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COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA, 599
prefent it as merely accidental. On weighing thefe difcordant accounts with impar-
tiality, ic appears, that the blow was either cafual, or, if defigned to chaftife, not in-
tended to be fatal.
Feodor, the fecond fon and fucceffor of Ivan Vaffilievitch II., is interred in the fame
chapel: a Prince of fuch weak intelleéts and notorious incapacity, as to be a mere
phantom of fovereignty, and entirely under the direction of his brother-in-law Boris
Godunof. Feodor afcended the throne in 1584, and expired in 1598: in him ended
the male line of the fovereigns of the houfe of Ruric*; a family which governed
Ruffia for a period of feven centuries.
Among the tombs in this church, the moft remarkable is that which contains the
body of a child, fuppofed by the Ruffians to be the third fon of Ivan Vaffilievitch II. who
is faid to have been aflaflinated at Vglitz, in the ninth year of his age, by order of Bo-
ris Godunof. ‘This tomb, which is more diftinguifhed than thofe of the Ruffian fove-
reigns, is of brafs, and highly ornamented. ‘The child is clafled among the faints of
the Ruffian calendar, and, according to the legends of the church, his body is faid to
have performed miracles, and is believed by the credulous to remain uncorrupted.
The top of the fepulchre is frequently uncovered; and, during divine fervice on the
feltival of St. Alexander Nevfki, I obferved feveral Ruffians kifling the infide with
great marks of devotion. ‘The hiftory of the affailination at Vglitz, and the adventures
oi the real or pretended Demetrius, require a feparate narrative }.
The fovereigns of the houfe of Romanof are interred in the body of the church:
their tombs are placed on each fide between the mafly piers which fupport the
roof.
The firft of this illuftrious line is Michael Feodorovitch ; whofe election in 1613 put
a final period to a long fcene of civil bloodfhed, and reftored tranquillity to his: diftraéted
country. He owed his elevation to his high rank and princely defcent ; but more
particularly to the virtues, abilities, and popularity of his father Philaretes. Ladiflaus,
Prince of Poland, having received a tender of the crown, from a body of Ruffian no-
bles, aflumed the title of ‘’zar, and eftablifhed a garrifon at Mofcow: foon afterwards
a powerful party, averfe to the government of a foreigner, expelled the Poles from
the capital, and unanimoufly advanced Michael to the throne, though fearcely feven-
teen years of age. It is fingular, that he was raifed to this high ftation, not only with-
out his knowledge, but even in repugnance to his own inclination. When the deputies
from Mofcow arrived at Coftroma, where he refided with his mother, and acquainted
him with his ele€tion, Michael, recollecting the dreadful cataftrophes which had befal-
len all the Tzars fince the demife of Feodor Ivanovitch, and reflecting on the diftracted
ftate of Ruffia, burft into tears, and declined a crown, which feemed to entail deftruétion
upon thofe who had ventured to wear it{. Overcome, however, by the importuni-
ties of the deputies, and dazzled with the fplendour of royalty, Michael at length yield-
ed to the wifhes of his country, and repairing without delay to Mofcow, was crowned
with the ufual folemnities. Though he afcended the throne with reluctance, he
filled it with dignity, and found a proteéticn from thofe difafters which overwhelmed
his immediate predeceflors, in his own difcretion, in the wife counfels of his father,
and in the affection of his fubjects. Michael died in 1645, after a profperous reign of
twenty-three years.
* Unlefs Demetrius was the real fon of Ivan Vaffilievitch IT. + See Chapter 7.
+ See Bufching’s Account of the Eleftion of Michael. Hift. M. IL. p. 403.
Alexéy
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