that.

In 1718 he had his eldest son Alexei tortured to death, for allegedly conspiring against him.

 Like many children of European monarchs, Alexei didn’t often see his father, who spent much of his reign away fighting the Ottomans and Swedes.

When Tsarevich Alexei was eight years old, Peter forced Alexei's mother Eudoxia, into a convent.
From then on, Alexei was raised largely by his aunts.

 As a teenager, Alexei was put to work in Peter’s army.
His menial tasks included collecting food and recruits, and sending them to the appropriate places.

In 1711, Peter married Alexei off to a German princess named Charlotte.

Though relatively pleased with her husband at first, Charlotte soon found herself lonely and isolated, complaining about Alexei's excessive drinking.

 Charlotte would die from complications following the birth of their second child in 1715.

Meanwhile, still sore over his mother’s banishment, Alexei did not attend the 1712 wedding of his father and his second wife, Catherine.

 Alexei was timid and far less physically imposing than his father.
Alexei constantly complained of ill health, and is said to have once purposely injured his hand, rather than submit to one of his father’s demands.

The father-son relationship cracked for good in October 1715, when Peter wrote Alexei a letter.

In the letter, Peter expressed his disgust at Alexei's lack of military prowess, and threatened to deprive him of the succession.


 Terrified, Alexei volunteered to relinquish his claim to the throne, saying that he felt unfit for service.

Despite Alexei’s assurances that he wanted nothing to do with the government, Peter worried that his opponents would rally around his son.

Peter therefore ordered Alexei to either become a better man for the succession, or become a monk.

Alexei agreed to enter a monastery.....

 Fearing his father's retaliation, rather than actually enter a monastery, Alexei fled the country.

Showing up in Vienna, in November 1716, Alexei placed himself at the mercy of the Habsburg Emperor Charles VI.

Unfortunately for Alexei, Peter’s agents managed to track him down.
Peter promised before God not to punish Alexei, as long as he returned to Russia.

 Reluctantly, Alexei came back to Russia.
He fell to his knees in front of his father, and begged for forgiveness.

Peter demanded that Alexei name his accomplices, which led to the torture and eXecution of dozens of Alexei’s friends.
Alexei's servants were b-headed or had their tongues cut out.

Alexei was jailed, put on trial, and tortured.

 A brutal reign of terror ensued.
Most sources state that Alexei was whipped 25 times, and that, when the torture started up again five days later, he confessed to conspiring for the death of his father.

On 26th June 1718, Tsarevich Alexei died of his wounds, he was 28 years old.

Alexei died in the Peter and Paul fortress in Saint Petersburg, two days after the senate had condemned him to death on false charges of conspiring against his father.....

The Tudor Intruders (and more)

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 Source - history. com/peter-the-great-tortured-killed-own-son/Jesse Greenspan
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 Portrait of Alexei.
Johann Gottfried Tannauer, c. 1712–16.
Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg