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HistoryA HISTORY OF RUSSIA Peter the Great the fourteenth child of Tsar Alexis, that father of many children, and the first issue of Alexis second union, was bom in the Kremlin on 30 May, 1672. His mother, the Tsaritsa Natalia Kirillovna Narishkin, was come of the household of Matveiev the "Westerner"; and since Matveievs establishment was organised strictly on the European model, we may conceive that it was thence that Natalia imbibed the foreign tastes which later she took with her to court. At all events, no sooner did Peter open his eyes than he found his playroom filled with articles of foreign manufacture, and was reminded by his whole environment of what was German. Even at the age of two he is seen diverting himself with German- made musical-boxes, "strikers of cymbals," and "large cymbals"; whilst in his nursery there stood also a sort of copper-stringed harpsichord of Teutonic manufacture. The items afford us a vivid picture of the Alexeian court; they show us, more than anything else could do, how greatly that court leaned towards objets dart of alien origin. next |