Video: "Guilty without guilt": How Elizabeth I turned the infant sovereign into a mad captive
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
After the death of Anna Ioannovna, the Russian throne was taken by the son of her niece Anna Leopoldovna, John VI. He was crowned when the boy was only two months old, and a year later he was overthrown by Elizaveta Petrovna. No matter how small John VI was, he posed a great danger to the new empress. That is why she ordered the child to be imprisoned and forgotten about him. Of the 24 years, John VI spent twenty in prison.
Anna Ioannovna became empress in 1730. She stayed on the throne for 10 years, but left no direct heirs after herself. Her sister lived with her daughter Anna Leopoldovna. In addition, the youngest daughter of Peter I, Elizabeth, and the son of the eldest daughter of Anna, Karl-Peter-Ulrich (in the future Peter III), were alive. However, Anna Ioannovna did not want the offspring of Peter I and the "port of Livonia" Catherine I to take the Russian throne.
A year after her accession to the throne, Anna Ioannovna issued a decree to which everyone had to obey. The heir was a boy who would be born to her niece Anna Leopoldovna. Oddly enough, but by 1840 everything had turned out that way. The niece grew up, was given in marriage and by the time of Anna Ioannovna's death she already had a two-month-old baby, John Antonovich, in her arms.
As for the baby, practically nothing is known about the time of his "reign". The regent was mother Anna Leopoldovna, and the child peacefully snoozed at the bed. From that time, an engraving has survived with the image of the young John VI Antonovich surrounded by figures symbolizing Prosperity, Justice and Science. The baby himself lies with a large heavy gold chain of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called on his chest. Ironically, this child was destined to wear chains for the rest of his days.
On November 25, 1741, a coup d'état took place, and Elizaveta Petrovna overthrew the young emperor and his mother-regent. After that, their wanderings in prisons began. When the child was 4 years old, he was separated from his parents and imprisoned in a windowless solitary confinement cell in Kholmogory.
Elizaveta Petrovna did not give the order to kill John VI, but all conditions were created for the prisoner so that death would overtake him. The boy did not learn to read and write, did not have toys, did not talk to anyone, did not see the sunlight (he was taken to the bathhouse only under cover of night). Doctors were not allowed to see him when he was ill. But, in spite of everything, the prisoner continued to live.
Meanwhile, Elizaveta Petrovna tried in every possible way to destroy the memory of the infant emperor. Everyone who mentioned Ivanushka (as they said about him among the people), was punished or sent to torture in the Secret Chancellery. A decree was issued to withdraw from circulation all coins with the image of John VI. Nevertheless, for many more years, no, no, and someone will pay off with a forbidden coin. For the next 100 years, history textbooks wrote that after the reign of Anna Ioannovna, the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna immediately began. The period from October 19, 1740 to November 25, 1741 was simply "forgotten".
In 1756, the "famous prisoner", as his entourage called him, not daring to pronounce his real name, was transferred from Kholmogory to Shlisselburg.
It is worth noting that the prisoner did not give rest not only to Elizaveta Petrovna, but also to the subsequent rulers - Peter III and Catherine II. Each of them personally saw John VI. Peter III expected to see a crazy man, but before him stood an unshorn, unkempt, dressed in rags, but not a crazy man. Moreover, the prisoner remembered that he was an emperor or a prince, which struck Peter III very unpleasantly.
In 1762, a new instruction arrived from St. Petersburg to the guards Vlasyev and Chekin. One of the points in it indicated:.
Two years later, it happened. Armed people appeared on the threshold of the dungeon with a clear desire to free the prisoner. Realizing that they would not be able to hold back the onslaught, Vlasyev and Chekin rushed to John VI and, after a fierce battle, still stabbed the former emperor.
The attackers were led by Vasily Mirovich. He planned to free John VI, return power to him and thus become rich. Many historians believe that Mirovich was just a decoy duck, because of whose actions a dangerous rival of the empress died.
The tragic fate of John VI Antonovich is not the only case in our history when the rulers were killed. These 7 Russian monarchs lost their lives because of popular anger or palace intrigues.
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