Chapter XXXII
OH, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth!
R. Kipling, The Ballad of East and West
Prince Peter of Tver during the Great Crusade
The winter of 1689-1690 was one glittering whirlwind of impressions for Peter Romanov, Prince of Tver. The big Europe, not the cozy toy version he was exposed to at the German Quarter in Moscow, shocked and impressed the young man. From the Warsaw, where the Wilanow Palace was being finished (pretty much like Izmailovo Palace, which was somewhat influenced by Wilanow, it mixed a lot of local architecture traditions with western European feel), to the glittering roaring Vienna, to the Venice (whose architecture style will later greatly influence the architecture of Taganrog and Korsun), and finally to the Cyprus. But apart from the architecture, the more important thing catches his attention – people.
Patrick Gordon, whose main job, apart from exerting actual command of the troops, was to supervise Peter, wasted no time to introduce the young man to his former commander and frequent correspondent James, Duke of York, who saw the Russian Tsarevich as a “young man with potential”, and the love of Navy the prince of country with only one major port acquired due to the toy ships of his childhood greatly impressed him. In fact, it was the small court of the Duke and Duchess of York which became the most visited place for Peter during the winter at Cyprus.
While the elder Duke was the member of another generation, Peter established quick friendship with younger members of the York family. The Duke of Cambridge was very interesting companion for conversations and for drinking parties, as the stories of amphibious operations and major naval battles fascinated Peter. The Duchess of Cambridge was the whole another matter. When Peter saw her for the first time, the young man was so overwhelmed and intimidated that he could not speak. However, the Duchess quickly put him at ease with her natural humor, and Peter became her frequent guest, presenting her and her stepmother-in-law with two trunks full of brocade and furs. While the Russian prince acted timid in company of the Duchess at first, Sophia Charlotte, who nicknamed him “our dear bear cub”, was anything but. While the accounts on “exotic” affair varied, it was clear that Peter enjoyed the company of the witty Duchess.
Aside from the Cambridges, the court of the Duke and Duchess of York included a few other men to whom Peter took liking. The young cousin of Duchess of Cambridge, Earl of Holderness, already had the legacy of his formidable father and his namesake and granduncle Maurice of Orange to live up to – a heavy burden, which this young man thankfully seemed to be ready to. Just like his cousin the King during the Scottish War, Earl of Holderness was supervised on his first military campaign by his older half-brother, Dudley FitzRupert-Bard, Viscount Bellomont and the Captain of His Majesty's German Guards.
The story of this young man was interesting in itself. Before his birth there were persistent rumors that his mother, Lady Frances Bard, is going to become the Duchess of Cumberland. However, due to Hochadel laws of Holy Roman Empire the marriage came to naught. The only “consolation prize” given to Dudley’s mother after Rupert’s marriage was the granting to Dudley the title of Viscount Bellomont belonging to his late uncle. But this title in Irish peerage marked the status of Dudley as the “bottom of totem pole” of Royal Bastards, as all the bastards of the King or Duke of York were given titles in Peerage of England. The later replacement of his mother by actress Peg Hughes as the primary mistress of Rupert was even more painful than abandonment in favor of legal marriage, but the “betrayal” lasted not so long. In 1673, after the birth of Earl of Holderness, Rupert and Hughes officially parted, due to Rupert deciding to dedicate more time to raising his only legitimate son. However, Hughes, just like Dudley’s mother, continued to receive annual pension of £900, and had a “grand house” bought for her at Hammersmith, the generous treatment of mistresses being possible due to increased profitability of Royal Bank and Hudson Bay Company. While Dudley and his half-sister Ruperta weren’t the “abandoned bastards” per say, Dudley enjoying the position of the Captain of German Guards of His Majesty and Ruperta being married off in 1687 to Rupert’s favorite, Admiral Edward Russel, who owed his continued (and distinguished) career in the Navy precisely to this status despite the disgrace of the Russels after the Scottish War, this status was not enough for Dudley. Back in London he has been courting Lady Barbara Lennard, daughter and heiress presumptive of Earl and Countess of Sussex, and went to Levantine Campaign not only to distinguish himself, but to impress his prospective father-in-law. While rumors have linked him to another two illegitimate granddaughters of Charles II, Lady Anne Scott and Lady Stuarta Werburge Howard, daughters of Duke of Monmouth and Countess of Yarmouth respectively, Barbara Lennard was much more of a tantalizing prospect for the young Viscount, being heiress to the ancient title of Barons Dacre.
Another Royal bastard encountered by Peter at the Yorks’ court was James FitzJames, Earl of Berwick and younger illegitimate half-brother of Duke of Cambridge. Unlike his cousin Bellomont, James had guaranteed title in Peerage of England and solid marriage prospect, leaving his fiancée, Mila Inge Cary, the only child of 5th Viscount of Falkland, behind in London. Betrothed to her by his father Duke of York to whom frequently ill 5th Viscount was a subordinate, James was on his way to become the third Royal bastard of his generation with titles in both English and Scottish peerages, after Monmouth and Albemarle. However, apart from the hero worship for his older half-brother the Duke of Cambridge, his reason for joining the military was almost as practical as the one of Dudley Bard. If he could prove himself to his cousin the King, he might have been raised to Duke of Berwick and Earl of Falkland, among other honors, which so far was the pinnacle of the young man’s ambitions.
However, the Duke of Cambridge (and his sibling and cousins) have gained the friendship and admiration of Peter, who saw the Duke almost as a “role model” for a proper Western-minded prince of his position. And indeed, Peter was on the way to be pushed to the Cambridge’s position in Russian court with pregnancies of Tsarina and the Princess of Uglich, which, if the children born were to be healthy boys, would have pushed Peter to the position of 4th in line to the Russian throne. That’s why the first meeting with the King Charles III of Great Britain, to whom Peter was introduced by his new friend the Duke of Cambridge, was almost as awkward as his first meeting with Duchess of Cambridge. Thankfully, the men did get along rather well due to their common love of all things military, and in the end Peter was well on his way of convincing the romantically-minded young King that the deeds of Argonauts are as worth of imitation as the deeds of Crusaders – in simple words, that the amphibious operation in Crimea and in Imereti (in order to restore the rightful rulers of the House of Bagratuni to the throne of their Kingdom) are worth it. Another… close friend of Duchess of Cambridge, the Prince of Asturias, won a distant admiration from Peter – mostly due to the similarities between the heir to the Spanish throne and Peter’s elder half-brother the Tsar – both had quick mind to compensate for somewhat frail health.
Another person that impressed the young Russian prince a lot was the Elector of Brandenburg, Karl-Emil. A military man through and through, he found a kindred spirit in his probable in-law (though after meeting Peter in person, Karl-Emil thought it may be slightly cruel to saddle the man with his rather bad-tempered half-sister, and began seriously considering his "plan B" for Elisabeth Sophie - that is Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau, whose mother thought that high-ranked marriage will be a wonderful way to distract him from his commoner mistress).
Peter eagerly wrote to his brother the Tsar about his new impressions, giving among other the description of the Western system of orders as the signs of dignity. That idea proved to interest Feodor III very much, as after abolishment of the place priority system he seeked the way to reward capable noblemen which did not involve the extensive money and land grants. So in 1690 the Tsar created "the Order of St.Andrew the Apostle the First-Called", after patron saint of Russia. The new order was to include the Sovereign, heir apparent and 70 members (in example of the number of followers of Christ), and was to be awarded for the most outstanding civilian and military deeds (and automatically to every adult male member of Royal Family, as well as to heir apparent to the Tsardom, even if said heir is still underage). The number was thought large enough to not make the award exclusively elitist one, and was symbolic, reflecting the number of first Christians (70+2).
The Legacy of the Great War: Order of St. Andrew the First-Called
However, the true life-changing experience of winter 1689-1690 for Peter was the Christmas ball at the Nicosia Palace – so far the most impressive social event of this kind he had to attend. There he met a strikingly beautiful, at least to him, dark-haired girl, who, as far as he could remember, was one of the ladies-in-waiting to the Duchess of York. While she praised his surprisingly good English, Peter’s clumsiness during the dance gained him the nickname of “Muscovite Bear” from the young lady. However, the true surprise came when he asked for a girl’s name.
Mary Tudor. The half-sister to the King of Britain and one of his prospective brides. The night after the ball was spent by Peter writing letter to his half-brother, passionately describing the reasons for why he thinks Mary shall be the Princess of Tver. However, the response was mixed.
Upon receiving the letters, Feodor III was at first taken aback. Mary was one of the most low-born candidates from the list, and Ambassador Potemkin, who was presumed the major promoter of this candidate, was immediately recalled to Moscow, to be replaced by old Artamon Matveev. However, the fact that Matveev did not went to London, but was instructed all the way to Cyprus accompanied by his wife, Eudoxia-Mary Matveeva nee Hamilton, a daughter of Scottish noble naturalized at Russian court, was the sign that the Tsar gave his consent to marriage, and Eudoxia Matveeva was to be the Head of Household of the new Princess of Tver.
After all, the first wife of the Tsar, Agafia Grushetskaya, was also a case of love at first sight at a public event, so Feodor III respected the choice of his brother. Also, while still getting a military alliance with Britain vital for finishing the conquest at Black Sea Region, a bastard bride had its own advantages – now Feodor III was much less obliged to give the British merchants the same extent of trade privileges they had during the reign of Ivan IV– while the time was thought to be the golden age for British Muscovy Company, turning Russian trade into monopoly of the British merchants was the nightmare for Russian merchants and the internal market of Russia which have just recovered from the Times of Trouble. Now, with Mary Tudor as the Princess of Tver, the Dutch may be pushed from Russian market, but just enough so no single foreign country dominates the trade.
As the Matveevs travel towards Venice as fast as the winter roads of Russia and Commonwealth allow, the piece of good news reaches the courts of Moscow and Warsaw - the Bulgarians, who have rebelled against Ottomans before in 1686, now rise again. The pretender to the Bulgarian throne, Rostislav Stratimirovic, titular Prince of Tarnovo, escaped to Moscow, but now he is invited to lead the uprising again.
Since crushing the uprising means that the Ottomans essentially free the hands of Russo-Polish coalition in Yedisan and in Moldavia (where the Cantemir loyalists and the League troops finally began to establish some semblance of control), allowing for greater push in this direction, and since the bona fide Orthodox kingdom created as the result of the Great War is a great boon in the view of Russian government, both Feodor III and Jan III see this piece of news as good news. The Tsar personally intervenes to have the engagement between Rostislav and Maria Dubrovska, niece of the late Patriarch Ioakim, cancelled (Maria was to marry Pyotr Golitsyn, second son of Chancellor Golitsyn). The new prospective Princess of Tarnovo is none other than Natalya Alekseyevna, half-sister of Feodor III and sister-in-law to Jan III. This match both secures Russian and Polish support to the Bulgarian case, and the dynastic relations with the new Orthodox state. The wedding was celebrated in Moscow in Dormition Cathedral on April 25, being the first marriage of a Russian Tsarevna to Orthodox ruler of the foreign state the capital have seen in centuries (despite said ruler is yet to claim his throne). The newlywed Prince and Princess of Tarnovo were soon to leave Moscow, traveling southwards to Kiev and then to join the army marching into Bulgaria to aid the rebels.
Meanwhile, with the negotiations between governments ongoing, the polite courtship between Peter and Mary was ongoing as well. Mary did agree to convert to Orthodox faith to marry Peter, and this piece of news was taken as delightful by the Archbishop of Cyprus, Christodoulos II, out of all people. A conversion by anointment and then a wedding ceremony, held at Saint George Cathedral, were meant as a show of the magnificence of Orthodox Church, as the Archbishop feared that the independence of Cypriot church will once again be destroyed just like under Lusingan reign. Luckily, the King, Hugh V, himself a recent non-voluntary convertee to Catholicism, was disinterested enough to leave the status quo in regards to Greek Orthodox Church, especially since they came as liberators and not conquerors, and while the Catholic dioceses were recreated, they co-existed with Orthodox ones, not dominated them. With the Papacy having its hands more than full with North Africa and creation of new Dioceses there, Cyprus church remained in its autocephaly status so far.
While Mary Tudor did not change her given name during conversion, in according to the Russian customs she had to take a patronymic (a symbolic one since the Orthodox Church had no analogue of name “Charles”). In before the conversion by anointment ceremony, held on April 20, she told that she will be henceforth known as Maria Feodorovna – in honor of Our Lady of St. Theodore, patron icon of the House of Romanov, and in honor of her future brother-in-law the Tsar. The ceremony itself was held by the Archbishop Christodulos II and by titular Metropolitan of Laodicea Parthenius Neboza, a Ukrainian monk who had a colorful career in the Ottoman Empire, traveling there in his youth to help the Russians and Ukrainians who ended up as slaves or prisoners of Turks, and eventually rising to the status of favorite of Patriarch Callinicus II of Constantinople. The talented cleric joined the retinue of Peter in Venice, gaining the respect of the young Tsarevich due to his energetic and helpful nature, despite Peter being not found of religion in general. In Peter’s opinion, any man voluntarily risking his life to help his countrymen abroad was a hero, and he treated the Metropolitan of Laodicea as one.
The wedding of the Prince and Princess of Tver, officiated by the same Archbishops, and held on May 5, was the magnificent event, with the Archbishop outdoing himself trying to make the ceremony the most magnificent in order to promote the righteousness of his church. Maria had a “Byzantine” style wedding dress made for her, literally “glittering with gems”, which combined the ancient dresses of Byzantine Empresses with the modern Western feel. The wedding marked the end of social season, yet being one more symbol of Christian unity – a wedding of an Orthodox Prince to a formerly Anglican Princess, attended among others by Kings of Great Britain, France, the Holy Roman Emperor and the heir to the throne of Spain.
Maria Feodorovna, Princess of Tver, at the day of her wedding
Another, more low-key wedding was held on the same week. James Gordon, son and heir of Partick Gordon, married another lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of York, Lady Stuarta Werburge Howard, in a Catholic ceremony. The marriage was not as misalliance as it might seem, as in negotiations previous to the wedding Patrick Gordon has secured the title of Lord Gordon of Auchleuchries in Peerage of Scotland and Earl of Lismore in Peerage of Ireland for himself and his heirs. Despite her religion (Stuarta Werburga, or “Valpurgia Yakovlevna”, as she’ll be later known at Russian Court, was an Anglican, while her husband was a Catholic) the newly-wed Lady Gordon will go on to become the confidante of the Princess of Tver along with elderly Eudoxia-Maria Matveeva, by the virtue of being her closest relation traveling to Russia along with her. Peter, using his connections to the Duchess of Cambridge (and her connections to the Prince of Asturias), also successfully pleaded to grant Gordon and Boris Sheremetev the titles of Counts of Holy Roman Empire for their invaluable role in the Great Crusade.
The more serious negotiations were conducted between the King Charles III and Artamon Matveev, during which the Russian ambassador promised to pretty much return to the trade status-quo of the 1630ies, with English traders getting 23 monopoly licenses, and the trading house at Vologda reopened alongside the existing trading house at Arkhangelsk. However, while the custom duties were lowered by half against what the Dutch traders had to pay, abolishing them altogether was thought “unacceptable” by Russian government and that was about as much as the Russians were willing to grant, while at the same time killing the Dutch monopoly that was emerging as of the 1660ies. Further trade privileges were to be considered such as the share in Grumant Company, a new pet project of Governor Apraxin meant to organize Pomor whaling at Spitsbergen and related trade in example of Danish and Dutch Companies, and the "backdoor" participation in trade with Persia, which the Russian government wanted to regulate via creating another state sponsored Company - that is, Persian Company. In exchange, the British King promised that the Royal Navy is to take part in the operation against the Turks in the Black Sea with possible restoration of independent Imereti under its legitimate Royal house.
Meanwhile, while Peter's personal life took a dramatic turn with his marriage finally being a definite matter, the Crown Prince of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was another matter. While he maintained regular correspondence with his wife (who gave birth to the much desired male heir, christened Wladislaw Ludwik, on February 2, 1690), he started what was at first the innocent flirtation with another woman. The woman, Elżbieta Sieniawska, was the wife of Adam Mikołaj Sieniawski since 1687, and accompanied her husband on the Levantine campaign. Though the rumor went that it was not out of devotion to the husband, but because Elzbieta was a mistress of Jan Stanisław Jabłonowski, who accompanied on this campaign his father Stanisław Jan, the Templar Master of Commonwealth and de-facto leader of Polish contingent. True or not, this rumor was becoming increasingly more irrelevant, as Elżbieta was pretty much eager to ditch the company of both her husband and her alleged lover in favor of that of the Crown Prince Jakub.
A New Royal Favorite? Elżbieta Sieniawska
The relationship soon provoked a lot of rumors, though many were pretty willing to excuse the Crown Prince, who was pretty devoted to his wife, but was "just a lonely man on the military campaign". Nevertheless the heir to the Polish throne was seen in Sieniawska's company more and more often, and smart and ambitious Elżbieta was likely "trying on" the status of the Royal favorite, which was thought to be the way to the big politics of the Commonwealth for the woman who already was one of the richest female landowners of the country in her own right.
So, while the Crown Prince has finally reached the pinnacle of his family ambitions with the birth of his long desired heir, his family life got a breach with the intrusion of the ambitious mistress in it. It remained unknown at the time, however, whether the "Crusade Romance" will be something permanent for those two or just a passing flirtation.
Also, submitted the final beta of the next chapter for Constantine's approval, so if all is good, you'll see an update soon. My apologies for the delay, but BOTH authors of the TL were moving into new apartments (my new home is located not far from TTL Izmaylovo Palace, by the way
