How a French physician elevated Russian tsars to the throne: Johannes Lestok

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The life of this man is like an adventurous adventure novel: a poor childhood, elevation and service under two emperors and three empresses, palace coups, wealth and ruin, exile and rack - in his restless biography there was everything that can make up the plot of an amazingly rich work. Thanks to the instinct of the courtier and foresight, he ended his days in honor and glory.

The medical profession was a hereditary occupation in a family of poor French nobles. The father of the future courtier was forced to flee his native Champagne, frightened by the battle of the Catholics with the Huguenots, and settled in a calmer Hanover at the court of the local duke. Lestok Sr. was going to give this position as inheritance to his son, so from his youth he began to teach him his business. There is an opinion that in fact Johann Lestok was a weak doctor, although he used several Russian sovereigns. He did not graduate from universities, and he got all his knowledge, apparently, from the priest. However, he was undoubtedly a gifted man, and during his heyday he had a huge library of medical treatises, and at the beginning of his career he even held an exam with Peter I. It was this monarch who gave him a "start in life" and a new homeland.

By the time they met, the young physician had already taken part in several wars and offered himself as a doctor and surgeon to the Russian envoys, who were recruiting qualified personnel in Europe for the imperial court. Of the six doctors recruited in this way abroad, Peter, after a personal conversation, singled out one Lestok and kept him with him. The energetic, cheerful character of the "foreign specialist" liked the emperor, although precisely for this, according to contemporaries, the medicus

The main talent of this courtier was not even the ability to please the current ruler, but to look ahead and create connections with the ruler of the future. In all cases, the court physician managed to show incredible perspicacity. So, for example, during the trip of the royal couple abroad in 1716, Lestok became friends with the future Catherine I. Having ascended the throne, the empress returned the physician from Kazan exile, where Peter had exiled him because of frivolity in amorous affairs. Then he very accurately again hits the target - he becomes a life-surgeon under the crown princess Elizaveta Petrovna. In this case, by the way, the courtier, who had already gained experience, decided not to wait for gifts from fate, and with his own hands elevated the daughter of Peter to the throne, who was not immediately able to inherit her throne.

At first he was a constant participant in her amusements, novels and intrigues, and when they brought the young heiress to illness, he helped as a doctor: treatment of stomach colic, bloodletting - these were the usual procedures for that time, which invariably led the patient to healing, especially if he, like Elizaveta Petrovna, was distinguished by excellent health. In the preparation of the coup, Lestok was also an indispensable and most active participant: he used his gigantic connections, recruited allies, served as a liaison and provided psychological assistance to his royal patient. Elizabeth was afraid of the consequences in case of failure, sometimes cried and hesitated. Lestok set her up, and even accompanied Elizabeth on a famous trip to the guards barracks, where he witnessed a historic call:

The newly made empress knew how to be grateful. The very next day after the coup, Lestok was appointed "the first life physician and chief director of the Medical Chancellery and the entire medical faculty" and received the rank of privy councilor. He remained a close friend of the Empress and her confidant. He also received considerable money as the main reward for his labors. It is known that Elizabeth was very generous with her favorite:

However, it seems that it was the passion for profit that ruined the darling of fate. There were few royal gifts to this broad nature, expenses were growing, so he openly began to take bribes, selling his influence over the empress. Lestock's main political rival, Chancellor Bestuzhev, managed to outplay him and, at the right time, provided the empress with the compromising evidence collected on the life-doctor. In November 1748 Lestok was arrested, and they tried to accuse him of conspiracy to overthrow the "Mother Empress". However, many days of hunger and interrogation with addiction did not break the experienced courtier, during the torture he "scolded Bestuzhev terribly, said that he was suffering only because of his malice", but did not admit that he had attempted to kill the "mother empress".

Lestok was exiled to Uglich, then transferred to Veliky Ustyug, where he lived in terrible poverty for 13 years. However, at the next turn of the royal "wheel of history" he again rose to the occasion - he returned from exile, received all his confiscated property and healed peacefully. He succeeded, as always, thanks to his perspicacity and "contributions to the future" - not without reason, after all, at the court of Elizabeth Petrovna, he always treated the unfortunate and unspoiled attention of the courtiers to the heir's wife, Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna, with such attention and solicitude. Many years later, Catherine II rewarded her disgraced friend for all the hardships. As Princess Dashkova wrote, after returning from exile, his jokes were still cheerful, and the stories were entertaining. Johannes Lestock died at the age of 75.