Tsarevich Alexey Petrovich (1690-1718)

Until the age of eight, Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich was brought up by his mother and grandmother (Natalia Kirillovna Naryshkina). Wednesday was hostile to Peter I. The child feared and hated his father.
As heir to the throne, he repeatedly carried out his father's orders during the Great Northern War, but without much desire. The lack of will and indecision of A.P. used by the political ill-wishers of Peter I. In 1705-1706. the opposition of the clergy and boyars was grouped around the prince, opposing the reforms of Peter I.
In 1709-1712 he traveled to Europe, studied in Dresden. In 1711, at the insistence of his father, he married the non-Orthodox princess Charlotte Christiane, Sophia of Braunschweig-Wolfenbütel, by order of the tsar. From marriage with her, he had a daughter, Natalia, and a son, Peter (later Emperor Peter II).).
In 1713, Aleksey Petrovich returned to Russia and had to take an examination in front of his father in the sciences he had passed. The son was afraid that his father would demand to make drawings and unsuccessfully tried to shoot himself in the arm, for which he was severely beaten and expelled by Peter I with a ban on appearing at court. Peter I, threatening to be deprived of his inheritance and imprisonment in a monastery, demanded that Alexei Petrovich change his behavior. On the advice of Alexei Petrovich asked permission to go to the monastery. Peter I gave his son a six-month reprieve.
At the end of 1716, Alexei Petrovich secretly left with his mistress Euphrosyne Feodorovna for Vienna under the protection of the Austrian emperor Charles VI. He lived in the castle of Ehrenburg (Tyrol), from May 1717 - in Naples. Yielding to the persuasions of P.A.Tolstoy and A. Rumyantsev, in January 1718 he returned to Russia. He was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Under torture, he betrayed those who knew the plan of his escape. At the request of Peter I renounced his rights to the throne.
On June 24, 1718, the Supreme Court of the generals, senators and the Synod sentenced Alexey Petrovich to death. A few days after the sentencing, he died in the Peter and Paul Fortress under unexplained circumstances. According to one version, he was strangled by the confidants of Peter I.

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