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COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. 63
Lee)
Cuap. VIN.—Of the Prince/s Sophia Alexiefna.— Mifreprefentation of her Character.—
Jufification of her Conduét.—Her Fall and Imprifonment.—Unjuftly accufed of aitempt-
ing to afjaffinate Peter.—She affumes the Veil._—Her Death.
SCARCELY any portion in the annals of this country is more important than the
minority of Peter the Great ; and no character more grofsly mifreprefented than that
of his fifter Sophia Alexiefna, who governed Ruflia during that period. This illuftri-
ous Princefs united many perfonal and mental accomplifhments; but as fhe headed a
party in oppofition to Peter, the idolatry univerfally paid to him has contributed to
diminifh the luftre of her adminiftration.
I was led into thefe reflections from a vifit which I paid to the Devitchéi nunnery in
the fuburbs of Mofcow, where Sophia was confined during the laft feventeen years of
her life; and as we have f{carcely any knowledge of her character but through the me-
dium of her adverfaries, I fhall throw together a few particulars, which induce me to
judge favourably of her condu&*.
Sophia
body of the true Deinetrius is depofited in the cathedral of St. Michiel ; that he is adored as a faint, and his
relics perform miracles. What will become of thefe relics fhould Griflka be proved to be the real Deme-
trius 2???“ True,” returned the Emprefs, {miling, * but let me know what would be your opinion if thefe
relics did not exift ?”? Muller, however, ftill prudently declined giving a direét anfwer, and the Emprefs
urged him no farther
This confeffion of Mr Muller, who was the moft able advocate of the opinion, that the Tzar was an
impoftor, might perhaps render it unneceffary to reprint the remaining part of the chapter, which was
principally employed in refuting his arguments ; but for the fatisfagtion of the reader, who may wifh to fee
the ftatements on both fides of the queftion, it is inferted in the Appendix. :
* Three foreign writers have principally contributed to render the character of Sophia extremely odious,
1. The firft is Gordon, in his ** Li/e of Peter the Great.’ But his teftimony is extremely exceptionable,
as well on account of his partiality to Peter, as becaufe he was prejudiced again{ft Prince Vaflili. Galitzin,
Sophia’s prime minifter, for having degraded his relation and patron General Patrick Gordon. See Korb
Diarium, p. 216.
2. The fecond author is La Neuville, in his ‘* Relation dela Mofcovie,”? who dignifies himfelf with the
title of Envoy from the King of Poland to the court of Mofcow, and is generally f{uppofed to have been
refident in that city at the time of Sophia’s fall. His authority, therefore, is deemed unqueltionable, and
the enemies of this Princefs have not failed to cite it in proof of their accufations. Any perfon, however,
in the leaft converfant with the hiftory of Roflia, will perceive in this work the groffeft contradiétions, and
the moft abfurd tales. “The author, after loading the charaéter of Sophia with more deceit and cruelty than
ever difgraced a Tiberius, or a Cefar Borgia, affeéts the moft perfe&t knowledge of the fecret cabals be-
tween her and Prince Galitzin: he afferts their intention of marrying, of re-uniting the Greek and Latin
churches, of compelling Pet:r to affume the monaflic habit, or, if that failed, of affaffinating him, of de-
claring the children of Ivan illegitimate, and of fecuring the throne to themfelves and their heirs. And as
if this chimerical project was fure of fuccefs, he adds, Prince Galitzin had {till further views : he hoped, by
re-uniting Ruffia to the Roman catholic church, to obtain the Pope’s permiflion (if he fhould furvive So-
phia) to appoint his fon fucceffor to the throne, in preference to thofe whom he fhould have by the Princefs,
while his wife was alive. But fuch abfurd accounts carry their own refutation, and the writer who retails
them muft furely deferve no credit, even fhould he be * le temoin occulaire,”’ as Voltaire ftyles him, « de
ce qui fe paffa.”” But the truth is, this envoy to Mofcow is a fvppofititious perfon: the author was Adrien
Baillet, who ftyled himfelf de la Neuville, from a village of that name, in which he was born, and was never
in Ruffia. The ‘* Relation de la Mofcovie,’? was publifhed at the Hague in 1699 ; and was probably com-
piled by the author from the vague accounts of fome of Peter’s adherents, who in 1697 accompanied that
Monarch-into Holland. ‘
In Menkeni Bibliotheca, La * Relation de la Mofcovie’’ is mentioned among the works of Adrien Baillet, ~
for anaccount of whom, fee Niceron, ‘* Hommes Illuftres ;?’ article Ad. Baillet.
VOL, VI. 4™ 3. Voltaire
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