Elizabeth I of Russia

Elizabeth I of Russia, or Elizabeth Petrovna Romanova (Russian: Елизаве́та Петро́вна; Kolomenskoe, December 29, 1709-Saint Petersburg, January 5, 1762) She was Empress of the Russian Empire between 1741 and 1762. Also called La Clemente, she was the second daughter of Peter I and Catherine I.

He ascended the throne after the military revolt that toppled Tsar Ivan VI of Russia. He carried out numerous reforms: he abolished the death penalty, established the Senate, created a Supreme Political Council, abolished internal customs, founded the Moscow University and the Imperial Academy of Arts, and reorganized internal trade. He also expanded the powers of the nobility (restricted by Peter I of Russia), which worsened the living conditions of the peasantry.

In foreign policy, he militarily supported Maria Theresa I of Austria, during the War of the Austrian Succession. During the Seven Years' War, he formed a coalition with Austria, Spain, France, Saxony, and Sweden against Frederick II of Prussia and his allies England, Portugal, and Hanover. His alliance with Maria Theresa favored Austria in its dispute with Prussia for supremacy over the German states and for control of Silesia. Under his command, the Russian might inflicted heavy losses on the Prussian army. However, his death in 1762 would change the course of the conflict and lead to the miracle of the House of Brandenburg.

Early Years

Elizabeth was the second daughter of Emperor Peter I of Russia and Catherine I of Russia. Her parents were secretly married in Saint Petersburg's Holy Trinity Cathedral in November 1707. The public ceremony took place in February 1712. She was named Tsarevna on March 6, 1711, and Tsarevich on December 23, 1721.

Portrait of Isabel like Venus, painted around 1710 for the palace Peterhof

Of Peter and Catherine's twelve children (five boys and seven girls), only two, Anna Petrovna and Elizabeth Petrovna, survived infancy. Anna Petrovna was betrothed to the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, nephew of the late King Charles XII of Sweden, her father's old adversary. Peter also tried to find a suitable suitor for Elizabeth at the French royal court when he visited the country. His intention was to marry his second daughter to the young Louis XV of France, but the Bourbons refused. Elizabeth was betrothed to Prince Carl Augustus of Holstein-Gottorp. Politically it was a useful alliance, however, a few days before the betrothal, Charles Augustus died and, until Peter's death, no plan had been finalized. marriage for Elizabeth.

Isabel was an intelligent girl but she was not intellectually brilliant because her formal education was imperfect and inconsistent. Her father adored her because he saw in her a kind of "female replica" of himself, both physically and temperamentally.However, Pedro did not have the time available to devote to his education and his mother was too simple and illiterate to supervise their studies. Isabel had a French tutor and spoke fluent Italian, German and French, as well as being an excellent dancer and horsewoman. In fact, it is considered that she was at the origin of the famous Russian Francophilia, as opposed to the well-known Germanophilia of her Father Peter the Great. Since childhood, she dazzled everyone with her beauty and vivacity and she was known as the greatest beauty of the Russian Empire.

When the imposing Peter the Great died in 1725, his wife Catherine I assumed the throne, frustrating the plans of those who wanted to bring to the throne Peter's grandson, son of Tsarevich Alexis Petrovich, and who in time would become the future Tsar Peter II. Catherine became tsarina in her own right, and in those years Elizabeth and her older sister Anna Petrovna continued to enjoy the sweetness of palace life they had known at birth. In those years, the tsarina sought the marriage of her daughter Elizabeth with the young French monarch, Louis XV, but the Europe of that time no longer looked at Russia after Pedro I with the same eyes. Catherine I suffered the humiliation of seeing how her daughters were ignored in the lists of possible suitors for the great heirs of the different European royal houses. When Catherine died in 1727, Elizabeth submitted to the designs of the new heir, the unstable boy, Pedro II, her half-nephew.

Isabel Petrovna in the 1720s, by Iván Nikítich Nikitin

While Aleksandr Menshikov was in power, Elizabeth was treated with generosity and distinction by the government of her "half-nephew," the adolescent Pedro II. The tsar-child always felt enormous affection for his aunt, with whom he shared many country evenings away from the suffocating Court. However, the Dolgorukovs, a former boyar family, had a deep resentment towards Menshikov. Peter II allied with Prince Ivan Dolgorukov who, with the support of two other members of his family in the Supreme State Council, created the ideal environment for a successful coup. Menshikov was imprisoned, stripped of all his honors and property, and exiled to Siberia where he died in November 1729. The Dolgorukovs hated the memory of Peter I and virtually banished his daughter from court.

With the death of that child-tsar, Elizabeth lost another bond with the members of her Romanov lineage. In addition, the accession to the throne of her cousin, Empress Anna Ioánnovna, did not help stabilize Elizabeth's life. In those years, no royal court or noble house in Europe could allow a son to court Elizabeth, as it could be interpreted as an act of hostility towards the sovereign. Marrying a commoner was unthinkable, as it would cost him not only the title but also her rights to estates and the throne. The princess became the lover of Alexei Shubin, a handsome sergeant in the Semyonovsky Regiment. Shubin had his tongue torn out and was banished to Siberia by order of Empress Anna Ioannovna, thereby Isabel, in retaliation, became involved with a coachman and even a waiter.

Finally, he found solace in a young Ukrainian Cossack with a beautiful bass voice who had been brought to St. Petersburg by a nobleman to join a church choir. Isabel hired him for her own choir. His name was Alexei Razumovski, a good and simple man, but disturbed by ambition.The relations between Elizabeth and Alexei gave rise to rumors of a possible secret marriage (see ru: Предание о браке Елизаветы Петровны). Later, Razumovski would be known as the Emperor of the Night («Ночной император») and Elizabeth (already empress) would make him prince and field marshal. The Austrian emperor would also name him Count of the Holy Roman Empire. In the same way, the Duke of Almodóvar, indicates in his correspondence as Ambassador to the Russian court in 1762, that "his favor was so public and noted that it is common voice that they were secretly married."

During the tortuous years of Empress Anna Ioánnovna, Elizabeth lived immersed in bewilderment, before that tyrannical, obese and aging woman, who saw the beautiful princess dancing at parties organized at the Imperial Court. The fear of being executed for treason fluttered over Isabel's head during those years, leading her more and more to the obsession of being imprisoned or subjected to the terrible knut (whip). So when the tsarina died and made her niece, Anna Leopoldovna, regent for the child-tsar Ivan VI, Elizabeth asked herself the most difficult question that she had in her head: assuming the throne of her father..

Palace Revolution of 1741

Coronation of the Isabel I. Moscow, 1742, by Ivan Sokolov.

During the reign of her cousin Anna Ioánnovna (1730-1740) and the regency of Anna Leopoldovna (in the name of the newborn Ivan VI, a period marked by high taxes and economic problems), Elizabeth sought allies behind the scenes of the court. The course of events helped bring down the weak and corrupt government. Being the daughter of Peter the Great, she had strong support in the guard regiments, and Elizabeth frequently visited those regiments and organized special events with the officers. In fact, she became godmother to her children, and her kindness was rewarded when, on the night of November 25, 1741, she seized power with the help of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. When she arrived at regimental headquarters wearing a metal breastplate over her dress and holding a silver cross, she declared: "Who do you want to serve? To me, natural sovereign, or to those who have stolen my inheritance? "The troops marched on the Winter Palace, where they captured the young emperor, his parents, and his commander, Count von Munnich. It was a daring coup, which took place without bloodshed. Elizabeth promised that if she became empress, she would never sign a death warrant, an unusual promise she kept throughout her life. Elizabeth crowned herself in the Cathedral of the Dormition on April 25, 1742.

At 33 years old, with little knowledge and no experience in state affairs, he became the head of a great empire in one of the most critical periods of its existence. Her proclamation as Empress Elizabeth I showed why previous reigns had brought Russia to ruin: "The Russian people groaned under the enemies of the Christian faith, but she delivered them from degrading foreign oppression."

Russia was dominated by German advisers and Elizabeth exiled the most unpopular, including Heinrich Ostermann, Burkhard von Munnich and Carl Gustav Lowenwolde.

Luckily for both her and Russia, even with all her faults (such as taking months to sign documents), she had inherited some of her father's tact when it came to government affairs. Her sharp judgment and her diplomatic tact were also reminiscent of Peter the Great. The considerable reforms introduced by her father had not exerted an influence on the thinking of the ruling classes, Elizabeth laid the foundations for the reforms that Catherine II would later complete.

Bestuzhev's politics

1 ruble coin with the effigy of Isabel I of Russia

After the Council of Ministers system, favorable to Empress Anna, was replaced by the Senate with heads of departments, as in the times of Emperor Peter the Great, the first task of the new sovereign was to resolve the dispute with Sweden. On January 23, 1743, negotiations began, culminating in the Treaty of Abo, signed on February 7. Sweden ceded to Russia the entire southern part of Finland east of the Kimene River, which later became the border between those two countries. The provisions of the treaty also included the fortresses of Villmanstrand and Fredrikshamn.

This triumph was due to the diplomatic skill of the new vice-chancellor, Alexei Bestuzhev-Riumin. However, his policy would have been impossible without the support of Elizabeth, who placed him in charge of Foreign Affairs immediately after he ascended the throne. Bestuzhev represented the anti-Franco-Prussian part of the government and his goal was to achieve an Anglo-Austro-Russian alliance, something that at the time was advantageous for Russia. This prompted the so-called Lopukhiná conspiracy and other attempts by Frederick II the Great and Louis XV of France to get rid of Bestuzhev (making the Russian court the center of a tangle of intrigues during the first years of the reign). of Elizabeth).

Paseo de Isabel through the streets of St. Petersburg (1903), Alexandre Benois watercolor.

Bestúzhev, however, deserved the support of Elizabeth, who kept him in office. His diplomatic talents, backed by the dispatch of 30,000 Russian auxiliaries to the Rhine, greatly accelerated the peace negotiations, which culminated in the Treaty of Aachen in October 1748. Through his tenacity, Bestuzhev succeeded in extricating Russia from the mess. Swedish and reconciled the empress with the courts of Vienna and London and allowed Russia to effectively reassert itself in Poland, Turkey and Sweden and isolate the King of Prussia, who was forced into hostile alliances. None of this would have been possible without the constant support of Elizabeth who she implicitly trusted him, despite the hints of countless enemies of the chancellor (most of them personal friends of the empress).

On February 14, 1758, Bestuzhev was deposed from office. The future Catherine II of Russia wrote: "He was stripped of all his decorations and titles, without a soul that could reveal what crimes or transgressions the first knight of the empire had committed, and was sent home as a prisoner." accused of any specific offense that warranted his conviction. It was speculated that the chancellor had tried to sow discord between the empress, his heir and his wife. Those who had an interest in bringing Bestuzhev to ruin were his rivals: the Shuvalovs, the vice-chancellor Mikhail Illariónovich Vorontsov and the ambassadors of Austria and France.

The Heir

Isabel's donation to Russian Lieutenant General Balthasar Freiherr von Campenhausen on May 27, 1756.

As an unmarried and childless sovereign, it was imperative that Elizabeth find a legitimate heir to ensure the continuity of the Romanovs. Ultimately, she chose her nephew Peter from her even though she was aware that the deposed Ivan VI, whom she had imprisoned and isolated in the fortress of Schlisselburg, still represented a great danger to her throne. She feared a coup in favor of Ivan and began to destroy documents, coins and anything else that she might remind the deposed tsar, She also issued an order that determined Ivan's immediate execution in case he tried to escape. Catherine II revalidated the order and, when the escape attempt was made, Ivan was assassinated and secretly buried inside the fortress itself.

Young Peter had lost his mother, Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna, at three months and his father at 11. Elizabeth invited her nephew to Saint Petersburg, where he was proclaimed heir on 17 November 1742. Likewise, Russian tutors were appointed to take care of the future tsar's education. Eager to see the future of the dynasty secured, Elizabeth chose Princess Sophia Frederica of Anhalt as her nephew's betrothed. Upon converting to the Orthodox faith, Sofia received the name of Catalina, in homage to Elizabeth's mother. The wedding took place on August 21, 1745 and the heir, the future Paul I, was born on September 20, 1754. There are speculations about the true paternity of Paul I as it is suggested that he was not the son of Pedro III but of a young man. official named Sergei Saltykov with whom Catherine had had a relationship with Elizabeth's consent.

Even so, Pedro never had any doubts about his paternity because he did not have much interest in it either. However, Isabel had a great interest in the child to the point of taking Pablo away from his mother to act, herself, as mother of the heir. The empress ordered the midwife to take young Paul and follow her. Catalina did not see her son for more than a month and had only brief contact with him at the baptism.Six months later, Elizabeth allowed Catalina to see her son again. The child had become a state competence or, in a broader sense, a state property.

The Seven Years' War

Equestrian portrait of Isabel accompanied by a paje

The great event of the last years of his reign was the Seven Years' War. Elizabeth considered the Treaty of Westminster of January 17, 1756 (by which Great Britain allied with Prussia for the sole purpose of defending the Electorate of Hanover) as totally subversive of previous conventions between Great Britain and Russia. In addition, Elizabeth's opposition to Prussia also lay in the tsarina's personal antipathy for Frederick II of Prussia, Elizabeth wishing to keep him within proper bounds so that she would no longer pose a danger to the empire. On May 1, 1757, Russia acceded to the Treaty of Versailles and allied with France and Austria against Prussia. On May 17, the Russian Army, with 85,000 men, advanced towards Königsberg.

Neither the tsarina's serious illness, which began with a fainting spell at Tsarskoye Selo on September 19, 1757, nor the fall of Bestuzhev on February 14, 1758, nor the intrigues of various foreign powers in St. Petersburg interfered in the progress of the war and in the crushing Prussian defeat at the Battle of Kunersdorf on August 12, 1759. Ultimately, it brought Frederick to the brink of ruin.

On May 21, 1760, a new agreement was signed between the Russians and Austrians, never communicated to the court, which guaranteed East Prussia to Russia, as compensation for the expenses of the war. The failure of the campaign of 1760, led by the inept Count Aleksandr Buturlin, caused the court of Versailles, on the night of January 22, 1761, to present a document in the court of Saint Petersburg that reported that the King of France, in under the conditions of his dominions, he desired peace.

Isabel Petrovna in Tsárskoye Seló, by Eugene Lanceray (1905), Tretiakov Gallery.

Simultaneously, Elizabeth sent a secret letter to Louis XV proposing the signing of a new alliance, more explicit than the previous treaties but without the knowledge of Austria. Elizabeth's aim in this marvelous bargain was to reconcile France and Great Britain in exchange for the commitment of all French forces in the German war. This project foundered due to Louis XV's great envy of the growing Russian influence in Eastern Europe and his fear of offending the Sublime Porte. A date was finally set for the start of peace negotiations, and in the meantime the war against Prussia was to continue with determination. In 1760, a Russian light column occupied Berlin. Russian victories placed Prussia in serious danger.

The 1761 campaign was almost as frustrating as the previous year. Frederick was adept at acting defensively and the capture of the Kołobrzeg fortress on Christmas Day 1761, the only Russian victory. However, Federico was having great difficulties. On January 6, 1762, he wrote to Count Carlos Guilherme von Finckenstein: "We must now proceed to preserve for my nephew some piece of my territory that we manage to save from the greed of our enemies." A fortnight later, however, he wrote to Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick: 'The sky began to lighten. Courage, dear friend. I just received great news." The great news that he had just received went down in history as the miracle of the House of Brandenburg, the death of Tsarina Elizabeth I on January 5, 1762.

The Tsarina's Court

Under Elizabeth's reign, the Francophile Russian court was one of the most beautiful in all of Europe. Foreigners were amazed by the luxury of sumptuous balls and masks. The tsarina prided herself on her skills as a dancer and wore her most elegant dresses. She issued decrees regulating the styles of clothing and ornaments worn by courtiers, no one was allowed to wear the same hairstyle as the sovereign. Elizabeth owned fifteen thousand ball gowns, several thousand pairs of shoes as well as an unlimited number of silk stockings.Despite her love for the court, Elizabeth was deeply religious. She visited convents and churches and spent many hours in the church. When she was called to sign a law desecrating church lands, she said: "Do what you want after my death. I'm not going to sign this." All incoming foreign books had to be approved by the church censor. Vasili Klyuchevsky called her "the kind and intelligent, but untidy Russian woman" who combined "new European trends with devout national traditions."

Death

In the late 1750s, Elizabeth's health began to decline. She went on to suffer from a series of dizziness and refused to take the prescribed medications, but forbade the word "death" in her presence. Upon learning that she was dying, Isabel used her last strength to confess, praying with her confessor the prayer of the dying and saying goodbye to the few people she wanted to have with her, including Peter and Catherine and Counts Alexei and Kirill Razumovski. The Tsarina finally died on January 5, 1762. She was entombed in the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Paul in Saint Petersburg on February 3, 1762, after six weeks of funeral rites.

Ancestors