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CHAP.
VIII.

1826.

110.

without the steadiness which springs from internal conviction, and the consistency which arises from the feelings being permanently guided by the conscience and ruled by the reason. He was sincerely desirous of promoting the His failings. happiness of his subjects, and deeply impressed with a sense of duty in that respect; but his projects of amelioration were not based upon practical information, and consequently, in great part, failed in effect. They savoured more of the philanthropic dreams of his Swiss preceptor La Harpe than either the manners, customs, or character of his own people. At times he was magnanimous and heroic, when circumstances called forth these elevated qualities; but at others he was flexible and weak, when he fell under influences of a less creditable description. Essentially religious in his disposition, he sometimes sank into the dreams of superstition. The antagonist of Napoleon at one time came to share the reveries of Madame Krudener at another. Affectionate in private life, he yet broke the heart of his empress, who showed by her noble conduct on his deathbed how entirely she was worthy of his regard. His character affords a memorable example of the truth so often enforced by moralists, so generally forgot in the world, that it is in the ruling power of the mind, rather than the impulses by which it is influenced, that the distinguishing mark of character is to be looked for; and that no amount of generosity of disposition can compensate for the want of the firmness which is to control it.

111.

succession

throne.

The death of Alexander was succeeded by events in Russia of the very highest importance, and which revealed State of the the depth of the abyss on the edge of which the despotic to the sovereigns of Europe slumbered in fancied security. It occasioned, at the same time, a contest of generosity between the two brothers of Alexander, Constantine and Nicholas, unexampled in history, and which resembles rather the fabled magnanimity with which the poets extricate the difficulties of a drama on the opera stage, than anything which occurs in real life. By a ukase of

VIII.

1826.

April 16,

1797.

Ukase,
Aug. 27,

1807, and April 1, 1820.

CHAP. 5/16th April 1797, the Emperor Paul had abolished the right of choosing a successor out of the imperial family, which Peter the Great had assumed, and established for ever the succession to the crown in the usual order, the males succeeding before the females, and the elder in both before the younger. This settlement had been formally sanctioned by the Emperor Alexander on two solemn occasions, and it constituted the acknowledged and settled law of the empire. As the late emperor had only two daughters, both of whom died in infancy, the undoubted heir to the throne, when he died, was the Grand-duke Constantine, then at Warsaw, at the head of the government of Poland. On the other hand, the Grand-duke Nicholas, the next younger brother, was at St Petersburg, where he was high in command, and much beloved by the guards in military possession of the capital. In these circumstances, if a contest was to be apprehended, it was between the younger brother on the spot endeavouring to supplant the elder at a distance. Nevertheless it was just the reverse. There was a coni. 141, 149.' test, but it was between the two brothers, each endeavouring to devolve the empire upon the other. 1

1 Schnitzler,

112.

refuses the

throne. Dec. 7.

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Intelligence of the progress of the malady of Alexander Constantine was communicated to Constantine at Warsaw, as regularly as to the empress-mother at St Petersburg; and it was universally supposed that, as a matter of course, upon the demise of the Czar, to whom he was only eighteen months younger, he would succeed to the throne. The accounts of the death of the reigning sovereign reached Warsaw on the 7th December, where both Constantine and his youngest brother, the Grand-duke Michael, were at the time. The former was immediately considered as emperor by the troops, and all the ministers and persons in attendance in the palace, though he shut himself up in his apartment for two days on receiving the melancholy intelligence. But to the astonishment of every one, instead of assuming the title and functions of empire, he

VIII.

1826.

absolutely forbade them; declared that he had resigned CHAP. his right of succession in favour of his younger brother Nicholas; that this had been done with the full knowledge and consent of the late emperor; and that Nicholas was now emperor. And in effect, on the day following, the Grand-duke Michael set out for St Petersburg, bearing holograph letters from Constantine to the empress- 1 Ann. Hist. mother and his brother Nicholas, in which, after referring ix. 381; to a former act of renunciation in 1822, deposited in the i. 190, 191; archives of the empire, and which had received the sanc- St Peterstion of the late emperor, he again, in the most solemn 149,150, manner, repeated his renunciation of the throne. 1 *

Schnitzler,

Gazette de

burg, No.

113.

came about.

To understand how this came about, it is necessary to premise that the Grand-duke Constantine, like his brother How this Alexander, had been married, at the early age of sixteen, by the orders of the Empress Catherine, to the Princess Julienne of Saxe-Coburg, a house which has since been illustrated by so many distinguished marriages into the royal families of Europe. The marriage, from the very first, proved unfortunate; the savage manners of the Grand-duke proved insupportable to the princess; they had no family; and at the end of four years they

The letter to the empress-mother was in these words: "Habitué dès mon enfance, à accomplir religieusement la volonté, tant de feu mon père que du défunt empereur, ainsi que celle de V. M. I.; et me renfermant maintenant encore dans les bornes de ce principe, je considère comme une obligation, de céder mon droit à la puissance, conformément aux dispositions de l'acte de l'empire sur l'ordre de succession dans la famille impériale, à S. A. I. le Grandduc Nicolas et à ses héritiers." In the letter, of the same date, to the Grandduke Nicholas, Constantine thus expressed himself: "Je regarde comme un devoir sacré, de prier très-humblement V. M. I. qu'elle daigne accepter de moi, tout le premier, mon serment de sujétion et de fidélité; et de me permettre de lui exposer que, n'élevant mes yeux à aucune dignité nouvelle, ni à aucun titre nouveau, je désire de conserver seulement celui de Césarowitch, dont j'ai été honoré pour mes services, par feu notre père. Mon unique bonheur sera toujours que V. M. I. daigne agréer les sentiments de ma plus profonde vénération, et de mon dévouement sans bornes; sentiments dont j'offre comme gage, plus de trente années d'un service fidèle, et du zèle le plus pur qui m'anime envers L. L. M. les empereurs mon père et mon frère de glorieuse mémoire. C'est avec les mêmes sentiments que je ne cesserai jusqu'à la fin de mes jours de servir V. M. I., et ses descendants dans mes fonctions et ma place actuelle.”— CONSTANTIN à l'Impératrice MARIE et au Grand-duc NICOLAS, 8th December 1825. SCHNITZLER, Hist. Int. de la Russie, i. 190-191.

VIII.

1826.

CHAP. separated by mutual consent, and the Grand-duchess returned, with a suitable pension, to her father in Germany. The Grand-duke was occupied for twenty years after with war, interspersed with temporary liaisons; but at length, in 1820, when he was Viceroy of Poland, his inconstant affections were fixed by a Polish lady of uncommon beauty and fascination. She was Jeanne Grudzinska, daughter of a count and landed proprietor at Pistolaf, in the district of Bromberg. So ardent was the passion of Constantine for the Polish beauty, that he obtained a divorce from his first wife on 1st April 1820, and immediately espoused, though with the left hand, the object of his present passion, upon whom he bestowed the title of Princess of Lowicz, after a lordship in Masovia which he gave to her brother, and which had formerly i. 136, 137. formed part of the military appanage bestowed by Napoleon upon Marshal Davoust.1

April 1, 1820.

1Schnitzler,

114.

tine's pre

The marriage of Constantine, however, was with the Constan- left hand, or a morganatic one only; the effect of which vious renun- was, that, though legal in all other respects, the sons of his right of the marriage were not grand-dukes, and could not sucsuccession. ceed to the throne; nor did the princess by her marriage

ciation of

In

become a grand-duchess. But in addition to this, Constantine had come under a solemn engagement, though verbal, and on his honour as a prince only, to renounce his right of succession to the crown in favour of his brother Nicholas; and it was on this condition only that the consent of the emperor had been given to his divorce. pursuance of this engagement he had, on the 14/26th January 1822, left with his brother, the Emperor Alexander, a solemn renunciation of his right of succession, which had been accepted by the emperor by as solemn a writing, and a recognition of Nicholas as heir to the throne. The whole three documents had been deposited by him in a packet sealed with the imperial arms, i. 162, 163. endorsed, "Not to be opened till immediately after my death, before proceeding to any other act,"2 with Prince

Jan. 26, 1822.

2Schnitzler,

Pierre Vassiluvitch Lapoukhine, President of the Im- CHAP. perial Council.*

VIII. 1826.

fuses the

proclaims

Dec.

The intelligence of the death of Alexander arrived at 115. St Petersburg on the 9th December, in the morning, at Nicholas rethe very time when the imperial family were returning crown, and thanks, in the chapel of the palace, to Heaven for his sup- Constanposed recovery, which the despatches of the preceding tie: 9. day had led them to hope for. The first thing done was, in terms of the injunction of Alexander, to open the sealed packet containing Constantine's resignation. As soon as it was opened and read, the Council declared Nicholas emperor, and invited him to attend to receive their homage. But here an unexpected difficulty presented itself. Nicholas positively refused to accept the throne. "I am not emperor," said he, "and will not be so at my brother's expense. If, maintaining his renunciation, the Grand-duke Constantine persists in the sacrifice of his rights, but in that case only, will I exercise my right to the throne." The Council remained. firm, and entreated him to accept their homage; but Nicholas positively refused, alleging, in addition, that as Constantine's renunciation had not been published or acted upon during the lifetime of the late emperor, it had

* "Ne reconnaissant en moi, ni le génie, ni les talents, ni la force nécessaire pour être jamais élevé à la dignité souveraine, à laquelle je pourrais avoir droit par ma naissance, je supplie V. M. I. de transférer ce droit à celui à qui il appartient après moi, et d'assurer ainsi pour toujours la stabilité de l'empire. Quant à moi, j'ajouterai par cette renonciation, une nouvelle garantie et une nouvelle force à l'engagement que j'ai spontanément et solennellement contracté, à l'occasion de mon divorce avec ma première épouse. Toutes les circonstances de ma situation actuelle, me portent de plus en plus à cette mesure, qui prouvera à l'empire et au monde entier la sincérité de mes sentiments. Daignez, sire, agréer avec bonté ma prière, daignez contribuer à ce que notre auguste mère veuille y adhérer; et sanctionnez-la de votre assurance impériale. Dans la sphère de la vie privée, je m'efforcerai toujours de servir d'exemple à vos fidèles sujets; à tous ceux qu' anime l'amour de notre chère Patrie." -CONSTANTIN à l'Empereur, St. Pétersbourg, 14/26 Jan. 1822. The acceptance of the emperor of this renunciation was simple and unqualified, and dated 2/14th Feb. 1822. The emperor added a manifesto in the following terms, declaring Nicholas his heir: "L'acte spontané par lequel notre frère puîné, le Césarowitch et Grand-duc Constantin, renonce à son droit sur le trône de toutes les Russies, est, et demeurera, fixe et invariable. Ledit Acte

VOL. II.

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